Ad targeting
and optimization
One aspect of ad serving technology is
automated and semi-automated means of optimizing bid prices, placement,
targeting, or other characteristics. Significant methods include:
•
Behavioural
Targeting - Using a profile of prior behavior on the part of the viewer to
determine which ad to show during a given visit. For example, targeting car ads
on a portal to a viewer that was known to have visited the automotive section
of a general media site.
• Contextual
Targeting - Inferring the optimum ad placement from information contained on
the page where the ad is being served. For example, placing Mountain Bike ads
automatically on a page with a mountain biking article.
•
Creative
Optimization - Using experimental or predictive methods to explore the optimum
creative for a given ad placement and exploiting that determination in further
impressions.
The Online
Advertising Value Chain
This is a simplistic view of the
industry, but it does enable us to understand where the key players sit; on the
demand side of the value chain, there are advertisers, and their agencies; and
on the supply side, publishers, and ad networks (and/or ad exchanges).
What's the
product?
Before we get onto the content of the
boxes in the above diagram, though, we should be clear about what's in the
arrows; that is, what's traded in this market? What's the actual product, here?
The
answer is advertising inventory. There are no very good definitions of
advertising inventory out there on the Internet, so I offer my own definition:
Advertising
inventory is the supply of opportunities to display advertising in a particular
medium.
