With the rapid growth of digital advertising channels, businesses face an increasingly difficult task in capturing consumer attention. Audiences are regularly exposed to messages across multiple platforms throughout the day, and can easily become desensitised to advertising tactics as a result.
Keeping offerings aligned with customer needs and interests is essential to reaching the right audience with highly personalised content. Behavioural targeting is one of the most effective ways to achieve this, enabling marketing campaigns to deliver solutions that genuinely resonate with consumers – at the right time and in the right context.
This article examines what behavioural targeting is and how marketers can apply it to their campaigns to strengthen engagement and improve conversions. Specifically, you’ll learn:
What is behavioural targeting?
Behavioural targeting is a digital marketing strategy that tracks and analyses user behaviour across online platforms to deliver personalised content, offers, and advertisements. Marketers can segment audiences based on shared behaviours and tailor their efforts by collecting and analysing data across digital channels. This data-driven approach gives marketers a clearer picture of user preferences, interests, and purchase intent – enabling them to create more relevant and engaging experiences.
How behavioural targeting works
Behavioural targeting typically encompasses a range of techniques and strategies:
Website engagement
Having invested the effort to attract visitors to a website, marketers naturally want to retain their attention and guide them towards a desired action, such as making a purchase.
Behavioural targeting enables marketers to personalise the user experience through assets such as pop-up promotions, ads, and links to related content. These should deliver genuine value to the consumer, grounded in the products, services, and information they have expressed an interest in.
Campaign engagement
Marketers can also analyse behaviour in the context of email campaigns, to understand which users open, click, or otherwise engage with their messaging. These findings can inform follow-up communications tailored to different target segments and buyer personas, with further targeting based on user actions.
By organising and segmenting email recipients according to their responsiveness to specific messages and the actions they take, marketers can effectively nurture active leads towards a purchase decision.
Purchase behaviour
Behavioural targeting is equally valuable when applied to existing customers. Customer marketing is a powerful means of expanding customer lifetime value by re-engaging consumers who have already demonstrated an interest in specific products or services.
Marketers can follow up purchases with messaging about similar or related products, based on what visitors have added to their baskets or previously bought. This is one of the most widely used forms of behavioural targeting, particularly for organisations with a significant ecommerce presence.
Retargeting
This approach involves displaying ads to users who have previously interacted with a website or product, reminding them of their interest and encouraging them to return. Retargeting is effective because repeated brand exposures are often needed before a purchase is made. The ‘Rule of Seven’ is a longstanding marketing principle that estimates how many times a prospective customer needs to see an ad before they buy. Intent data, which provides insights into user interests and purchase intent, is becoming increasingly important for optimising retargeting campaigns.
Predictive behavioural targeting
Machine learning algorithms are used to predict future user behaviour, enabling the delivery of personalised experiences based on anticipated needs and preferences.
Location-based targeting
This approach involves delivering targeted ads and content to users based on their location. It can be achieved through a range of methods, including:
- Geo-fencing: Creating a virtual perimeter around a defined area to target users within that location.
- Geo-targeting: Delivering location-based advertisements that also incorporate customer demographic information.
- Geo-conquesting: Deploying ads around a competitor’s location to attract their customers.
- Proximity marketing: Micro-digital targeting of an exact location or specific radius, such as 200 feet.
Applications of behavioural targeting
Behavioural targeting is a widely adopted strategy across industries, helping organisations strengthen marketing effectiveness and deepen customer engagement.
Ecommerce
Organisations draw on behavioural data to create personalised shopping experiences, recommending products based on browsing and purchase history. Targeted promotions help drive conversions by presenting consumers with relevant offers, while abandoned basket recovery strategies use personalised reminders to encourage customers to complete their purchases.
Example: If a customer searches for wireless headphones but doesn’t complete a purchase, an ecommerce company retargets them with personalised ads on social media or via email, offering discounts or showcasing top-rated alternatives.
Travel and hospitality
Travel industry companies use behavioural targeting to suggest destinations and experiences that match user interests. By analysing past searches and booking history, they can offer tailored travel packages and promotions that appeal to individual preferences. Targeted advertising based on travel behaviour further strengthens engagement, ensuring users receive relevant deals at the right time.
Example: If a user searches for flights to Paris, a travel agency sends an email featuring Paris hotel deals, discounted packages, and a reminder about ongoing flight promotions.
Financial services
Banks and financial institutions apply behavioural targeting to promote financial products tailored to individual needs. By analysing spending habits and investment patterns, they can offer personalised financial guidance and product recommendations. Behavioural tracking also helps detect and prevent fraudulent activity, strengthening security and trust for customers.
Example: If a user who always logs in from New York suddenly makes a high-value transaction from Russia, a financial institution flags the activity, sends a security alert, and requires additional verification.
Healthcare
Within the healthcare sector, behavioural targeting supports the delivery of personalised health information, ensuring patients receive relevant medical advice and service recommendations. This approach also promotes wellness programmes and encourages healthy behaviours through tailored engagement, ultimately supporting better health outcomes.
Example: If a patient regularly purchases allergy medication, a pharmacy emails them seasonal discounts on allergy relief products.
Technology
Technology companies, such as Apple, utilise behavioural data to refine their brand strategy and strengthen product development. By analysing user behaviour, they craft marketing messages that resonate with their audience and optimise customer experiences based on preferences and engagement patterns.
Example: If a user downloads a meditation app, they’ll receive recommendations for sleep tracking apps or wellness podcasts.
Marketing seasonal campaigns
Behavioural targeting plays a key role in seasonal marketing by identifying and engaging consumers who have previously interacted with a brand during key shopping periods. By analysing past behaviour, organisations can optimise their outreach for events such as Black Friday, Mother’s Day, and back-to-school shopping, ensuring campaigns reach the most receptive audiences and drive higher conversions.
Example: A customer who bought Pumpkin Spice Lattes last autumn receives a personalised push notification when the drink returns, along with a bonus rewards offer for early purchases.
Behavioural targeting vs. contextual targeting
While both behavioural targeting and contextual targeting aim to deliver relevant content and adverts, they differ in their individual approaches:
Behavioural targeting
Behavioural targeting focuses on individual user behaviour and past actions to personalise experiences. It draws on data such as browsing history, purchase history, and search queries to tailor content and offers.
Contextual targeting
Focuses on the content of a webpage or app to serve relevant adverts and offers. For instance, an advert for cooking knives might appear on a cookery blog.
Contextual targeting can be less effective than behavioural targeting, as it is not personalised based on a consumer’s actual behaviour patterns or interests. Combining contextual and behavioural targeting, however, can create a more powerful marketing strategy that draws on the strengths of both approaches.
