Behavioral Targeting: The Next Steps

Behavioral marketing – we’ve seen it go from a gleam in the online marketer’s eye to the buzzword for 2006. The flitting, busy, tech-savvy consumer is much more demanding, after all. Sophisticated campaigns will be necessary to just grab attention, much less call to action.

There are, of course, all the usual worries about the invasiveness and possible identity theft that can result from behavioral targeting, and buying customer trust looks like it’s going to be an issue for a while yet. In December 2005, TRUSTe announced some ‘Recommended Practices for Downloading Software on Users’ Machines’ – and this is definitely the right step forward. Notice and consent – that’s what’s needed prior to any download, and TRUSTe provides a clear set of guidelines.

Jean-Philippe Maheu, CEO of behavioral marketing company Direct Revenue, recently spoke of tracking cookies as well – “I do not believe that tracking cookies are bad for users; however, I do believe companies that use tracking cookies need to be more transparent with consumers about the fact that they do track online behavior”. He also puts the trust challenge in a nutshell – “A great deal of research exists demonstrating that, while our ability to better serve the consumer grows more and more effective, consumers are growing more and more suspicious of our efforts”.

Going ahead, it seems clear that once trust issues begin to resolve, contextual and behavioral targeting will begin working together. This sort of integration will specifically address those situations when either model doesn’t do the job well on its own. Fusion here can only mean even more sophisticated solutions for online ad campaigns.

Personalized, or behavioral search – it may be in the labs now, but it’s going to be here soon. Behavioral profiling is clearly going to be assimilated completely into SEM world. So watch this space…