According to eMarketer, contextual based online advertising has been a staple in the industry for years and when it comes to click-through rates it is the approach that has predictable return. Marketers making an effort to align their campaigns with the content on the host site do see a boost in CTR of as much as .05 percent for online advertising over run of network.
Targeting the correct audience makes a difference in online advertising, but there may be an even more effective method for accomplishing these results than a simple contextual approach. Contextual advertising makes a blanket assumption that all online users who are visiting a site are automatically qualified prospects for whatever is being advertised. This is typically not the case - a visit to a site is not always a clear indicator that the user is qualified with the necessary affluence level to buy the website's products, or is the right life stage to transact, for example.
Semcasting's marketMATRIX offers a more effective route for advertisers seeking to ensure that their ads are targeted at the optimal audience with the right messaging. MarketMATRIX harnesses predictive analytics to divide the entire U.S. into more than 5 million unique sub-zipcode "Zones" that statistically define any customer base into hundreds of demographic and psychographic profiles that describe each Zone. Zones are summarized as audiences with the highest concentration of people who align with the median age, affluence level, and political orientation of known customers. Knowing the profile of the customer allows the marketer to target people who look just like them. Based on these look-alike models (which afford up to 77 times greater accuracy than standard geo-zip-code targeting), marketers and advertisers can avoid wasted ad spend and impressions to ensure that their ads are making it to the audience that's most likely to transact.
Ray Kingman : Jan 25, 2012 7:33:23 PM
