At DIGIDAY:TARGET, Jeff Hirsch, CEO of AudienceScience, presented the results of an Audience Targeting State of the Industry Survey developed with DIGIDAY:DAILY's affiliated knowlege base, DM2Pro. The editorially independent survey, conducted in May 2010, drew responses from more than 500 media executives, marketers and publishers who shared best practices for using audience targeting to boost campaign value and performance.

According to the findings:

• Advertisers, agencies and publishers are all seeing an increase in online display over 2009; +27.4 percent, +20 percent and +60 percent, respectively
• Targeting is being used for both branding and direct response objectives
• Audience targeting has helped the majority of publishers increase revenue; 71.7 percent of publishers who participated in the survey offer audience targeting
• Agencies are more likely than advertisers to employ the full array of audience targeting capabilities
• Actual usage of targeting variables is still somewhat limited by all sectors, indicating that there is room for growth and demand for greater testing of techniques such as creative retargeting and dynamic targeting
• Creative rarely is varied to match the interests of consumers targeted in a given campaign, and this could pose the greatest opportunity for increased effectiveness.

Firsthand statements from respondents indicate that, while there is a strong acceptance of targeting across sectors, there exists a clear need for better measurement and more transparency in the implementation of targeting practices. More specifically, the respondents expressed strong concerns for both transparency into the execution of the campaigns and the process of measuring branding campaigns’ success based on CTRs and conversion.  

“As the industry continues to evolve and grow in 2010, audience targeting is clearly being established as the foundation for effective marketing,” said Jeff Hirsch, CEO of Audience Science. “Moving forward, we see a unique opportunity to further the implementation and measurement practices across sectors through consistent targeting capabilities.” 

Melinda Gipson, publisher of DM2PRO.com and DM2Media’s research lead, said, “One comment that stood out to me was the remark a brand respondent made in answering a question about ‘pain points.’ The response: ‘We don’t use it enough.’ As companies further explore how best to employ audience targeting, and learn from those experiences, we’ll continue to track the successful strategies and standards that emerge.”  

As an additional objective, the survey aimed to evaluate the respondents’ understanding and awareness of the privacy and regulation topics facing the industry. Across the respondents, there was a relatively low familiarity with the Boucher Bill and, of those that are familiar with the bill, agencies and publishers were largely indifferent. Instead, the majority of respondents favored self-regulation, with nearly one-third of all respondents indicating that FTC regulation would be the most effective way of enforcing privacy.

Only slightly more than a fifth of brand respondents have even altered their audience targeting practices over the past year out of concern for legislative and regulatory initiatives that would regulate consumer privacy online, but the highest proportion of this sector does in fact employ a privacy officer: 44 percent. In contrast, only 19 percent of agencies and a third of publishers employ a privacy officer.

The presentation slides, and Pro's own white paper analysis are publicly available at DM2PRO.com, and video from the conference will be posted begining early next week. As always, members have full access to the FULL DECK, and all our State of the Industry reports under "Metrics" in the right rail. Membership is just $20/month and also offers access to a rich database of tactical case studies, analysis and comprehensive access to DIGIDAY conference video and presentations.