Ad Targeting: We Can Do Better

December 17th, 2009 | by LaSean Smith

I was looking for a deck on Personal Data Networks. That I didn’t find anything interesting is another story. Mental note to blog on that later.

Anyway, I found it odd that a Timbaland ad was displayed on a site like SlideShare.net. It doesn’t fit. And the fact the keywords ‘personal data networks’ surfaced that ad is a broken experience. Yes, the ad is part of the experience. I played around with different search terms and it appeared anything with the word ‘personal’ in it trigger more consumer-related ads. The word ‘networks’ leaned more toward social network ads vs. computer networks. Now maybe some cookie on my browser linked me to others sites I had recently visited. But I don’t think so. I dump my cache regularly and surf from a proxy. There typically isn’t a lot of super targeted display inventory. Text ads are quite the opposite, and is part of why they scale so well. But I don’t care. For me, relevant and contextual ads equals good. Audience segmentation generalized to this point? Worthless. The guys at Interscope (or whoever manages Timbalands online marketing) need to have a talk with their media buyer. But this isn’t all on them. The technologies that enable better targeting need to improve. And consumers need to embrace permission marketing to complete the circle. I’m hopeful, but not holding my breath.

Bottom Line: Advertisers and technology companies – you guys can do better.