| Improvising your on-site experience | 

Have you ever come across your google search item of interest that you were pondering about whether to buy or not while browsing and on other social media apps? Well, this happens many times, and you might feel like you are being stalked, but it is, in fact, marketing based on consumer clicks to improvise your online experience based on your past searches.

This type of marketing is called ‘Behavioral Retargeting’ and has been used by advertisers to target people who are interested in their products. Its popularity has increasingly grown because of its effectiveness in saving money and time as they have a better understanding of where to invest by targeting the right people.

For example, a person who frequently visits shopping sites might come across ads for the searched products on a blog site like ours.

• IDENTIFYING THE CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR
• TARGETING THE PREFERENCES
• SEEKING THE BENEFITS
• CONCLUSION

IDENTIFYING THE CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR

1. User information categories 

Cookies: These are text files stored on devices that retrieve digital data that servers generate and hence send to the web browser.

DMP: (Data management platform) It is a software that is used for collecting and managing data by involving a third party for better insight into users.

Location: GPS, when switched on, and IP address tracks your geographical location from where you live to where you spend most of your time.

Entry: Filling out forms, or creating a new account, in addition to buying things online, requires an entry of data onto sites that may include fields of interest/activities.

2. Behavioral Patterns

Web search: The typed data you search for in your browser 

Clicks and links: Clickable links that direct you to the Internet sites content

View Time: Amount of time spent on a particular page (surfing/reading)

Visited pages: The frequency of visiting web pages (once, multiple, none)

TARGETING THE PREFERENCES

The behavioral targeting process basically works in three phases:

1. Collection & Analysis 

The third party collects the data of users and stores it in DMP/DSP (Demand-side Platform), which is then analyzed for the segmentation process.

2. Segmentation

Based on behavioral patterns, the analyzed data is further segmented in the form of clusters of alike patterns over a period of time.

3. Application

The application involves the implementation of advertisement campaigns for a specific cluster of users to make it more relevant and responsive accordingly.

SEEKING THE BENEFITS

FOR: Advertiser	FOR: Consumer
1. Increased engagement	1. Enhanced product awareness
2. ADS based on consumer needs	2. Quality with faster search and results
3. Improved performance and return investment	3. Improved online experience

Drawbacks go hand-in-hand with every marketing strategy so similarly behavioral retargeting has some obstacles as well.

Exploitation: With all the personal data shared nowadays, there is a risk of exploitation and data breaches.

Lack of Update: The absence of knowledge about your own audience because of not being up-to-date about their requirements.

Privacy Invasion: Personalised ads containing user information when not used carefully might result in privacy violation.

Excess-Adv: Advertising your products continuously will lead to the consumers getting irritated and eventually ignoring them.

CONCLUSION

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)

It is a law that sets guidelines and regulates the process of collection of personal information from users, thus making it difficult for scammers present online to misguide you. It applies to all sites worldwide so you’ll get notified asking for access to save your data, make changes, and about what all data was collected. India follows this law since 2018 in providing permission to digital companies for marketing under certain conditions.

IMPACT (of behavioral retargeting)

Behavioral retargeting helps us to understand better and, consequently, meet the needs of the target audience by its working. This not only makes it a powerful tool but also increases the return on your investments. So along with achieving the goals, a company that practices this marketing strategy is also likely to have a more interactive and updated interface than others with new opportunities lined up for them while being mindful of GDPR law and its drawbacks.

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• “Black Hat Marketing”
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