You Come Here Often?: The Strength of Contextual Ad Targeting and The Need for Human Intervention

By Jon Njos/Media Director

The digital advertising frontier has been something to behold these past few years. Especially with the inroads in targeting technology of the multiple platforms. Demographic targeting seems so passé compared to the abilities to target prospects based on behaviors, hobbies, etc.

Contextual targeting is another element that allows advertising to be place in environments based on subject matter. So if you are an auto dealer, your banner ad can appear on web sites displaying articles about cars, the auto industry, etc. But as the above example illustrates, contextual placement can have some unintended consequences. The technology is reacting in a literal fashion to words and phrases within content that can be associated to an advertiser that really doesn’t fit in context.  This example shows a screen shot from a major city daily newspaper site featuring a gorilla in the local zoo who lost its mate recently and is all alone. So zookeepers gave the gorilla a pet bunny.  In the headline it refers to the bunny as  a “companion.” BANG! Google Adwords picked that up and delivered an ad for a local “Meet Singles” service. Additionally, that ad appears directly under the headline, making it look like it’s part of the article. A little off the mark, by some measure, but a bit comical. The technology really isn’t digging down to the context of the article far enough…..like a human being can. There’s still hope for us all.