Advertising has come a long way in the last 20 years. It used to be that companies would buy ad space religiously in newspapers, magazines, and in one of a few select TV channels. Now newspapers are becoming less and less relevant (when was the last time you picked one up and turned past the front page), corporations are rethinking their magazine print plans, and TV has splintered into thousands of channels that now compete with Netflix, YouTube, and Facebook.
The rise of digital advertising has in some ways leveled the playing field for small businesses, with ad networks like Facebook, Google, and AdMob giving everyone un-gated access to billions of Internet users. One of the biggest innovations of digital advertising is the increased ability to show ads to the right people at the right time. Below are some of digital advertising's most popular targeting tactics that blow old time traditional advertising out of the water. They are written from a Google point of view because, well, I work at Google, but they are universally applicable across the digital world.
Keyword Targeting
Google's tried and true targeting option for ads that appear in Google search results is called keyword targeting. Keyword targeting lets you show ads to people who look up a specific word or phrase on Google. Imagine you sell boat cleaner, and you want to get people to buy bottles of cleaner off your new website. You can target keywords like 'new boat cleaner' or 'the best boat cleaner.' This puts your ads right in front of someone who is actually searching for boat cleaner on Google. If this does not put you in front of enough customers then you can expand your keyword targeting to less direct keywords like 'get a stain off my boat' or 'brand new boat.' Targeting ads with keyword targeting brings the best and most measurable ROI available in advertising.
Demographic Targeting
Ads shown across different websites are not the same for every person. Companies can choose to have their ads seen by different demographics including age, gender, and parental status. Demographic targeting is often overlaid over some other targeting option. For example a drug company may want to show ads on WebMD type sites but only to men over 55.
Keyword Contextual Targeting
When a company wants to show ads to people who are not on Google search it can instead contextually target keywords. Keyword contextual targeting finds sites with certain keywords on the page and places ads on those sites. For example a Celtic bagpipe seller can select keywords like 'Celtic' and 'bagpipes' and put ads on those sites. This saves the bagpipe seller the trouble of coming up with a list of sites that are related to bagpipes.
Placement Targeting
Let's say, however, that the bagpipe seller has a few specific sites it wants to target. Well then the seller can select those specific websites and put ads on them.
Topic Targeting
Similar to Keyword Contextual Targeting, Topic Targeting allows a company to show ads on websites that fall under a specific category of sites. Our beloved bagpipe maker could target sites related to folk music.
Affinity Segments
Rather than thinking about putting ads in the right places, many companies have begun to think more and more about showing ads to the right audience, regardless of where that as appears. Let's say that our bagpipe maker knows that it's audience LOVES folk music. He or she may prefer to show bagpipe ads to folk music lovers across all websites. So what if the ad shows up on a car site, the user may be interested.
Remarketing (Retargeting)
Often a company's most valuable leads are those who have already had sooner interaction with the company. Remarketing is a tool that puts a tracker (cookie) on a user who visits a site. The advertiser can then show ads to this user. This can also be used to upsell or get additional purchases from a past customer. Our bagpipe seller may choose to sell sheet music via remarketing to customers who just bought a new bagpipe.
