Behavioral Targeting: What It Is, How It Boosts Conversions

In todays competitive marketing environment, its crucial to ensure your messaging reaches your target audience. Understanding that audience is the first step toward crafting personalized messaging and delivering it in a way that encourages engagement. Using behavioral targeting, you can use a consumers online behavior to make more meaningful connections and get better results.

What Is Behavioral Targeting?

Behavioral targeting is a marketing technique that uses data about someones online behavior to deliver tailored advertisements. Tracked behaviors can include activities like:

• Website visits.
• Product views.
• Search queries.
• Purchase history.
• Ad clicks.
• Abandoned shopping carts.

With privacy restrictions making traditional tracking more complicated, advertisers have turned to newer technologies to target consumers. Predictive technology makes it easy to reach potential customers in real time, delivering the perfect creative based on the content theyre currently consuming. Best of all, no identity data or third-party cookies are required.

Its the closest thing marketing has to empathy at scale, says Elena Novikova, CEO and marketing strategist of Lumus Inc. Its not just about data its about patterns, pacing, and timing. Its the difference between showing someone an ad for something they already bought and showing them the exact variation they hesitated over three days ago. Its not built on assumptions like age or gender, its built on digital behavior: Where they clicked, how long they hovered, what they came back to, what they almost bought but didnt. Its marketing that listens before it speaks.

How Behavioral Targeting Works

Behavioral targeting is a multistep process that involves collecting data, analyzing that data, and using it in retargeting customers with relevant ads. The right tools are essential, and many of todays top solutions use the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to target users in real time.

Realize’s advanced AI capabilities enable precise targeting, engagement optimization, and budget simulation, maximizing advertiser ROI.” button_text=”Learn More” button_url=https://realize.com/advertise]

Here are the steps in the typical behavioral targeting journey:

1. Data Collection

Using cookies, pixels, and/or device identifiers, platforms gather information on website visits, product views, time spent on pages, click-throughs, and purchases. That information can be collected solely through your own website visits (first-party cookies), through third-party tracking cookies, or through pixels that send information directly to a server.

2. User Profiling

Once data has been collected, its time to get to work. Platforms gather data on individual users to create a user profile. Those profiles typically reflect a users interests, preferences, and engagement levels. Thanks to AI, todays tools can harness decades of data to match someone to similar users, giving them the ability to accurately predict behavior.

3. Audience Segmentation

Once profiles have been created, platforms segment users into buckets. Those buckets lump them together for marketing purposes. Categories can include:

• Cart abandoners.
• Frequent buyers.
• Price-sensitive shoppers.

Once segmented, businesses can market deliberately to groups of people rather than sending mass messages. You might reach out to cart abandoners with special offers, for instance, or offer VIP discounts to consumers whove shown long-term loyalty to your brand.

4. Ad Delivery

AI-powered advertising solutions can now deliver ads in a variety of formats, based on a consumers current activities and/or past behaviors. You can target consumers with carousel ads or videos, for example, to grab attention. These tools can even deliver the creative most likely to convert.

Why Is Behavioral Targeting Important?

Behavioral targeting provides benefits to both marketers and the audiences theyre targeting. Here are a few of the top reasons it matters:

Increases Ad Relevance

Generic ads can serve as white noise to many online users. Consumers are used to seeing ads everywhere they turn, so theyve become accustomed to tuning them out.

Behavioral targeting is the perfect antidote to ad fatigue. When users see ads that align with their interests, theyre more likely to pay attention and even click. That said, McKinnon Mitchell of McKinnon Marketing Method points out that relevance doesnt just capture new users its also a great way to ensure you keep the customers whove already interacted with your brand.

When customers feel understood and seen, they stick around, Mitchell says. Behavioral targeting helps you create moments of unexpected value, whether its a well-timed upsell, a thoughtful win-back email, or a reminder that their favorite product is back in stock. Youre not chasing loyalty, youre earning it with every behavior-informed interaction.

Boosts Conversion Rates

If youre paying for an ad, your top goal is to get conversions. You want consumers to click on your ad and make a purchase, sign up for your services, or, at the very least, learn more about your offerings. Top performance marketing platforms can target customers later in the buying journey to boost the chances of a conversion.

When your messaging, offers, and timing are based on actual behavior like past purchases, product views, or time spent on site youre not guessing, youre guiding, Mitchell says. Behavioral targeting lets you anticipate needs before the customer articulates them. The result? Less friction, fewer drop-offs, and a smoother path to purchase. Think of it as removing the maybe from their decision-making.

Reduces Wasted Spend

At one time, advertisers poured money into billboards and radio ads, hoping a percentage of the audience would take action. In todays digital marketplace, though, its possible to narrow your targeting to reach those consumers most likely to be interested in your products or services. Behavioral targeting can refine your efforts to bring a bigger return on ad spend (ROAS), especially if the tech tools youre using feature AI bidding assistants that optimize your campaigns in real time.

You don’t waste money on a large audience in the hopes that something will stick when you know who is interested based on clicks, views, or purchases, says Brian Akdemir, director of e-commerce at Bahdos. You spend your ad money on people who have already done something with your brand.

Supports Personalization at Scale

Segmenting audiences is key to delivering personalized messaging, but manual segmentation is tedious. Todays plug-and-play tools make setting up segmentation a breeze, and AI technology lets you segment users in real time based on both past and current activities.

Every customer feels like the message was made just for them, even though your automation is doing the heavy lifting, Mitchell says. Behavioral data fuels dynamic content blocks, product carousels, and tailored messaging across platforms. One campaign, infinite variations built to adapt in real time to what each individual user is doing (or not doing). Thats personalization without the burnout.

Types of Behavioral Targeting

Behavioral targeting comes in a variety of flavors, each with its own unique benefits. They include:

Retargeting

A customer visits your site multiple times, always viewing the same product. This shows a clear interest in that product, even if the visit doesnt result in a purchase. You can use behavior-based targeting to continue marketing to that potential customer in the days and weeks that follow, potentially bringing them back to click the buy button.

Purchase-Based Targeting

Behavioral targeting can also be used to encourage past purchasers to come back for more. You can target past buyers with similar products, or sales on accessories to complement items theyve already bought from you. This type of targeting can be even more powerful when you use tools that build in predictive AI to anticipate what product a past purchaser is likely to buy next.

Engagement-Based Targeting

This type of targeting starts when a customer engages with your content, whether through viewing one of your videos, clicking on a link in an email, or visiting your site after seeing an ad. You can gather information on these users and segment them to craft ads that target them. AI-powered tools can even deliver ads in real time that are geared toward re-engaging those users.

Predictive Targeting

Rather than delivering ads based just on a users past behaviors, predictive targeting presents ads based on actions a user is likely to take in the near future. AI and machine learning are used to anticipate someones behavior and take basic retargeting to the next level.

What Behaviors to Track To Build High-Intent Audiences

Targeting high-intent audiences is a great way to make the most of your ad spend. Here are some behaviors to track if your goal is conversion:

Page Views and Time on Site

How long is each customer hanging out on your site? Which pages tend to get the most view time? Long visits to product pages can signal purchase intent. Repeat visits to a product page can also show a consumer is considering adding something to their shopping cart. Platforms with built-in predictive analytics can target these hot prospects and deliver offers in real time.

Search Queries

For years, advertisers have used search behaviors to target potential customers, but AI-powered tools can push this to the next level. Using someones online search queries, these tools can target them based on what theyre interested in right now.

Add-to-Cart Actions

Adding something to a shopping cart is a clear sign of interest. Solutions that specialize in either mid- or bottom-funnel performance can help you identify add-to-cart actions in real time and deliver offers designed to either ensure conversion, or upsell the user on related products.

Cart Abandonment

Have you ever added something to your cart and delayed purchasing, only to get an email later? Thats behavioral targeting at work. Email isnt the only way to target cart abandoners, though: You can also use AI-powered tools to create targeted offers to cart abandoners after they leave your site.

Past Purchases

Your previous customers are ideal targets for your marketing efforts: Theyve already shown an interest in your products and, assuming theyre happy with their purchases, theyre primed to become brand loyalists. Using the latest tools, you can identify those customers and work to sell them on complementary products.

Click Paths and Funnel Drop-Offs

Where are users drifting away? Top tools can extract patterns from your website visits to identify pain points. You can then address those pain points to find ways to boost the number of customers continuing on their journey with you.

How To Create Behavioral Segments for a Lead-Gen Campaign

Product sales arent the only reason to segment customers for behavioral targeting purposes. The following segmentation steps can help you gather leads for sales team follow-up or ongoing marketing purposes:

1. Define Your Funnel Stages

To get started, separate your target audience into the three major funnel stages:

• Top of funnel (TOFU): These users are at the early stages of engaging with your brand. They might include blog readers, first-time website visitors, or ad clickers.
• Middle of funnel (MOFU): Slightly further along in the journey are these users. Webinar attendees, whitepaper downloaders, and landing page visitors typically fall in this category.
• Bottom of funnel (BOFU): These users are closest to converting. They might include product demo requestors and pricing page viewers.

2. Choose the Behaviors You Want to Track

Once youve identified who youll be tracking, its time to look at the behaviors youll aim to track. Here are some common lead-gen behaviors to get you started:

• Time spent on certain pages.
• Repeat visits to specific content.
• Abandoning a lead form after starting it.
• Downloading gated assets.
• Clicking calls to action (CTAs) but not converting.

3. Create Segments Based on Behavior Patterns

Once youve chosen your behaviors, you can look at specific behavior patterns to target. They might include:

• Someone who visited a product page more than three times or stayed longer than two minutes.
• Someone who began completing a lead-gen form but abandoned it midway.
• Someone who conducted a combination of intent-signaling behaviors for example, viewing a product demo, then visiting your pricing page.

4. Align Your Creative and Brand Messaging

It takes a little extra time, but for best results, make unique creative and brand messaging to match each segments place in the funnel. If someone is engaged but not converting, you can serve content that builds trust, such as case studies. For form abandoners, a more simplified signup could get results. You can also consider more urgent messaging, such as referencing limited-time offers. Limited-time offers can also work well for those who viewed your pricing, but didnt act.

5. Continuously Optimize With AI and Data Feedback

As you gather data, tweak your campaigns to match the results youre seeing. This includes adding new filters and testing different creatives. You can also use AI-powered tools for suggestions on how to expand or suppress your audiences for better results.

How To Use Behavioral Targeting To Increase Conversions

If conversions are your goal, whether in the form of subscriptions, signups, or purchases, youll need to adjust your strategy to match. Here are some steps to boost your conversions using behavioral targeting:

1. Segment Users Based on Intent Levels

Normally, audiences are separated into cold, warm, and hot leads, but with behavioral targeting, youre specifically looking at users who are further along in the funnel. Divide your users into these segments:

• Warm prospects: These are users whove engaged with your content at some point but havent taken action yet.
• Hot leads: Consumers in this category have viewed your pricing information or requested more information.
• Cart/form abandoners: Users in this category are already partway to finalizing a purchase.

2. Deliver Behavior-Specific Creatives

Now that youve defined user behaviors and segmented them, its time to make ads that speak to each type of user. Customize messaging to match what each segment has shown an interest in:

• Warm prospects: Offer social proof or reinforce your brands value proposition.
• Hot leads: Suggest a product demo or extend a special offer as an incentive.
• Cart/form abandoners: Remind them of the action they didnt complete. Consider extending a special offer as an incentive.

3. Use AI to Continuously Improve Performance

With AI-powered tools, you can monitor your targeting efforts so that you can learn and improve moving forward. AI can monitor your targeting and determine which messaging and ad creatives work best for each segment. Predictive analytics can adjust your bids in real time and deliver the ads that are most likely to convert. If some of your campaigns start to show signs of ad fatigue, machine learning can identify the issue and suppress those ads in favor of others that are more likely to get attention.

Behavioral Targeting vs. Contextual Targeting: Which to Choose?

Contextual Targeting

With contextual targeting, ads are delivered based on the surrounding content on the webpage, rather than specific actions someone has taken in the past.

Behavioral Targeting

Behavioral targeting uses someones website visits, clicks, and purchase history to personalize ads. Since behavioral targeting requires gathering consumer data, it can bring privacy concerns.

Which Is Better?

Both contextual and behavioral targeting have their places, so its important that businesses know when to use each type. If youre trying to nudge bottom-funnel users over the finish line, behavioral targeting is a better option. For MOFU and TOFU audiences, though, contextual targeting works better, particularly if youre concerned about privacy regulations. Todays top tech tools combine both approaches to make the biggest impact.

Behavioral Targeting vs. Demographic Targeting (Key Differences, and Which Is Better)

Behavioral Targeting

With behavioral targeting, a users online activities are considered when delivering ad messaging, e.g., a users browsing history or previous purchases may trigger ads. Todays solutions can deliver ads in real time based on factors like hovering, scroll time, or browse time.

Demographic Targeting

Simply put, demographic targeting is based on a users identity. Factors like age, gender, and income are gathered and used to deliver targeted ads. This approach not only creates privacy concerns, but it can also be less effective than targeting a consumer in real time based on current activities.

Which Is Better?

When it comes to conversions, behavioral targeting wins. It allows you to personalize campaigns and reach consumers based on their interests. Demographic targeting can still work well for awareness campaigns, but if you want to make the most of your ad spend, behavioral targeting is a better option.

Key Takeaways

Behavioral targeting allows marketers to create highly personalized ad experiences based on actions users have taken in the past. It improves ad relevance, which can boost conversions and reduce wasted spend. With todays AI-powered tools, brands can deliver ads contextually in real time, offering messaging relevant to a users current activity.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is an example of behavioral targeting?

The best example of behavioral targeting is seeing a dynamic ad for a product you looked at yesterday. The content youre visiting at that moment may have nothing to do with that product, but it draws your attention anyway because you were recently considering making a purchase.

The problem is that consumers have become very knowledgeable of how marketers are showing them things, and there is now an expectation that if they look at a product, the product is going to show up in their feed everywhere, Mitchell says. So the art in this is using data and understanding human behavior to plan out exactly how you follow them with messaging/offers. That takes some trial and error to find the perfect mix.

What are examples of behavioral targeting in e-commerce?

E-commerce provides a prime opportunity for behavioral targeting. Some examples of behavioral targeting in e-commerce are:

• Retargeting cart abandoners with a discount offer.
• Suggesting items based on a persons shopping history.
• Issuing a special offer after a user spends a certain amount of time on your website.

In e-commerce, behavioral targeting is the backbone of personalization, Novikova says. Dynamic product recommendations that evolve with each click, homepage layouts that change based on previous browsing, triggered flows that send a discount only to users who viewed a product three times but didnt add to the cart, or post-purchase follow-ups that dont just say thank you, but anticipate what the user might want next. The payoff? Relevance. And relevance is what separates good marketing from ignored marketing.

What are the benefits of behavioral targeting?

Consumers are bombarded with ads throughout the day. Without targeting, you run the risk of being ignored. However, when ads are relevant to the person seeing them, theyre more likely to pay attention. Some benefits of behavioral targeting are:

• Better targeting.
• Higher conversion rates.
• Reduced ad fatigue.
• Lower cost per acquisition.

The main benefit of behavioral targeting is that it leads to better conversion rates, says Paul DeMott, chief technology officer of Helium SEO. When you show people the right offers at the right time, theyre more likely to make a purchase. It also helps reduce wasted ad spend, since you’re not showing ads to people who aren’t interested. On top of that, it improves the overall user experience, because customers are seeing content and offers that actually matter to them. It’s a win for both the business and the customer.

How do I target users who abandoned their cart in the last 7 days?

The first step in targeting consumers who left items in a shopping cart on your site is tracking them. If you arent already doing this, dig into the features of your website and ad platform: Many offer reports geared toward helping you see exactly where customers are dropping off your site. Some ad tools even allow you to retarget users based on this criteria.

Mitchell offers this step-by-step guide to targeting cart abandoners:

1. Set up a cart abandonment segment using your CRM (customer relationship management), analytics tool, or ad platform.
2. Filter users who added items to their cart.
3. Exclude those who completed checkout.
4. Add a time constraint: Last seven days.
5. Trigger an automation: Email sequence, retargeting ad, or push notification. Bonus points if your message addresses why they mightve left price, uncertainty, or just shiny object syndrome.
6. Pro move: Add a dynamic coupon that expires in 24 hours to light a fire under their indecisive self. Whatever the reason they left, if you put a timeline on the product, the sense of urgency is heightened, and this sparks our innate “fear of missing out.”

How can I segment users based on browsing time or product views?

Like shopping cart abandonment rates, targeting website visitors by view time and browsing time starts with tracking. Youll need to set conditions like visited product page for more than 90 seconds or viewed more than three products in the same category. From there, you can use AI tools to target those users when it makes the most sense.

Analytics tools are your best friend here, Mitchell says, specifically mentioning Google Analytics, Klaviyo, and Meta Pixel. The better the tool, the better your segmentation will be, and the better your results will be.