Advertising Just for You
If you haven’t noticed Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube offer beefed up targeting strategies based on demographics and interests. For example, if you’re on Facebook and you’ve recently gotten engaged, you will immediately begin to notice a plethora of ads pushing all types of wedding services. This is what many in the advertising world believe is the future of smart advertising.
According to respondents in a recent survey this is a good thing.
A study by Q Interactive, and reposted on Mashable, offers some interesting insight for advertisers. Notably, 56.6% of US internet users between the ages of 35 and 44 would view and advertiser favorably based on online ads tailored to their interests. 56.2% of this same age bracket also prefers to receive free online services and information in exchange for the use of their data to target relevant data to them.
According to the study, while some suggest creating ads targeting a consumer’s interests would be excessive, the study found consumers welcome it.
This is just one of the many ways in which social networking sites provide advertisers with plenty of data that can be utilized to make ads as effective and potent as possible.
For political campaigns and issue advertising, this is the beginning of an important new trend. Political advertisers put tremendous stock in the ability to target audiences. As it’s been determined long ago, voters rarely act in one mass group, voting for people based on one overarching issue. Voters, like consumers, have niche tastes and interests, and vote according to which candidate appeals to them on the issue(s) they care about most as an individual or member of a particular demographic.
While most voters get weary of the constant drumbeat of ads touting one or two specific campaign issues, this new advertising method, based on interest targeting, may prove more welcome.
