What makes contextual advertising an ideal inclusive targeting tactic?

Diversity and inclusion have been increasingly gaining prominence globally. The advertising world is quickly adapting to incorporate these ideas into ad strategies. But what does inclusive targeting in advertising mean?

Inclusive advertising aims to reach and represent a more diverse audience by transcending traditional advertising practices that target users based on demographics and previous areas of interest. The focus lies on comprehensive targeting that enables brands to reach a wider but relevant audience pool. An inclusive advertising strategy helps brands connect with a broader base but helps build trust and create a loyal customer base.

The need for inclusive advertising practices has fueled innovation and creativity among brands, pushing the boundaries of conventional targeting practices and doing away with stereotypes and discrimination. Thus, the phasing out of third-party cookies does not come as a surprise.

The invasive third-party cookie gathers consumers' personal data. Marketers leverage this data to make assumptions about user preferences based on factors like age, gender, browsing trends, and purchase history. Predefined audience segmentation also opens doors to prejudice and stereotyping as it ignores consumers who do not fit within the conventional descriptions of a particular target group. The death of the third-party cookie brings a much-needed revolution in advertising as marketers can no longer rely on assumptions, prodding them to evaluate more inclusive and privacy-first advertising strategies.

Contextual targeting: An approach that's inclusive, relevant, and privacy-first 

The elimination of third-party cookies raised many questions about the future of targeting strategies, as marketers have hugely relied on these cookies to run advertising campaigns. Backed by innovative, next-gen technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Natural Language Processing (NLP), contextual advertising has taken personalization and inclusivity to never-seen-before levels. Contextual targeting analyzes the content and context of web pages, offering brands the most optimal positions to display ads to their desired user base. Contextual advertising's inclusive targeting practice does not leverage any third-party cookies to make assumptions based on demographics. Instead, it is entirely based on users' current interests irrespective of their age, gender, or other personal data.

Going beyond assumptions and predetermined categories with contextual advertising

AI-powered contextual advertising is truly predictive and does not track users like conventional practices. With contextual targeting, the addressable market is infinite as it looks beyond predetermined categories and assumptions about demographic behaviors. The outcomes are based on the context of the consumer and the content on the page.

Contextual advertising does not track any Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Contextual AI predicts a user's intent based on contextual and situational factors like the content of the page, the referral source, local time, the device they are using, its orientation, and scroll speed. The ML algorithms sift through trillions of articles to analyze consumer behaviors, interests, and the stage of the buyer journey.

For example, the local time when scrolling determines the urgency or possibility of making a purchase. Similarly, scroll speed indicates a user's interest in a piece of content. The content they consume gives an idea about whether they are just exploring or in the consideration phase.

Inclusive advertising strategies like contextual targeting take away the limitations of demographic limitations and minimize the possibility of missing out on potential buyers. It empowers brands to reach a larger audience with more relevant ads that capture user attention with the right placement and ad creatives.

Demographic segmentation has become problematic and obsolete as predefined segments are not inclusive, opening doors to prejudice and stereotyping. Ignoring consumers that do not fit the demographic stereotype continues to be a massive loss for businesses.

By going inclusive, marketers are no longer making assumptions about who may be interested in a particular offering because they do not fit within a predefined target group. They can gauge user interest regardless of their demographics. AI-powered contextual advertising promises end-to-end, full-funnel, privacy-first targeting and optimization, an inclusive strategy ideal for the cookieless world. 

We recognize the need for a change in how brands reach audiences. Our high-quality inventory, personalized creatives, and the most advanced technology are propelling the shift to an inclusive and non-invasive targeting strategy. Take a look.