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Online Behavioural Advertising: How It Works

Behavioural advertising is a form of digital marketing whereby the marketer uses internet user data to boost their campaigns. In this marketing strategy, the marketer gathers a wide range of user data, including their shopping and browsing behaviours, from various sources. Once the data is collected, the marketer then creates advertisements that suit the user's interests and habits, as revealed by the collected information.

That said, what steps are involved in behavioural advertising then? Well, it usually works in four stages, which are the following.

Cookie Collection

For instance, when an internet user visits any website or signs up to it, the site places a cookie on the internet-enabled device the visitor is using. The cookie can either be stored permanently or temporarily, depending on which part of the device (local memory or hard drive) it is placed.

User Profile Creation

As the users spend time on the internet, the cookies continue to be collected. Over time, the users' behavioural patterns related to how they use the internet can be created.

Consumer Group Segmentation

Businesses can segment internet users into various target groups based on their profiles and patterns. After this segmentation, companies can know the likes, dislikes, interests, and purchasing trends of internet users in each of the segments.

Sharing Information with Users

This involves sending out relevant and personalised ads and content to the internet users based on their previous behaviours rather than disseminating advertisements randomly to everybody, some of whom are not interested in the ads at all.