Contextual Targeting Resurges, Creates Opportunities for Advertisers

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By Sara Holtz

In Adweek’s recent webinar, “Contextual Targeting for the Cookie-less Future,” Dailymotion’s Senior Vice President of Global Demand Adam Irlando spoke about the resurgence of contextual targeting, in large part due to privacy regulations and browsers’ limitations on tracking. 

What is the Concept? 

Contextual targeting is definitely not a new practice. Back in the 2000s, it was the most traditional form of targeting, which scans the content of a website for the most relevant keywords or phrases. Once those words are extracted, advertisers can simply identify the most appropriate content against which to display an ad.   

In the 2010s, behavioral (or audience) targeting emerged, which matches consumers with advertisements based on demographics, interests and behavorial data. More specifically, consumers are segmented by similar web-browsing behaviors like sites visited, searches performed or products purchased. This allows advertisers to target their audience with specific ads based on behaviors that might be of interest to the consumer. 

In 2020 though, browsers have increasingly limited tracking across the web. For example, Chrome announced its phasing out the third-party cookie and Safari introduced privacy measures limiting IDFA data sharing. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) also went into effect to protect consumer data, much like the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).  

Over 83 percent of consumers worldwide are concerned about their privacy, and 63 percent of US consumers are likely to ask companies to delete their stored data.[1] 

New Technology Accompanies Resurgence 

Today, contextual targeting continues its resurgence alongside new innovations and improved technology like AI, which have made this type of targeting more relevant, accurate and successful. For example, AI technologies can extract metadata from videos through: 

  • Audio (voiceover and sounds) 

  • Visual (elements, brands and actions) 

  • Text (title, description and tags) 

Algorithms can predict the most accurate categories based on the above, then the content categories are targeted by brands to deliver highly relevant ads. 

The Integral Ad Science’s “The Power of Content” study found that 74 percent of consumers want to see ads that match page content.[2] 

Advertiser Benefits 

According to Irlando, when advertisers use contextual targeting, they reap these benefits: 

  1. Message receptiveness. Ad timing and relevancy is important. When a brand delivers a message at the right time to the right viewer, the ad is far more engaging and memorable than if the ad was placed next to irrelevant content. 

  2. Brand suitability. This ensures that ads are in tune with the environment they want to be shown in. In other words, they are placed next to brand-appropriate content in a context that aligns with the brand’s image. 

  3. Advanced targeting. Advertisers can unlock new pockets of inventory through granular solutions. Irlando gave the following example: Category (Music), Subcategory (R&B) and a Specific Topic (Ariana Grande). 

  4. Privacy compliance. This of course supports consumers privacy regulations. 

Steps to Run Campaign 

What steps do you need to take when running a contextually relevant campaign? 

  1. Buyer personas. Identify your target audience. What type of online content do they consume? 

  2. Environment. Identify the websites that content categories align (and don’t align) with your brand. 

  3. Inventory selection. Vet supply partners based on audience, content and quality of their contextual solutions, and make sure they are measuring your ROI. 

  4. Targeting. Leverage advanced contextual targeting capabilities to deliver highly-relevant ads. 

Based on a Kenneth Research study “Global Contextual Advertising Marketing Size” released in August 2020, marketers are projected to spend $412B on contextual targeting by 2025. In 2017, they invested $106B. 

If you’d like to assess whether contextual targeting is an ideal investment for your brand’s 2021 marketing strategy, contact us today, and we’d be happy to set up a consultation.  

[1] eMarketer PRO, “Digital Marketing in Today’s Privacy Conscious World” report, July 2019 

[2] Integral Ad Science, “The Power of Content” study, August 2020 

Katie Gilmore