Does Behavioral Targeting Need A Ranking System?

EMarketer estimates online advertisers in the United States will spend about $2.6 billion by 2014 on behaviorally targeted (BT) advertising, up from more than $1.1 billion this year. Estimates put the industry on a growth rate of about 20% from 2009 through 2014. But even with all that projected growth, do advertising and marketing executives understand the benefits and the challenges?

David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer, tells me the report, scheduled for release on Feb. 11, will cover topics from the potential for combining data and social media, to how the government will address privacy concerns. When it comes to actually implementing BT platforms, Hallerman tells me advertisers' biggest concerns are focused on brand reputation and campaign effectiveness. Can the technology actually hit the mark and drive higher conversions? There's also a growing recognition that BT can become a useful tool -- but, like all useful tools, it can't always work alone. BT belongs in the narrow part of the marketing funnel, where advertisers have a better sense of the target, Hallerman says. In the upper part of the funnel, where advertisers try to build awareness for the brand, other targeting methods and tools work better, more cost-effectively.