Contextual Advertising

Any relevant advertisement displayed on a website’s page is called contextual advertising.

One of the best examples is the ads placed by Google Adsense on different websites.

Through Google robots, all relevant ads are automatically shown to users.

For instance, if you own a movie blog and contextual ads by Google Adsense are functional on it, then Adsense will only showcase ads related to your platform.

Definition of Contextual Advertising

Any relevant advertisement displayed on a website’s page is called contextual advertising.

One of the best examples is the ads placed by Google Adsense on different websites.

Through Google robots, all relevant ads are automatically shown to users.

For instance, if you own a movie blog and contextual ads by Google Adsense are functional on it, then Adsense will only showcase ads related to your platform.

Since your blog is about the entertainment industry, the context advertising could be about purchasing some popular movie tickets or signing up at a movie streaming site.

These ads are picked right from the inventory of advertisers who have registered on AdWords.

Therefore, a context ad is purely an advertisement form where the ads are placed on a website with similar content through automated systems.

This automation helps display ads on the website, which is relevant to the niche through keyword targeting.

Targeting Strategies

Context targeting is based on three main strategies.

Off-the-Shelf Contextual Segmentation

Companies follow an off-the-shelf strategy to trace all the content on the webpage.

In this strategy, organizations will develop a preordained data chunk that constantly reaches users who are interested in searching for certain categories, such as cooking, movies, etc.

This process continues in repetition to gather more data.

Personalized Keyword Segmentation

Personalized keyword segmentation is a step up the advertising ladder.

You can develop segments according to your preference, where all defined and selected keywords are responsible for contextual targeting, leading to more effective results.

So, if you want to reach Beyonce’s fans, you will be listing keywords such as “Beyonce,” “Beyonce already,” “crazy in love,” etc.

With all these keywords, you will soon get to know about the people interested in Beyonce’s music.

On surveying the results, you can easily separate and exclude negative keywords that are not related to the segment you are targeting.

Target by Site

Targeting by site is a low-tech method, as it is not necessary to rely on technology partners to complete the task.

Conversely, practical implementation is required to elaborate on the kinds of sites your target audience visits most frequently.

You can understand this strategy through two examples.

The first is the extremely narrow trade.

So, if you are trying to market a cause that is excessively expensive, like collecting funds for a tech firm, and you want to target private businesses.

Then, you may approach people involved in private and equity ad businesses through focusing on the white lists from platforms such as pehub.com, pitchbook.com, buyoutsinsider.com, or privateequitywire.co.uk.

However, the most challenging part is that these listings are the property of media companies, which don’t keep their inventory out in the open.

You will have to contact these firms to offer a direct deal to obtain information about the users who come to their sites.

The bright side is, you have a link with the publisher without a mediator.

You will work on mutual terms, rates, and CPM.

Contrarily, you are restricted if you want to do ad exchange targeting.

In other words, you can run inventory without making any promises to the advertisers.

Contextual Advertising Perks

Context targeting within the digital advertising realm comes with several advantages:

Relevancy

At first, consider that anyone who will look at the ads will be pleased to learn about the product or service being advertised, as it will be viewed in a suitable area of a particular webpage.

Currently, users don’t appreciate irrelevant and wrongly placed ads. That is why advertisers should work on increasing the ad experience through various customized and significant ads.

Anti-Ad Fatigue

Placing the ad next to the relative content can enhance its value, but detecting a proper environment is the key.

It can bring a positive effect, as well as diminish the users’ ad fatigue. Why? Because viewers admire correct ad placement more than just viewing it in places that don’t make any sense to them.

As a result, both content and advertising help increase each other’s value.

Privacy-Friendly

With context targeting, the users’ privacy is completely protected whether they are viewing an ad banner or simply observing the content.

Publications responsible for targeting can only access the information on the page, and it is only used to achieve the best-suited banner ad for the site.

All this is evidence that contextual advertising is not only fruitful for the publishers, but even advertisers can enjoy its blessings.

DuckDuckGo makes a profit through target advertising. Nevertheless, rather than accessing users’ personal information, the platform displays ads with contextual information.

“Contextual spending will continue expanding because people are interested in being relevant rather than being personal. If performed effectively, this will be a great way of developing engaging content, and improved campaigns.
Advertisers think over-customization assures successful campaigns. But in reality, it limits effectiveness. Hence, working on a balanced approach is the ultimate solution.”

– Sam Fenton-Elstone, CEO, Anything is Possible

Contextual advertising offers easy implementation and requires less data. Furthermore, it not only reduces engagement rates but even conforms to data privacy laws.