Digital Advertising is a broad term used to describe the paid advertising that publishers put on their websites,mobile applications, and televisions to enable them to provide you content and services for free. Some digital advertising is tailored to your likely interests by companies promoting their products or services. This is known asInterest-Based Advertising (IBA)when it occurs across websites,Cross-App Advertising (CAA) when it occurs across apps, and Viewed Content Advertising (VCA) when it occurs on smart TVs and TV streaming devices.

With Tailored Advertising, NAI member companies help advertisers show relevant ads — matching ads with broad interest categories or groups like “male clothing shoppers ages 25-34” or “car buyers in Illinois.”

NAI members distinguish between visitors to a site and users of an app, assigning them to broad interest category groups using information such as the types of websites or apps visited. The goal is to allow advertisers to send ads to large number of browsers or apps that might be interested in a product. For NAI members, Tailored Advertisingisnot about you as an identifiedindividual.

Tailored Advertising make ads less annoying and irrelevant. Women are likely to see fewer ads about mens shaving products and younger people may see more ads about concerts than luxury cars. By getting rid of the ads that you are unlikely to care about, tailored creates a more interesting and customizedonline experience.

At the same time, you help support the content or service available on a website or app. According to onestudy, Interest-Based Ads can provide a website as much as 200% more in revenue over ads that are not based on users assumed interests. This especially benefits smaller publishers, who are more likely to rely entirely on ad revenue to support a free website or app. Tailored Advertisingplays an integral role in driving economic growth, encouraging competition among companies, and creating more diverse content.

Tailored Advertising helps support sites you visit so that you can enjoy free content from news to sports scores to recipes. At the same time, Tailored Advertisinghelps advertisers reach the right people for their product/services.

You, as a consumer, have several choices to control the collection and use of information about your web browsing activities. You are in the drivers seat.