Three new researches by IAB Europe have just proven it: understanding users’ behaviour exponentially increases the efficacy of digital advertising campaigns.
Indeed, as we have already said before, owning data concerning consumers’ behaviour means gathering the right feedback about products and/or services and making the most of money invested in advertising. Data are a fundamental resource for this sector and digital economy as a whole. Read it in Italian.
Such researches have shown that 52% of European consumers spend over three hours a day surfing the net and that 63% of consumers, against 40%, would prefer to use free services and contents funded by advertising, rather than paying for such services and contents so as to avoid banners and promotional videos.
But there is more to it: according to a recent survey by GFK, involving 11 thousand users in over 11 European countries, 68% of European internet users claim they would not pay for online news even if they were not available for free on any alternative sources; 83% of interviewees claimed they prefer to benefit from free contents despite the presence of advertising; 92% of them claimed they would be willing to significantly reduce their use of internet if contents were to be paid for and, finally, 69% of users are willing to provide their personal data to be used by ADV if this meant accessing some free contents.
Therefore, it seems obvious that targeted advertising modeled on the basis of users’ behaviours is a win-win tool both for marketers, who can get their message through to groups of people whose needs are aligned with the products/services advertised, and for consumers who benefit from an interesting adv which perfectly fits their specific requirements. Indeed, targeted advs get a click-through rate 5 times higher than standard advs.
However, although “behavioural targeting”, which in 2016 gathered investments for over 41,9 billion Euros, is the new must for digital adv on the web, on the radio, smart tvs, mobile devices etc, and brings about relevant revenues and employment opportunities, a giant “but” is lingering in the air.
Although digital advertising generates over 118 billion Euros in terms of GNW (Gross National Wellbeing), as I explained in the post entitled “The new EU ePrivacy hits European media and users” the new EU ePrivacy , which should come into force on 25 May 2018, contains a prescription which may invalidate all the progresses made so far, to the detriment of consumers. It is a regulation which obliges publishers (news, social, entertainment, services) to allow users to access their websites even though they block advertising.
“The new ePrivacy, foreseeing opt-in as the only base for allowing advertising, risks to jeopardize the balance of the whole digital sector, and especially the quality of contents”, commented Carlo Noseda, president of IAB Italia.
A stop to behavioural targeting which I hope the UE will try to avoid.
Do you use adv campaigns based on behavioural targeting? Tweet @agostinellialdo.
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