The Right Kind of Targeting
With all of the options an online media planner faces today, how advertisers reach their key demographic in the most effective way continues to be the million dollar question.
The proliferation of ad networks meant advertisers and agencies could target multiple sites with limited workload (think one buy, one execution, etc.). It also meant relying on an ad network’s technology to serve ads to users fitting a desired demographic. Advertisers could never really know where their ads served, and to whom.
Then publishers began to realize the power of grouping content based on their own judgment. Enter vertical ad networks. Vertical ad networks are networks of sites with similar content reaching similar users. The benefit of vertical ad networks is advertisers can reach a music lover looking for the latest new releases while simultaneously reaching someone wanting to view Coldplay’s latest music video. The sites differ in content, attracting users for various reasons, but align in overall theme, attracting users with similar interests.
Unlike horizontal ad networks, vertical networks provide advertisers the transparency of knowing where their ads are serving and to what kind of people. As Online Media Daily blogger Russell Fradin explains, “The choice of targeting technology and vertical ad networks in not an either/or decision at all”. When server technology, such as geo-targeting is applied to a vertical ad network, the result is a more effective campaign.
Depending on the advertiser and campaign objectives, vertical ad networks can provide various levels of targeting to drive success. MyWebGrocer provides category level grocery targeting for consumer packaged goods companies looking to target online grocery buyers. Glam Media, a popular women’s fashion vertical network, provides content targeting to advertisers like Victoria’s Secret.
Fradin’s point, and one with which I agree, is that campaigns prove most effective when targeted across vertical ad networks where publishers group sites selectively based on content, creating the best environment for advertisers looking to reach that network’s demographic.
Rachel
Tags: Glam Media, Horizontal Ad Networks, MyWebGrocer, Online Targeting, Vertical Ad Networks
