Despite an increase in the use of behavioral targeting in campaigns using digital video, traditional age-sex demographics remain important to marketers and media buying agencies, according to a study by Videology.
The study of 300 marketers, conducted by Advertiser Perceptions, found that when asked which methods they used to reach consumers with digital video campaigns, 59% of marketers said behavioral-based targeting and 55% said demo targeting.
Sales based targeting (46%) and contextual targeting (46%) were also popular with marketers.
Among agency execs, both demo targeting and behavior-based targeting were cited by 67% of those responding.
“Honing in on specific audience segments or behaviors can obviously bring huge value to many advertisers, but clearly reaching audiences based on age and gender targeting remains important to many others,” said Scott Ferber, founder and CEO of Videology. “Ironically, as the world of devices and audiences continues to fragment, it’s often necessary to choose a broader targeting criteria, such as age and gender, as a common metric to envelop all of the diverse audience bases that come with varying data segments.”
The study found that 73% of marketers agreed that as more TV content is viewed on digital channels, demo targeting and delivery will remain a key metric for evaluating cross-screen campaigns over the next 3-5 years.
Among agency execs, 67% agreed.
Nearly half of all survey respondents (45%) said they would consider the ability for ad technology to more accurately target audience-specific age/gender demographics for online video campaigns a “valuable advancement.”
“Our industry has been built on the age/gender metric. While we will continue to embrace new methodologies for targeting and measuring campaign success, many advertisers still find value in the traditional data options on which they built their brands,” Ferber said. “As a software provider, we must support their decisions, and find the most efficient and intelligent ways to deliver against an advertiser’s chosen metrics, whatever those metrics might be.”
