A couple of weeks ago I spoke to Pete Barlas for an article he was writing on the future of behavioral targeting in the search world. The basic concept behind behavioral targeting search is to show you ads based on your previous search history (what you like and don’t like) so that there is a better chance of you clicking on that ad.
“If you were online searching for a car, the next time you were online you would see ads for car loans and auto dealers served up to you automatically,” said Chris Winfield, president of Web marketing firm 10e20.
My friend Frank Watson is quite passionate about this subject and I asked Pete to also speak with him. Frank’s thoughts are in the article:
Advertisers such as Forex Capital Markets are testing behavioral targeting. The global currency trading firm devotes half its online ad budget to display ads, and it’s looking for any edge to reach customers, says Frank Watson, Forex’s director of search marketing. “We test everything; that’s the only way you stay in front,” he said. “It’s another way to reach out to the demographic that we want.”
If you’re interested in learning more about this, you can read the full article online here or Frank’s post on the Search Engine Watch blog here.
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It sounds like this would require a web user to submit to being tracked by an advertising company. It also sounds like something that would only be used on a search engines owned portal site because advertising on a website should be geared towards the content. i.e. a golf site should have golf ads not car ads even if the person was recently looking at a car site.
Hey Steve -
Yep – good points. Its more based on when you’re signed into a search engine (such as your Google account or Microsoft Passport).
Yea, this will be very good, because at the moment all this adwords marketers are bombing people with wrong ads.
Excellent article, I enjoy every article I read here. Thanks,
and keep bloggin!