EMarketer: behavioural targeting set for 400 per cent increase

13/06/2008

Marketing research site eMarketer has said it expects the amount of money being spent on behavioural targeting to increase by over 400 per cent within the next four years.

Its research shows that in 2008, around $775 million will be spent advertising to people based on their web habits.

But by 2012, eMarketer expects the market to be worth around £4.4 billion.

Senior analyst David Hallerman said that the technique has been slow to take off due to technological constraints but he believes a change is coming.

"The growth of behaviourally targeted online advertising has been delayed by incomplete development of technology, brand marketers that prefer to have their ads appear with relevant content and concerns over violating consumer privacy," he said.

But things are changing as technology catches up and Mr Hallerman anticipates that the way advertisers target their markets will change with it.

The technique segments the audience based on observed and measured data, such as the pages or sites users visit, content viewed and search queries entered.

Behavioural targeting is said to add weight to adverts because they are only targeted at a relevant audience.

Another advantage is that consumers are less likely to switch off to messages due to advert saturation if irrelevant ads are replaced with more applicable ones.