In recent years, privacy policies, such as GDPR and Apple’s App Tracking Transparency, have made a shift in the industry. More and more companies are following suit and making user data protection their number one priority. So it’s no wonder marketers are looking for new ways to advertise their services to the right audiences. Although contextual targeting is nothing new or groundbreaking in the advertising world, it’s now regaining importance. Third-party cookies are already blocked on browsers such as Safari and Firefox. In addition, Google announced its decision to remove third-party cookies in 2024. That is why contextual targeting might be a possible alternative to behavioral in the future.
What Is Contextual Targeting?
Contextual targeting is a form of personalized targeting that relies on website page content (context) and not the user’s behavioral patterns. This means that advertisers place their ads on websites based on the content of the page and not the user’s previous search history.
To illustrate, let’s say a user is looking at sportswear online, and an ad for a gym appears. This would be contextual targeting. The principle is simple: the served ad the user sees will be related to the topic they’re currently interested in.
How Does Contextual Targeting Work?
Contextual targeting analysis is based on targeting parameters — pre-determined website categories, keywords, or semantics. These categories are usually IAB categories, sorted by website topics, and can range from general to specific niches.
For instance, if you have a vehicle brand website, a category that would fit best would be “Vehicles” or “Automobiles”. Based on this category, mechanics looking to advertise their shop would be eligible for ad placement on your website. Semantic targeting, on the other hand, relies on keywords, similar to keyword targeting. However, it’s more focused on capturing the meaning of the website’s content, not just selecting the most frequently used words.
To conclude, the process of contextual targeting relies heavily on choosing the right target parameters. The advertiser’s choice will depend entirely on the campaign goal, target precision, and service/product in question. After the advertiser chooses the targeting parameters, the next step would be ad placement on relevant pages. This means that the ad will be eligible to appear on websites with relevant, related content to the ad itself.
Contextual Targeting vs. Behavioral Targeting
The most obvious difference between contextual and behavioral targeting would be that behavioral targeting systems decide which ads to serve to users based on their previous online behavior — search history, app usage, purchases, and so on. This is done by collecting visitor information using cookies, pixels, and other technologies that intrude on user privacy.
In contrast, contextual targeting isn’t as invasive and collects only the data related to the current website the user is visiting. While behavioral targeting is more precise when it comes to distributing personalized ads, its downside is seen with regulations of newly established privacy policies. In addition, it’s no secret that the number of ad-block users has increased due to the intrusive nature of behavior-based ads.
You know that unnerving feeling when an ad follows you from site to site, device to device for days on end? There are many ways to describe this misuse of behavioral targeting — “creepy,” “annoying,” and “intrusive,” among them.
Scott Jones , LiveRamp
Contextual Targeting in Video Advertising
These recent changes in online tracking have had an impact on digital video advertising as well. As video advertising has largely relied on behavioral targeting, marketers are looking at contextual targeting as a potential replacement.
But how does contextual targeting work for videos? There are two contextual targeting methods for video advertising. One relies on AI technology (speech recognition, NLP, computer vision) to analyze video content itself, while the other one relies on AI to analyze the surrounding web page content. However, some players, such as our HTML5 Player, have inbuilt code that scrapes surrounding page content to identify relevant keywords, and using platform NLP identifies topics and context. Once these algorithms complete the analysis, this information is sent as parameters via an ad tag to an ad network. The ad network uses this information to match the publisher’s inventory with eligible ads.
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Why Is Contextual Targeting Gaining Prevalence?
Behavioral targeting has become a staple in advertising, and when compared with contextual, at a surface level, behavioral targeting seems more advantageous. However, with the ongoing changes in the industry, contextual targeting is gaining prevalence yet again, with larger companies looking to adapt their strategies to this targeting model. There are several reasons why this is happening.
Privacy Issues
When GDPR came into force, third-party cookies were classified as personal information. By cementing strict guidelines to upgrade user privacy, GDPR made sure that users have a say in which cookies are allowed to collect their data. This means that accurate browser data is much harder to gather than it used to be. However, contextual targeting does not rely on this private information, making it a less complicated, safer option for companies that must comply with GDPR.
The Disappearance of Third-Party Cookies
Beyond privacy concerns, contextual targeting is also gaining prevalence due to Google’s announcement that it will kill off third-party cookies in 2024. As behavioral targeting is now almost impossible on iOS (ATT) and is facing issues with browsers that already banned third-party cookies, marketers are forced to take up a new approach toward campaigns. Having a campaign that relies heavily on historical data of the user’s browsing habits falls through the moment you are unable to gather this information. On the other hand, contextual targeting uses data that is not dependent on third-party cookies making it a plausible substitute.
Context Over Behavior
When serving ads to users based on their previous online behavior, marketers often overlook relevance (context). For instance, a user previously purchased a book online and is now interested in a completely different topic — looking at a lifestyle blog. An ad for a bookstore or another book is likely to appear while the user is viewing new content. While this ad might be personalized, it does not correlate to the user’s current wants or needs. Here is where context overpowers behavior. Contextual targeting provides content that is related or relevant to the user’s current interest. For example, if a user is reading a lifestyle blog, an ad for a similar blog might appear on the side. As such, contextually targeted ads have greater potential to achieve higher CTRs.
How Publishers Benefit From Contextual Targeting
With Google postponing the “no cookies policy” time and time again, it is unlikely that behavioral advertising will die out any time soon. However, when GDPR took effect, many publishers switched to contextual targeting as an experiment but surprisingly saw an increase in ROI. This stems from the fact that contextual advertising focuses on ad relevancy. Publishers aim to serve ads relevant to users at the given moment. This increases the chances that the user interacts with the ad. Better ad engagement results in ad revenue increase.
Dive Into Contextual Advertising With TargetVideo
If you’re looking for an online video platform that comes with in-built contextual advertising support, TargetVideo is the perfect match. Our video platform’s contextual targeting system analyzes the content of the publisher’s website to draw context and then matches it with the suitable IAB ad category. This allows publishers to serve only ads belonging to that specific advertising vertical, resulting in better targeting. What’s more, we offer ad demand, an array of video and display ad formats, along with a scalable video monetization solution for your videos.
FAQ
1. What is an example of contextual targeting?
An example of contextual targeting would be an ad for fitness clothes appearing on a fitness center website.
2. Who uses contextual targeting?
Technology companies, online retailers, marketers, and all those interested in context-based advertising.
3. Why is contextual targeting important?
Contextual targeting is important because it helps marketers serve less intrusive and more relevant ads to users.
