The team at AdServerPlugins.com is proud to announce the upcoming release of their Behavioral Targeting and Retargeting plugin for the OpenX Ad Server.
This plugin was designed primarily for use by publishers operating one or more websites. It enables them to help their clients to deliver their advertising campaigns to visitors who are most likely to be interested in the products or services being promoted. This is done by capturing and storing data about the visitor’s surfing behavior and search behavior, or demographic data. When creating an advertising campaign, the ads can be targeted to this known data about the visitor. For more information about the benefits of targeting and retargeting, please see the explanation and examples below.
Availability
The Behavioral Targeting and Retargeting Plugin for OpenX Ad Server is already in use by a network of nine websites in The Netherlands. It will be available to other publishers in the second half of January 2010.
Request information about this plugin
When you are interested in using this OpenX plugin for your website or network of sites, we invite you to submit the form below. We will then contact you to discuss pricing, licensing and availability.
Additional information
The difference between direct targeting and retargeting
Targeting is a technique used by online publishers and advertisers to increase the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns. It can be applied directly, matching the ads on a webpage to the content of that page or known demographic information about the visitor. It can also be applied indirectly, using information that was captured and stored earlier to decide if the ad should be delivered. This is often called behavioral targeting or behavioral retargeting.
What is behavioral targeting and retargeting?
Behavioral targeting uses information collected on a visitor’s past web-browsing behavior, such as the pages they have visited or the searches they performed, to select which advertisements to display to that individual. Wikipedia has an article about Behavioral Targeting.
How does the Behavioral Targeting and Retargeting Plugin for OpenX Ad Server work?
The Behavioral Targeting and Retargeting Plugin adds a table to the OpenX database, and stores information about the visitor in that table. The data is not stored in cookies on the visitor’s computer. It then enables OpenX users to specify delivery limitations to any banner in a campaign based on the stored retargeting data.
Example scenarios for behavioral targeting and retargeting
The only limitation for using the Behavioral Targeting and Retargeting Plugin for OpenX Ad Server is your own imagination. Here are a few examples of how we think you can use this plugin:
- When a visitor enters your shop pages but doesn’t complete a sale, you could display special ads at their next visit, encouraging them to buy your product after all.
- When a visitor searches for information related to a US state, you can target ads to them that are relevant to that state, when they visit one of your other sites.
- If a visitor has viewed a product page on your website more than 5 times, you could conclude they are more than likely to buy the product. By displaying an ad with a special offer or discount at their next visit, you could persuade them to buy the product.
- When someone buys a product from your site, at subsequent visits to your site you can show them ads for related products, supplies or services to complement their initial purchase (up selling and cross selling).
Additional technical details
Data storage mechanism
The data that needs to be captured comes from the actions a visitor performs on a website, or from data the visitor enters. This data is sent to the OpenX Behavioral Targeting and Retargeting Plugin via an API. It requires that the webmaster or developers of the website incorporate this API in their site. There are no restrictions on the programming language used for the site. The plugin supports two types of data storage: single elements like a visitor’s gender or year of birth, and counters like the number of times a visitor has viewed a product page in your shop.
Privacy Measures and Opt-Out Mechanism
Any data stored inside the retargeting data table is completely anonymous. It is not tied to an IP address. The Behavioral Targeting and Retargeting Plugin also supports an opt-out mechanism. This means visitors can indicate they prefer not to be served ads targeted to their search or surfing behavior. Any and all data about the visitor in the OpenX database is removed and no more new data will be collected.
