The ad-tech industry has experienced many changes in the last few years, both in its technology and its business models. Oddly, one myth has tenaciously held its ground through these changes: the idea that most online advertising is based around one-to-one targeting.
The introduction of Programmatic Real-Time Bidding (RTB) created the need for Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) to bundle users into pre-package segments based on similar backgrounds and intent. Too often these segments are based on users that happen to visit a similar category of website. Sometimes it isn’t even that well thought out. Most onboarding efforts today provide less than a 25 percent match rate to an active cookie and those matches are often into generic pools of 200+ cookies deemed “similar.” Linking consumers to intent was difficult before users began blocking cookies, which they now do over 50 percent of the time.
Brands are increasing their demand for verified audiences, and while the idea of one-to-one online targeting may be getting more difficult to justify, there is now a way to reach 100 percent of any audience on any device.
“Smart Zones” audiences are selectable by hundreds of offline demographic attributes (income, ethnicity, age, auto, home value, etc.) and are able to match the offline households and businesses attributes of every Internet delivery point online on any device – Household, WIFI, Businesses, etc. Advertising can be targeted to these Smart Zones that provide 100 percent accurate reach (compared to the 20 to 30 percent match rate of cookies), - all while maintaining user privacy.
With over 30 million Smart Zones in the U.S. and Canada, reaching 135 million households, we offer a myth-free way to think about online advertising: device-independent, micro-targeted, and private.