Business Innovation

How does Contextual Targeting Works (5 Simple Steps)

By Sandip

March 17, 2020

Contextual targeting

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When it comes down to the paid advertisement – either it may be Google, Twitter, Facebook or YouTube, it can be very difficult to run a successful paid campaign if you are not getting the relevant audience. Contextual targeting is all about conveying the right ads to the right people.

But to tell you the truth, nobody actually cares about the ads they see. For instance, HubSpot has done a thorough study and came up with the astounding results, which states that more than 60% of the people find the ads annoying. And another 45% of people confess that they really do not care about the ads even after seeing them.

So, the stats that you are seeing now is the proof that you have wasted thousands of dollars on the strategy that have never brought you enough traffic which was meant to be. And this is where contextual targeting comes into the picture.

Contextual targeting is all about placing the ads at very specific places by following certain factors to maximize the reach to the relevant audience.

Let’s dig deep into the concept of Contextual targeting.

What is Contextual Targeting?

If you want to understand the concept of Contextual targeting in simple terms. Then you can see it as placing ads on the relevant sites that are related to your ads. You can think of Contextual targeting like a digital version of print media like newspapers and magazines that give their ads to the relevant print media platform.

Imagine you are sitting in a barbershop waiting for your turn. There are magazines on the table, you picked one and started going through. You will see ads for grooming products. That’s what Contextual targeting, placing ads at the most relevant places to maximize the reach of the ads to the prominent audiences. This same process is taken into consideration while creating digital ads.

Why Contextual Targeting is Effective?

Contextual targeting is very effective because it focuses on the targeting audiences which are filtered through the internet behaviors. Earlier what used to happen is that the marketer did not have any means to do selective targeting methods. So, they used to go for the quantity than the quality. Hence, they use to place their ad in the high traffic zone. This was truly expensive and only a few leads were managed.

But today’s world has changed. We have technologies that are capable enough to select the target accordingly. Just think like that, you have thousands of the audience but none of them are converting into your customers. Then what is the point of having that much audience? Contextual targeting helps you find the right audiences that may be interested in your ad and are potential customers of yours.

This is how Contextual targeting can help you with placing ads at relevant platforms for the relevant audiences.

How Contextual Targeting Works?

Contextual targeting is all about research on the customer’s behavior. And doping a deep level of analysis on the customer’s past browsing history. The are several ways to track down their behavior. One of the most common ways is the analysis of the cookies.

Cookies are the simple line of codes that re saved when a user visits a website. Initially, it was used to keep track of the customers, but now this method is used to check all the browsing detail of the customers.

As of now, you must understand how Contextual targeting works. But there are a few points that you must remember to make contextual targeting really works.

  • Building up your buyer persona
  • Layout the buyer’s journey
  • Analyze your rivals
  • Look for topics and keywords that can grab the audience’s attention
  • Finally, formulate a contextual ad for that.

1. Building Up Your Buyer Persona

When it comes down to the ideal customers for your successful business, there are some traits that you should take into consideration. And if you are not getting customers that are interested in your product and services, then you should influence them to buy your products. That’s what here means, building your buyer persona.

buyer persona

Let me give you an example of that. iPhone is very famous all around the world for its premium products. But do you remember, in the past, they have launched many models without the home button (created a problem for the customers) and later on started selling external home button those who are not satisfied with that (selling solution for the problems). This what it means to build up your customer persona, or influencing them to have the required traits for being your customer.

2. Layout the Buyer’s Journey

The buyer’s journey is all about awareness, consideration, and decision. Every step is required by the customers to build up enough adrenaline to make a purchase.

buyer's journey

Mapping is all about tracking all the things done by the user for a complete purchase. This can help you with the information that you use for your next sale. This all information will help you to align the best ad placement which will boost the conversion rate.

3. Analyze Your Rivals

The next is very crucial, analyzing your rivals and competitors. Before going with the plan, you must look into the other plans and can search for the loophole that you can use for your advantage.

analyzing rivals

Young startup businessmen teamwork brainstorming meeting to discuss the new project investment.

Knowing who are your business rivals and how they are going around targeting your potential customers, will help you to gain insight on their both weak and string suits.

4. Look For Topics and Keywords

Once your research is complete. The next toughest part is to research some of the high-quality keywords that can be implemented into your ads.

keyword research

Contextual targeting is all about hyperfocus targeting, which means keywords and topics are important aspects of it. You will need to be highly selective so that you can make the best of the keywords.

Your keywords not only need to be relevant to the audiences but also needs to be relevant to the websites. This will increase the synchronization rate of your customers, keywords, website and of course your business.

5. Finally, Formulate a Contextual Ad for that.

Till here you have done all the work to create the best Contextual ad. The final step is to actually create one and launch it on the websites. While making the ad you must remember that you have to make the contextual ad as relevant as possible for the websites and the audiences.

Here all the above 4 steps will help you with the relevant websites research and the relevant keyword. You just have to make sure that your keywords contain all of your research efforts.

Conclusion

Quantity does not matter if the conversion rate is zero. But what matters is the quality that can bring in the traffic. Contextual targeting is doing the same thing. It selects some of the best places for you to place the ads. This selection of places is the result of a thorough analysis.

It goes through many steps to understand the audience’s behavior and track down their browsing history. All this information helps in funneling down the best websites to place your ads in front of the relevant viewers.

Contextual targeting has become one of the important parts of the marketing strategy to gain relevant and loyal audiences.

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Sandip

Sandip Sah is a content writer and a content editor for TechNetDeals.com & TechTrendsPro.com, who has set sail to venture all the writing industry secrets. His passion for technology and ambition to express his thoughts through words has been the driving force in his journey. He is also a valuable guest blogger for sites like TheLegalGuide, SmartBusinessDaily, TopPrefference, and EmblemWealth. Sandip specializes in writing warm, humorous, engaging, and SEO-friendly content. He is also the co-founder of the Smart Business Daily, Emblem Wealth and Tech Net Deals. Sandip specializes in writing warm, humorous, engaging and SEO friendly contents.

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