Targeting as means to avoid waste coverage in the advertising
Targeting describes a method in the marketing and internet marketing to describe particular target groups on online advertising media more selectively. The objective of targeting is decreasing waste coverage. Targeting is a part of the marketing research with which the advertising can be made more efficiently. The behavioral targeting is an increasingly important part of internet marketing campaigns.

What is behavioral targeting?
The (predictive) behavioral targeting orients on the surfing habit of internet users and the identification of behavior oriented target groups. The objective of predictive behavioral targeting is placing advertisements according to the fields of interests of the users. The behavior of the surfers is analyzed as well as which subject areas of a web site are visited how frequently from the users. This behavioral information is then summarized into bookable target group profiles for the behavioral targeting. With the help of the developed profile, the internet advertisement is delivered purposefully whereupon the user does not have to visit the correspondent subject area to be addressed by the advertisement interesting for him. This means that the target group does not have to frequent the correspondent subject area in the first place, but the appropriate advertisement will find it on the entire web site. Thus, high-quality booking options are not limited to scarce resources in specific subject areas. Additionally, the target group can be narrowed down more and more by combining behavioral targeting with other targeting forms, e.g. local, so that you exclusively reach the desired target group at best.

Benefits of behavioral targeting
The objectives of behavioral targeting are an improved target group orientation, the optimization of the campaign effect and an increase in the efficiency of the advertising budget. By means of target group-oriented targeting, the customers loyalty, leads and the sales figures are raised. The target groups can be addressed more directly, waste coverage is minimized and the response rates increase. However, behavioral targeting should be combined with other advertising forms in the establishment of awareness and the image of brands.

Advantages of behavioral targeting
By means of behavioral targeting in the internet advertising, the waste coverage is considerably reduced, because only the users, for whom the online advertisement is interesting, are addressed. With the increased efficiency of the internet advertising, companies can also achieve a wider coverage with their internet advertising. Without behavioral targeting, a wider range meant a big waste coverage. With the precision of the targeting in behavioral targeting, the contact quality can be optimized and the advertising impact of internet marketing can be increased. The more accurate the target groups are reached, the more this effect will show in the leads and the leads of the internet marketing campaign. Especially the advertising costs for wide-area online advertising campaigns are reduced and the ROI (return on investment) is increased.

Which forms of targeting are there?
In the last ten years, four different forms of targeting have developed:

• Technical Targeting: Identification of target groups with technical aspects, e.g. spread
• Regional Targeting: Identification of target groups by means of regional information, e.g. geo data
• Socio-demographic Targeting: Identification of target groups by means of demographic and social attributes, e.g. age, gender and job
• Behavioral Targeting: Identification of target groups with the help of the surfing habits.