Friday
Sharpen the Arrow with Behavioral Data
How utilizing behavioral data in conjunction with demographic information increases the chances of reaching a larger and more targeted audience.
By Sandy Kobrin, Columnist
Factors such as gender, age, household income and zip codes have been used for years to successfully match products with appropriate demographics. Behavioral marketing takes traditional demographic data to the next level, adding to the list one more critical factor -- behavior.
Behavioral marketing targets relevant messages to users who have exhibited interest in specific products and services. By identifying where a consumer is in the buying cycles and keeping information up-to-date with a consumer’s current needs, marketers have the edge over their demographic-reliant competitors.
The future of online marketing depends on moving fast, turning on a dime and reacting quickly to behavioral data. Together, demographic and behavioral data add to the big picture, targeting consumers with a more accurate arrow.
Auto sales are an example of how behavioral data can be used to increase the prospect of a sale. While a demographic marketer might have the knowledge that people at a certain age and income level buy a new car every five years, if advertisements are not timed appropriately, messages aimed at the right people may become wasted efforts. Based on the Websites that consumers visit, behavior reveals where consumers are in the buying cycle. A marketer can ascertain if a user is looking to purchase a car (either new or used), has a car to sell or has insurance needs.
NYTimes.com monitors behavior and targets behavioral users after they have been to the same section more than five times in a month. Behavioral marketing data has produced results, especially in the areas of Health Care/Pharmaceuticals, Real Estate and Auto.
“Behavioral marketing has some concrete advantages over demographic marketing,” says Craig Calder, vice president of marketing for NYTimes.com. “We have found that targeting users based on behavior is a more accurate relationship to interest in a product or service than using demographics.”
For example, if an IBM advertising campaign is aimed at business-minded people, NYTimes.com could target registered users who read the business section and send ads to those specific consumers as they visit the business section or any other section on the NYTimes.com Website, Calder says.
“One advantage we have found is that we can offer our advertisers a much larger group to target using behavioral data than using demographic data,” he says. “Demographics give you a smaller slice of what the client is looking for. Our behavioral data allows us to offer very large audiences for targeted campaigns.”
Amplifying the effectiveness of behavioral marketing data, NYTimes.com has also introduced a new concept: Surround Sessions. Once a specific behavior is identified, an advertiser has the option to target users with a single advertising message for five to eight consecutive Website pages without interruption from other advertisers. A single message may be repeated or differing sequential messages may be designed for impact.
“Since we started our targeting campaign in February, we’ve sold over a half million dollars in advertising and we’ve had a number of advertisers come back,” Calder says.
Since NYTimes.com started implementing behavioral marketing, Calder says click-through rates of in section ads have increased from .48 to .63. “Clients have noted success in conversions, sales and lead generation,” he says.
“When it comes to marketing films, demographics aren’t enough to tell the whole story,” says Elias Plishner, vice president of interactive marketing for McCann Universal Interactive. The firm, which markets films online for companies such as Sony Pictures, used to rely on demographic marketing to target the correct users. Behavioral data has brought much more success. Instead of using demographic data such as income, age and opt-in research to identify consumers who see movies on the opening weekend, the company now uses behavioral data to target users who visit preview Websites for opening films or view online trailers for opening films.
“More than using just demographics, we needed to take our marketing to the next level and find people who have been to certain sites and have certain behaviors,” Plishner says. “My experience is that if you take an ad plan you have to take it with a grain of salt. The demographics may say that some person should be a heavy movie goer, but it isn’t always the case. If he or she has been to a movie site, the person almost pre-qualifies him or herself as a person we need to target. Where the person goes tells you directly about his or her preferences.”
Demographics can identify the user, but behavioral marketing makes for an easier sale by getting the message to the right person at the right time, Plishner says.
“Behavioral marketing makes selling easier, it gives you the low hanging fruit,” he adds.
By Sandy Kobrin, Columnist
Factors such as gender, age, household income and zip codes have been used for years to successfully match products with appropriate demographics. Behavioral marketing takes traditional demographic data to the next level, adding to the list one more critical factor -- behavior.
Behavioral marketing targets relevant messages to users who have exhibited interest in specific products and services. By identifying where a consumer is in the buying cycles and keeping information up-to-date with a consumer’s current needs, marketers have the edge over their demographic-reliant competitors.
The future of online marketing depends on moving fast, turning on a dime and reacting quickly to behavioral data. Together, demographic and behavioral data add to the big picture, targeting consumers with a more accurate arrow.
Auto sales are an example of how behavioral data can be used to increase the prospect of a sale. While a demographic marketer might have the knowledge that people at a certain age and income level buy a new car every five years, if advertisements are not timed appropriately, messages aimed at the right people may become wasted efforts. Based on the Websites that consumers visit, behavior reveals where consumers are in the buying cycle. A marketer can ascertain if a user is looking to purchase a car (either new or used), has a car to sell or has insurance needs.
NYTimes.com monitors behavior and targets behavioral users after they have been to the same section more than five times in a month. Behavioral marketing data has produced results, especially in the areas of Health Care/Pharmaceuticals, Real Estate and Auto.
“Behavioral marketing has some concrete advantages over demographic marketing,” says Craig Calder, vice president of marketing for NYTimes.com. “We have found that targeting users based on behavior is a more accurate relationship to interest in a product or service than using demographics.”
For example, if an IBM advertising campaign is aimed at business-minded people, NYTimes.com could target registered users who read the business section and send ads to those specific consumers as they visit the business section or any other section on the NYTimes.com Website, Calder says.
“One advantage we have found is that we can offer our advertisers a much larger group to target using behavioral data than using demographic data,” he says. “Demographics give you a smaller slice of what the client is looking for. Our behavioral data allows us to offer very large audiences for targeted campaigns.”
Amplifying the effectiveness of behavioral marketing data, NYTimes.com has also introduced a new concept: Surround Sessions. Once a specific behavior is identified, an advertiser has the option to target users with a single advertising message for five to eight consecutive Website pages without interruption from other advertisers. A single message may be repeated or differing sequential messages may be designed for impact.
“Since we started our targeting campaign in February, we’ve sold over a half million dollars in advertising and we’ve had a number of advertisers come back,” Calder says.
Since NYTimes.com started implementing behavioral marketing, Calder says click-through rates of in section ads have increased from .48 to .63. “Clients have noted success in conversions, sales and lead generation,” he says.
“When it comes to marketing films, demographics aren’t enough to tell the whole story,” says Elias Plishner, vice president of interactive marketing for McCann Universal Interactive. The firm, which markets films online for companies such as Sony Pictures, used to rely on demographic marketing to target the correct users. Behavioral data has brought much more success. Instead of using demographic data such as income, age and opt-in research to identify consumers who see movies on the opening weekend, the company now uses behavioral data to target users who visit preview Websites for opening films or view online trailers for opening films.
“More than using just demographics, we needed to take our marketing to the next level and find people who have been to certain sites and have certain behaviors,” Plishner says. “My experience is that if you take an ad plan you have to take it with a grain of salt. The demographics may say that some person should be a heavy movie goer, but it isn’t always the case. If he or she has been to a movie site, the person almost pre-qualifies him or herself as a person we need to target. Where the person goes tells you directly about his or her preferences.”
Demographics can identify the user, but behavioral marketing makes for an easier sale by getting the message to the right person at the right time, Plishner says.
“Behavioral marketing makes selling easier, it gives you the low hanging fruit,” he adds.
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