Retargeting is the online targeting strategy that offers the most lift, although it has low reach, according to a new study from comScore and ValueClick.
The study measured the relative effectiveness of six major online targeting strategies: audience targeting (ads served based on online behavioral data), contextual targeting (ads served to related page-level content), efficiency pricing (cost-per-click), premium pricing (placements on premium publishers), retargeting (served to users that have previously visited an advertiser’s site), and run-of-network (RON) (ads which appear anywhere in the network, often optimized by conversion).
Retargeting Leads Lift, Lags Reach
The study evaluated the various strategies in terms of the average lift in search activity that they generated for the advertised brand, while also considering their average reach and cost in comparison to the baseline run-of-network strategy.
Among the six different placement strategies, Retargeting generated the highest lift in trademark search behavior at 1,046%. Despite this considerable lift, the impact of retargeting is limited by its low relative reach (tied with audience targeting for the lowest reach index score), although its cost is moderate (third-highest cost index score) in relation to the other strategies.
On the other end of the lift spectrum, efficiency generated the lowest lift in trademark search behavior at 100%. However, it had the third-highest reach index score and second-lowest cost index score.
RON Reaches Most, Costs Least
The baseline run-of-network strategy offered the highest reach index score. However, its lift was the second lowest at 126%, although its cost index score was lowest.
Contextual, Premium Lead in Cost
The contextual and premium online targeting strategies had cost index scores close to three times as high as the third-most costly strategy, retargeting. Contextual was slightly more costly than premium, with a cost index score of 1473 compared to 1471.
Multiple Placement Strategies Produce Synergy
Another key finding from the research is the evidence of synergy among campaigns that utilized multiple placement strategies. Specifically, several campaigns in which three or more placement strategies were deployed showed a tendency to disproportionately outperform the norm on at least one dimension of performance.
For example, data shows that a major pharmaceutical campaign run by Good Apple Digital, which deployed five out of the six placement methods studied, resulted in visitors who had seen the campaign spending seven times the average number of minutes on the client’s site compared to the norm. Other campaigns showed similarly high lifts compared to the norm.
In Right Context, Internet Users Like Targeted Ads
Internet users are more likely to prefer targeted online ads when they are asked to make real-world, value-for-value trade-offs, such as free access to internet content, according to a new survey by PreferenceCentral. PreferenceCentral asked consumers to state their preferences for tailored online advertising in the context of real-world trade-off scenarios and found that more half of consumers surveyed indicated that they prefer relevant targeted online ads as a trade-off for access to free content
About the Data: The study analyzed 103 campaigns from 39 different advertisers covering 7 industries, examining the lift in brand website visitation and trademark search queries across six different media placement strategies
