Imagine that you're walking into a local grocery store to buy ingredients for dinner. The moment you enter, you're greeted by brightly colored signs advertising athletic wear, a product that the store doesn't offer and that you have no interest in buying at the moment. You see more ads as you pass through the aisles for produce, bread, and frozen foods.

This type of advertising choice seems nonsensical, but it's exactly what happens when you use digital marketing strategies like behavioral targeting. It's also why contextual targeting offers so much value to businesses across practically every industry.

Contextual targeting empowers companies to market their products and services on web pages that have related content. By capitalizing on timing and intent, this type of targeting makes it possible for your business to grow, increase sales, and convert more customers at a low cost. Understanding how to effectively use contextual marketing is crucial for businesses hoping to thrive in a new era of cookieless advertising.

What Is Contextual Targeting?

Contextual targeting refers to the practice of placing ads on websites or apps based on their content. Rather than putting up ads arbitrarily, marketers strive to align the subject addressed on the website with the focus of the ad.

For example, if you visit a website with dessert recipes, you might see an ad for kitchen mixers or baking pans. This targeting is based on the logical assumption that someone who is interested in making desserts might find links to baking supplies intriguing and helpful.

Marketers have been aware of the importance of contextual targeting in advertising for decades. Early print publishers placed ads in their magazines and newspapers based on the material discussed in that section. People reading articles about baseball players would see ads for bats and mitts.

The same concept has carried over into the age of digital advertising but with the added bonus of technological progress. Companies can use sophisticated software to more effectively target their products to audiences on a larger scale.

What Are the Types of Contextual Targeting?

All contextual advertising follows the same basic principles, but there are different approaches to identifying relevant content. Businesses can use a combination of three contextual targeting types to optimize their online presence.

Categories

Also known as topic targeting, this type of contextual targeting involves assigning ads to content based on broad categories. Possible topics might include:

• Fashion
• Banking and Finance
• Automotive
• Beauty
• Food and dining

Because these assignments are so general, this is the simplest but also the least reliable form of contextual targeting. However, platforms such as Google also allow you to choose narrower categories that will target your ads more successfully.

For instance, a restaurant chain might choose the "fast food cravers" topic under food and dining. This ensures that users will come across their ads while looking at recipes for burgers and not when they're researching fine dining menus.

Keywords

For more accurate results, companies can employ keyword contextual targeting. In addition to assigning categories to ads, they select multiple keywords that reflect the interests and demographics of their potential audience.

These terms and phrases are then matched with corresponding keywords on different web pages. This allows for more nuanced targeting and a greater likelihood that your ads will make their way in front of interested users.

Semantics

Although contextual targeting is a tried and true practice, developments in technology have allowed advertisers to refine their techniques and achieve better results. Semantic targeting uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyze a web page and determine whether it's an appropriate and relevant environment for your ad.

Businesses can leverage this technology to identify relevant keywords for a web page. This enables you to move beyond a set of terms that were written in a specific order. You can find semantically related keywords that reflect the same intent with slightly different terminology.

How Does Contextual Targeting Work?

Contextual targeting uses the subject of the content that consumers are currently viewing to display ads that they'll find entertaining and useful. To accomplish this goal, marketers have to follow a specific process to set up their ad campaigns.

Selecting Targeting Parameters

Choosing topics and keywords is the first step of contextual targeting. It's also the foundation for the success of your ads, so picking the right options is critical. Think carefully about what words and phrases your target audience will use when searching for content and what overall topics they'll find most engaging.

These are the most important parameters you can use to target your ads:

• Topics and keywords: Google recommends using between 5 and 50 keywords that closely connect with various aspects of the products and services you're advertising.
• Negative topics and keywords: exclude parameters that are irrelevant to your ads or that you don't want to connect to your brand.
• Location and languages: define target locations and languages so your ads reach suitable users.

Analyzing Online Content

Once you've selected your topics and keywords, you can use ad platforms or contextual targeting companies to look for relevant sites and match them with your ads. To make that determination, the platform will consider:

• Link structures
• Themes
• Alt text
• Language
• Page structure
• Keyword usage
• Text

What Is an Example of Contextual Targeting in Marketing?

By design, contextual targeting in digital marketing isn't always obvious. It's a more subtle approach to advertising than behavioral tracking, which tends to be unnerving. However, once you know what to look for, it becomes clear that this type of advertising is all around us.

Consider these contextual targeting examples:

• Location: Target ads for your restaurant toward your local area so tourists researching attractions find your business.
• Keyword: Use keywords like "diamonds" and "engagement" so people reading articles about proposals see ads for jewelry.
• Topic: Select weightlifters under sports and fitness so readers of weightlifting articles see ads for equipment.

Why Do Companies Use Contextual Targeting?

Despite its long history, contextual targeting had fallen out of favor as companies seized the opportunities presented by cookies. Cookie technology provides detailed audience data that companies use to personalize their ads. In recent years, however, concerns about privacy have revealed that cookies are imperfect tools, and companies are returning to new and improved cookieless solutions, including contextual targeting.

Contextual Targeting vs. Behavioral Targeting

Behavioral targeting uses a consumer's past actions (tracked with cookies) to determine what ads they should see. While this provides data, it can cause ads to appear in unrelated contexts. Contextual targeting ignores past actions and focuses on the user's present mindset, showing relevant ads based on the content they're viewing.

The Rise and Fall of Cookies

The decreasing use of third-party cookies has added to the decline of behavioral targeting. In a July 2021 survey, 51% of senior marketers said third-party cookies made up the majority of their data. Today many browsers are eliminating third-party cookies and Google Chrome announced plans to stop using them by the end of 2024 (report).

Factors driving the shift include privacy concerns, browser changes, and flawed data from cookies. Contextual targeting offers an alternative that doesn't rely on individualized tracking.

Distinguishing Between Contextual Targeting and Native Advertising

Although sometimes used interchangeably, native advertising and contextual targeting are distinct. Native advertising focuses on aesthetic integration with page content; contextual targeting focuses on content relevance. Combining both yields visually appealing ads placed in relevant contexts.

The Benefits of Contextual Targeting

Contextual targeting offers many advantages: increased control over placements, clearer reflections of customer interests, higher user comfort (less intrusive than cookie-based ads), reduced ad fatigue, no retargeting loops, simplified strategy, decreased data reliance, more appropriate placement, larger audience pools, and fewer compliance concerns.

Preparing for a Cookie-Free Future with Nativo

Contextual targeting is accessible to companies of all sizes. To maximize ROI and reach, take a thoughtful approach to parameters and placements. Nativo offers solutions to optimize advertising without cookies. Their Nativo Predictive Audience technology helps maximize targeting and engagement without cookies. Contact Nativo to learn more or request a free demo.

See what's possible with Nativo. Fill out the form on the original page to schedule a free demo with one of our dedicated experts.