What is Behavioral Advertising?

 Behavioral advertising or behavioral targeting can be used by online publishers or internet marketers to increase the effectiveness of campains.

This works by collecting data on an internet user's behaviors. Such as browsing habits, search queries, and web site history. This information is used to serve more targeted advertisements to the user. The goal is to increase relevancy based on the collected data and foster a better conversion rate.

Similar practices can also be used to display more targeted content to users. By the same process, information on browsing and searching habits can be used to determine which types of content a user would find most interesting. In turn, this content is served to the user. This will help keep a user on a particular website longer or cause him to be more engaged.

Is Behavioral Advertising the Future?

The movie Minority Report takes place in the future. The main character is bombarded by advertisements in the physical world which are keyed to his past shopping history or known personal preferences. If behavioral targeting can work in the online world, why not the physical world as well?

Some companies are already experimenting with these types of promotions. Specifically sending particular coupons or catalogs to certain groups of people who would most likely find them of interest. As advertising evolves, behavioral advertising is bound to play an increasingly large role.