Difference between revisions of "Targeted Advertising (Online)"

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'''Targeted advertising''' in an online environment is a type of advertising in which advertisers use information gathered about individual consumers such as demographics, purchase history, or previous behavior in order to appeal to the interests of that specific consumer. <ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Targeted_advertising</ref> Examples of targeted advertising are prevalent in all sorts of media today, including television and online media. Examples of targeted advertising include Amazon.com's recommendations based on browsing history, Hulu.com's simple surveys asking whether an ad was relevant to a viewer's interests, as well as text advertisements on Gmail based on location of login IP addresses and email messages.
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'''Targeted advertising''' in an online environment is a type of advertising in which advertisers use information gathered about individual consumers such as demographics, purchase history, or previous behavior in order to appeal to the interests of that specific consumer. <ref> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Targeted_advertising</ref> Examples of targeted advertising are prevalent in all sorts of media today, including television and online media. Examples of targeted advertising include Amazon.com's recommendations based on browsing history, Hulu.com's simple surveys asking whether an ad was relevant to a viewer's interests, as well as text advertisements on Gmail based on location of login IP addresses and email messages.
  
 
[[Image:datamining.jpg|375px|thumb|right|Advertising can be tailored to fit the desires of an individual consumer based on their past search histories and online behaviors.]]
 
[[Image:datamining.jpg|375px|thumb|right|Advertising can be tailored to fit the desires of an individual consumer based on their past search histories and online behaviors.]]

Revision as of 21:50, 18 December 2011

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Targeted advertising in an online environment is a type of advertising in which advertisers use information gathered about individual consumers such as demographics, purchase history, or previous behavior in order to appeal to the interests of that specific consumer. [1] Examples of targeted advertising are prevalent in all sorts of media today, including television and online media. Examples of targeted advertising include Amazon.com's recommendations based on browsing history, Hulu.com's simple surveys asking whether an ad was relevant to a viewer's interests, as well as text advertisements on Gmail based on location of login IP addresses and email messages.

Advertising can be tailored to fit the desires of an individual consumer based on their past search histories and online behaviors.

Background

Targeted online advertising is popular due to the fact that an individual's online activity can be monitored through the use of cookies and web analytics software. Data mining companies use the information they gather on people to create personal profiles that they then sell to advertising companies. Using this personalized information, advertising companies can then target specific people based on their IP address and deliver ads tailored to the user's interests [2]. This can occur because websites like Google assign each computer a cookie, which is a long string of numbers and letters that identifies that specific user. Each time the user searches something, the content of their search is categorized and paired with that user’s cookie, creating a comprehensive Internet usage profile. This packaged profile contains information such as the estimated age, gender, approximate location, and a list of interests of the user. Advertisers use this information to send customized advertisements to the consumer. For example, someone who frequently searches for weight loss tips on the Internet would likely receive advertisements related to weight loss because Google knows the person’s interests based on his or her search activity.

Methods of Targeted Advertising Online

Types of online advertisement vary based on the type of technology being leveraged to disperse the information and the audience which is trying to be reached.

Email Advertisement

Marketing through email can occur when a potential consumer selects to receive information on a website which they have visited.

Pop-up Advertisement

Pop-up advertisements are those which generate a new browser window without prompt in order to show information about the company or product being advertised. They often interrupt the individual's browsing experience by layering themselves as the top window, above all other content an individual may be viewing. The pop-up window can contain text, images, animations, or any combination of the three. One downside of pop-up advertisements is they draw the person away from the web content they were intending to view, which is bad for the hosting website. It can also be detrimental for advertisers, as pop-up ads may crash the browser and completely interrupt their web surfing experience.[3]

Embedded Advertisement

Advertisements that are a part of the online content which the individual is viewing. They may be a simple bar found at the top or site of a webpage which would facilitate a click-through to the advertiser's site. Embedded advertisements can also contain visual components like moving pictures or videos. Some embedded advertisements can require a user's participation in some form before they can be closed.

A banner ad is a graphical bar, or box, containing text and images. It is designed to grab the viewer's attention when visiting webpages. Although they come in all shapes and sizes, the most common sizes are 468x60 and 234x60.[4] Banner ads can be static, meaning they are unchanging, or dynamic, where there is some sort of animation going on in the ad. They are sold on either a CPM (cost per thousand views) or CPC (cost per click) basis.

Text Ads

Text ads have no graphics and contain only text. It usually contains a few lines of text, called copy, and a link to a webpage or email address.[5] Like banner ads, they are also usually billed on a CPM or CPC basis. Text ads can commonly be found in Google searches, which are embedded using Google's AdSense.[6] AdSense serves its users relevant ads, based on user profiling.

Interstitials

Interstitials are advertisements shown on a transition page between two web pages. For example, on some news websites, when you click on a story it will take you to this interstitial page where the ad is served. You can choose to read or view the ad, or click a button to go to your desired content. Advertisers utilize interstitial advertising because there is a lot more space to serve the ad than there is with a banner or text ad.

HTML Ads

Although the software is more complex, these advertisements can take a variety of forms with more content than just merely text and graphics. HTML advertisements may contain tabs, text input boxes, or other forms of interactive software.[7] They allow the user to interact more with the ad, rather than just reading or viewing it.

Rich Media Ads

Similar to HTML Ads, rich media advertisements usually utilize Flash or Java to increase the complexity of ads. Despite the longer load time, these ads are interactive and really useful to advertisers for serving a message to potential customers.[8]

Place in the "Computer Ethics is Unique" Debate

The controversy that surrounds targeted advertising makes it something that should be looked at in terms of Computer Ethics. There are those who feel that targeted advertising is a perfectly ethical practice as it brings more relevant advertisements to users who also have the ability to prevent their information from being used. These advocates believe it is a perfectly legal and ethical advertising technique. Others, however, believe that this new type of advertising should be re-examined as it is unlike any type of advertising used previously; in fact, the only thing resembling targeted advertising would be illegally sifting through ones mailbox to see that person’s interests, then selling that information to advertisers to use for themselves. However because targeted advertising works on such an unprecedented scale, it cannot be compared to anything even similar to it. Thus, targeted advertising fits in with the Computer Ethics is Unique thesis and should be analyzed using a new moral framework.

Ethics of Targeted Advertising Online

Though targeted advertising brings consumers customized advertisements and has created a lucrative industry in Data Mining, it has become a very controversial topic in relation to online privacy.

"Opt Out" versus "Opt In" Information Gathering Schemes

Targeted advertising online operates using an "opt-out" scheme, meaning the users' information is extracted only if that user manually opts out. Users are automatically eligible to be monitored on certain websites such as Google searches unless they explicitly opt out. On the contrary, an "opt-in" system means the users' information is only extracted if that user manually volunteers to give it. While in an “opt out” system users must remove themselves from being censored, an “opt in” system gives those interested in participating a chance to and prevents those who do not want to participate the luxury of not being automatically enrolled [9]. As a result of the "opt-out" scheme, many feel that targeted advertising is a violation of privacy. Because of a general lack of knowledge concerning cookies, targeted advertising's good intentions seem like unwanted censorship. Those who hold this position maintain that targeted advertising is an unethical practice within the framework of Computer Ethics. People feel they have a right to privacy online and that the apparent espionage by advertising companies violates that right.

The Amazon Story

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, was one of the first people to use the power of the Internet to collect information about people and use it to sell targeted products. The main goal of Amazon.com was to create a personalized store that would help readers find books and books find the right audience of readers.[10] Amazon.com introduced collaborative filtering, through which Amazon watched what types of books people were buying in addition to what similar people were buying, and used this information to make suggestions as to what types of books people might be interested in. As more people used the site to purchase books, the more personalized the site continued to be. As this filtering grew, Amazon used reverse tricks to get people to purchase books. Now, publishers can pay Amazon to promote their book in the site through this recommender system. It is nearly impossible for the user to tell if other objective users are suggesting a certain title or if the book has been promoted by Amazon software. People are now tricked by these targeted ads and may end up buying certain titles that are not at all relevant to their interests. In addition, Amazon.com stores all this collected data about the interests of readers and uses it in order to send them targeted emails.

Targeted Advertising to Children

Not only has targeted advertising been condemned for its alleged privacy violations, but it has also drawn much criticism form advertisers targeting children. Advertisers which target primarily children through their use of data aggregation on them have faced stiff social recourse [11]. In addition, advertisers have begun to use methods suggested by psychologists in order to better target children [12]. Consequently, numerous interest groups, parents, and lobbyists have united against targeted advertising, calling for it to be banned.

See also

Data aggregation and public information

Data Aggregation Online

References

  1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Targeted_advertising
  2. Stein, Joel. "Data Mining: How Companies Know Your Personal Information - TIME." Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com. Time Magazine, 10 Mar. 2011. Web. 06 Oct. 2011. <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2058205,00.html>.
  3. http://www.pr2.com/webads3.htm
  4. http://www.pr2.com/webads3.htm
  5. http://www.pr2.com/webads3.htm
  6. http://www.pr2.com/webads3.htm
  7. http://www.pr2.com/webads3.htm
  8. http://www.pr2.com/webads3.htm
  9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opt-out
  10. http://www.thefilterbubble.com/
  11. Nairn, Agnes, and Alexander Dew. "Pop-ups, Pop-unders, Banners and Buttons: The Ethics of Online Advertising to Primary School Children." Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice 9.1 (2007): 30-46. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing. 1 May 2007. Web. <http://www.palgrave-journals.com/dddmp/journal/v9/n1/full/4350076a.html>.
  12. Clay, Rebecca A. "Advertising to Children: Is It Ethical?" American Psychological Association 31.8 (2000). APA.org. Web. 7 Oct. 2011. <http://www.apa.org/monitor/sep00/advertising.aspx>.

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