Targeting strategies

A targeting strategy refers to the method advertisers use to define how their ads reach a specific audience based on factors like behavior, location, or content preferences.

When setting up a Brand lift, selecting the appropriate targeting strategy is important for accurately benchmarking your campaign’s performance. By defining your targeting strategies (e.g., “Retail media” or “Behavioral targeting”) you can enhance the precision of comparisons and gain deeper insights into your campaign’s impact.

Types of targeting strategies

1. Contextual

   Ads are delivered based on the context of the content being consumed by the audience. This means the ad aligns with the topic, keywords, or themes of the content. For example, showing a sports drink ad on a sports news website. Applicable channels: Online video, Display, Social ads, Connected TV, Digital audio.

2. Retail media

   Retail media targeting involves delivering ads through channels directly controlled by retailers, whether online (e.g., e-commerce platforms and retailer websites) or offline (e.g., in-store displays, digital screens, or printed materials).This strategy leverages the retailer’s first-party data to target consumers at crucial moments in their shopping journey, whether they're browsing products online or physically navigating a store. For example:

   • Online: Displaying an ad for a coffee machine on a retailer's website when a user is browsing kitchen appliances.

   • In-store: Featuring a promotional video for a new snack brand on digital screens near checkout counters.

   This approach ensures highly relevant messaging and helps advertisers connect with consumers at the point of decision-making. Applicable channels: Online video, Display, Social ads, Connected TV, DOOH, OOH, Digital audio.

3. Behavioral targeting

   Behavioral targeting uses data about users' online activities, such as browsing history, app usage, or engagement patterns, to serve ads. For example, targeting people who frequently visit travel booking websites with ads for flight deals. Applicable channels: Online video, Display, Social ads, In-game, Connected TV, DOOH, Digital audio, Press.

4. Demographic targeting

   This strategy targets audiences based on characteristics such as age, gender, income level, education, or occupation. For example, targeting ads for luxury watches to high-income individuals aged 30–50. Applicable channels: all.

5. Geographic targeting

   Geographic targeting focuses on delivering ads to users based on their physical location, such as a country, region, city, or even specific neighborhoods. For example, promoting a local restaurant to people within a 5-kilometer radius. Applicable channels: all.