Moving Towards Contextual Targeting in a Cookieless World

With GDPR and CCPA announcing new privacy rules, and Google declaring the deprecation of third-party cookies on Google Chrome, advertisers need alternatives for reaching their intended audiences in brand-safe and appropriate spaces.

They are shifting their focus to contextual advertising, believing it to be the future of advertising. It is more successful than other targeting strategies since it does not require any user data to reach the relevant audience.

According to recent research, contextually relevant advertising increased engagement by 43%. Furthermore, individuals recalled contextual advertising 2.2 times better than ordinary advertisements.

The approach of delivering advertising on a webpage based on its content rather than the user’s data is known as contextual ad targeting. This notion, however, is not new in the ad tech industry. However, it has been in this space for quite some time now.

This blog will go deeply into contextual awareness, how it works, its significance in the future of advertising, and much more. Continue reading!

What is Contextual Advertising?

Contextual targeting has been around for over 20 years in the digital advertising market. Only with the invention of user-tracking methods did advertisers abandon this practice.

However, due to the depreciation of third-party cookies and the growing requirement for user-data privacy, advertisers have been compelled to revert to first-party data and contextual targeting.

Contextual advertising has emerged as the primary focus of advertisers seeking to generate effective campaigns.

Contextual targeting is a strong and successful means of reaching out to a specific audience by showing advertising on a webpage that corresponds to the ad’s content. At the very same time, it ensures a consistent ad experience for both advertisers and viewers.

Let’s look at a few instances to better understand contextual advertising:

• If you’re reading a movie review website, you can notice advertisements like “buy movie tickets” or “sign up for a movie streaming service.”
• You see an advertisement for “shampoo” before watching a YouTube video instruction on “how to trim your hair.”

As targeted and behavioral marketing grows more difficult, contextual advertising has emerged as a solution that targets the right audience with relevant ads while respecting their data privacy and personalization preferences.

Third-Party Cookies Waived Off

Because of the additional data offered by behavioral targetings, such as browser history or links clicked, the whole advertising business has come to rely on this third-party data-based targeting strategy.

However, with user privacy at the forefront and the implementation of privacy-related rules such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), finding an alternative to third-party cookies has become a hot topic.

Contextual advertising and the collecting of first-party data for behavioral targeting are the two key possibilities for advertisers in the approaching period.

With fewer user data available to companies, producing targeted advertising will be difficult. Contextual targeting is an obvious approach to maintaining an efficient digital marketing campaign without using personal data.

Importance of Contextual Targeting and Relevance

With privacy ranking first, on the list of the online audiences, contextual advertisement and relevancy of ads were never more important.

Well, you don’t need to trust me. Trust the data instead!

According to reports and interviews with many people, the following findings have emerged:

• Nearly 70% of consumers feel ads are more likely to be recalled when they appear next to relevant information.
• 7 out of 10 viewers have said that consumer impression of an online ad and the brand linked with it is influenced by the content surrounding it.
• When companies provide contextually appropriate ads, almost two-thirds (65%) of customers have a more favorable perception of those brands.

The Future of Advertising Is Contextual

The contextual future of advertising is certain. According to one study, contextually relevant commercials increase brain engagement by 43% and ad recall by 2.2 times.

On the one hand, customers are relieved that their personal data is better safeguarded; on the other hand, they want to see advertising that is relevant to their online experience and fits their interests. Contextual targeting is responsible for this.

With the demise of third-party cookies, marketers need alternatives that suit their goals of targeting the right audience at the right time and place. Contextual targeting is the greatest answer to this problem.

Marketers may still provide tailored advertising and reach their target audience in a post-cookie future with this method.

Unlike behavioral marketing, contextual ad targeting does not rely on third-party cookies to provide users with appropriate ad experiences.

It is the perfect solution for advertisers that are concerned about privacy yet still want to have a huge influence on users.

Why should you Choose Contextual Targeting?

It should be clear by now that the comeback of contextual targeting in the ad tech industry is largely owing to the digital economy’s transition away from the third-party cookie.

Despite this, contextual advertising offers a number of additional benefits that may persuade an advertiser to adopt it and include it in one of its targeting approaches.

• A Budget-Friendly Advertising Method

Because behavioral advertising necessitates a vast quantity of data, techniques for collecting and analyzing it, strategies for utilizing it, and people to assist with the process are all necessary. For firms with limited resources and customer data, this technique has proven tough. Contextual advertising offers not just a low-cost option to target the correct audience at the right time, but also simplicity and relevancy.

User Privacy Protected

Because it does not need any sensitive personal information, contextual advertising is one of the most successful and sought-after audiences targeting approaches. This is more secure for marketers who want to ensure that their advertisements display on pages that follow the rules.

Relevant Ad Placement with Complete Brand Safety

Behavioral advertising presents severe problems with brand safety and acceptance. Contextual targeting, on the other hand, concentrates the campaign on the web page where the ad appears. You may also customize the themes, subtopics, and keywords.

This reduces the likelihood of your advertisement following a person to a site where they do not want to see the adverts and you do not want them to appear.

Context is More Important than Behavioral Targeting

Personalization is recognized as an effective marketing tactic by advertisers. Simply said, this is done to make adverts more relevant. Furthermore, advertising based on past behavior may not be completely relevant to present goals or wants.

Targeting the Correct Audience Without Bothering

Advertisements from certain firms follow customers even after they have purchased something. When advertisers persistently target their customers, poor advertising results. Contextual advertising assists in providing appropriate adverts without annoying the viewer.

When advertising is relevant to the material a person is presently seeing, they are less likely to feel followed. Even though the advertisement follows the user around, it is considerably less obvious when the advertisement is contextually appropriate.

Final Words

Finally, we’ve seen how crucial contextual targeting is going to be in the future. And how it can help us contact our target audience in the most accurate way imaginable. With the collapse of third-party cookies and their removal from major web browsers such as Firefox, Safari, and Google, marketers must find a new way to connect with customers, and that way is contextual advertising. Consumer privacy requirements such as GDPR and CCPA, as well as the need for targeted adverts, have compelled advertisers to shift to contextual advertising. The advantages and advancement of contextual advertising make us believe that it is a good step forward as we move towards a cookieless future where we won’t get any third-party data to rely on to reach our target audience. But, contextual advertising helps us achieve the same goal – reaching the right audience at the right time and place but without relying on their data.