What Is Behavioral Targeting? [The Only Guide You Need]

Behavioral targeting takes personalized marketing to the next level. Most marketers know and understand the benefits of personalized marketing. It makes a person feel more than a number and gives them a degree of autonomy and authority. However, personalized marketing is a blanket term that includes various components. For example, you might be engaged in visitor tracking to know what customers look for on your website. You can alter your landing page accordingly to get better conversion rates. On the other hand, you can also use social media analytics to find out what someone’s interests are and market accordingly. Both approaches use behavioral targeting at some level. 

To simplify the definition for you, behavioral targeting is a marketing technique that promotes products and services based on consumer behavior. 

Application of behavioral targeting

When someone visits your website, adds an item to the cart, and leaves without completing the transaction, it hints at a problem. Your task is to understand the problem. It might be the taxes imposed, shipping charges, or shipping time. It can be something different as well, like the negative reviews a product might have.

Once you analyze customer behavior like this, you can send them personalized messages and promotions. It can be an email asking for reasons behind not completing the purchase. It can also be targeted advertisement for related products that satisfy one or more of the criteria. 

Click here – 6 Benefits of Using a Portable Ice Machine for Cold Therapy

How to use behavioral targeting

The edifice of digital marketing lies on the foundation of data. Behavioral targeting, being a subcomponent of digital marketing, is also dependent on data. Without data, you cannot execute any behavioral targeting campaigns. That brings us to the central question – how to obtain customer data?

  1. Forms and surveys – Forms, polls, and surveys are the most effective tools for getting data from customers. Since surveys generally ask detailed questions, the data you get is also richer. Polls, on the other hand, are great for identifying trends and patterns. With the help of this data and website visitor tracking tools like WatchThemLive, you can come up with a landing page that has a high percentage of conversions. 
  2. Behavior analytics – With the help of session replay software, you can chart the exact course of actions of visitors on your website. While it does not give you any quantitative data, it helps greatly in understanding the customer’s behavior. Once you have a grip of what the customer wants from a website, you can tailor it accordingly. 
  3. Events – Experiential marketing is gaining traction in the world of promotions and advertising. Experiential marketing approaches customers from a different angle. It does not focus on immediate conversion or sales. Instead, experiential marketing focuses on giving experiences to consumers. Pop-up events are the easiest way to promote experiential marketing. However, these events are also great for data accumulation. You understand what people want and expect from a product and how they connect with it. These events are also great opportunities for trying out prototypes that have not been released yet. 
  4. User-generated data – Product reviews are a great source of user-generated data. The great thing about user-generated data is that you do not have any cost of creation. However, it is often the most valuable data that tells a lot about your products and services. If used correctly, user-generated data can be a great tool for behavioral targeting.

Behavioral targeting around us

We have all experienced behavioral targeting, be it knowingly or unknowingly. When we search for a product on Amazon and leave without buying it, Amazon bombards us with ads about relevant products across social media platforms. It is a great example of how behavioral marketing works. 

However, there is no fixed rule for behavioral targeting. As long as you follow the underlying principles, you can come up with new marketing ideas. 

Click here – A Comprehensive Guide on How to Build an Email Marketing Strategy