Concerns about online privacy, intrusiveness, and irrelevant ads have been key drivers for buyer dissatisfaction in the advertising industry. As a result, marketing teams face the increasingly difficult task of changing perceptions of their brand and ensuring that advertising as a whole is a beneficial force for their brand.
Now is the time for brands to innovate and revitalize their marketing strategies to more effectively engage consumers and build positive brand sentiment.
One of the main drivers helping brands overcome these challenges has been through contextual targeting. Research indicates that when done right, contextual targeting can deliver results just as effectively as hyper-targeting while at the same time promoting privacy and transparency
Context is key
Given its ability to target the right audience without cookies or the collection of personal data, contextual advertising is future-proofed against the privacy changes that are soon to be implemented by Google.
So how does contextual targeting work?
Contextual AI analyzes the visual and written content of a page, ensuring that ads are placed in an environment whose content and ideas align with the reader’s interests.
In recent research performed by Seedtag, where participants were divided into 4 groups based on different targeting approaches (no targeting, interest-based, demographic-based, and contextual) contextual targeting outperformed the other categories throughout the study, demonstrating its effectiveness as a way for brands to create positive associations with high-quality content while building valuable trust with their consumers.
Charming the audience
Consumers are exposed to thousands of ads every day. Not only that but, research done by Nielsen shows that consumers’ memory of an ad can disappear overnight, making it harder than ever for marketers to grab their attention and generate interest in their brand.
Studies by Nielsen and Seedtag have shown that contextual targeting can be the most effective method in generating interest across all three categories and was 32% more effective than demographic targeting.
72% of targeted consumers contextually said they liked the ads they were served — the most of any category. They were also the most excited and least annoyed by the ads they were served in this manner.
The study showed that consumers receiving contextually relevant advertising were also the most likely to be open to future ad engagements. They considered the ads to be the most relevant to the surrounding content.
In a world where consumers are overwhelmed with advertising, it is as important as ever for marketers to take advantage of opportunities to build trust. Advertisers that can take advantage of new technologies alongside the right partners have a unique opportunity to create positive associations with their advertising. They can increase favorability toward their brand. They can grow their brand alongside building consumer confidence.
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