We Are Conditioned to Expect Serendipity Online
As we spend more time online we are increasingly seeing more behaviorally targeted (BT) ads. Publishers and ad networks strive towards the Holy Grail of delivering the right ad to the right person at the right time.
Here's why I think BT is our new reality and how it’s rewards us in a classic Pavlovian manner.
Most of us have goals. They may be long-term, lofty and strategic. Or, our goals may be short-term, tactical—seemingly inconsequential to the bigger picture, or achieving our longer-term goals. Goals give us something tangible to work towards. We can then incrementally measure our success by determining whether the things we do over a period of time are helping us achieve our goals: retirement by age 60, or even simply getting the laundry done over the weekend.
The goals we set are normally based on achieving something desirable, yet achievable. Maybe our goal is a bit of a stretch, but we believe it’s possible. The stretch part of the goal is the interesting part. All of the obvious, tactical, boring things necessary for reaching a goal are easy to identify. But what about the smaller, in-between steps we make without giving them much thought? Those in-between moments are often times where the most life-changing parts unfold.
"Life is what happens during the in-between moments."
Naturally, we learn from our past, what others have taught us, and so on. We mentally construct what amounts to an empirical model of how to go about achieving the things we want. We’re conditioning ourselves when we get what we want as a result of doing those things.
But all of us have experienced the consequences of the unexpected—things that happen for which we have no plan; things that either move us towards achieving our goal, or set us back. While these evens may occur sparsely and rapidly (i.e. a signature on a piece of paper, a split second in an intersection) they can have a mammoth impact.
Here’s where behavioral targeting (BT) fits in…
Given the fact that we are constantly taking subliminal mental inventory of our actions during the in-between moments, we’re creating habits, because we’ve learned to do things a certain way. And if we find ourselves in what we perceive as irrelevant situations we tend to get frustrated. But occasionally we get conditioned (think Pavlov) into accepting irrelevancy as potentially valuable. For example, we are in the midst of a seemingly random, irrelevant situation and something positive occurs. We may say we’ve "stumbled into" something. Or, we call it "serendipity." If you're a fatalist, you may call it fate.
Serendipity is why we’re willing to wander some, meet new people at an event, go to new places.
Digital advertising has taken advantage of this very human behavior. BT allows digital advertisers to place an ad in front of someone who fits a certain profile but who doesn’t necessarily have to be engaged in that demographic profile at the time the ad is delivered. For example, a person who has been thinking of buying a specific kind of car may go online to do something completely unrelated to buying the type of car they’re potentially interested in buying, yet they see an ad for that car. They’re seeing an ad that’s relevant to them, but irrelevant to what they’re doing on that site at that time.
I think BT still has a way to go, but it’s getting smarter every day. The more technology improves, and more advertisers who place ad units with BT, the more accurately the ad serving technology can deliver on BT. Display ads are becoming "smarter," or more relevant.
How does your business use display advertising? Are you using BT along with it? Does it work for you?
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