A problem inherent to many of the ways behavioral marketing can be executed is that when looking at a single-site application, there is the potential for slices of the audience to get too small.
If I refine my behavioral profile too finely, based on too many discrete characteristics, then I run the risk of creating a micro-niche that is too small to yield enough customers to sustain a business. While narrowing the targeting focus of your advertising might help to find potential customers efficiently, it might not get those potential customers together in large enough groups in a reasonable enough amount of time to build a business.
Efficiency is always a necessary objective to have when executing a media and marketing plan, but it is hardly sufficient on its own.
Volumetric considerations, too, must be taken into account. In this age of a person's media engagements consisting primarily of time spent at an individual's "passion place," the resulting landscape of micro-niches makes getting the mass required for meeting a volumetric goal a lot more challenging.
TACODA, a provider of behavioral targeting technologies and a behaviorally targeted ad network, points out that increased targeting can be a hindrance because it can limit the growth of your market share.
For example, Tacoda had an airlines advertiser that wanted to reach people only interested in air travel. "That's smart if they need to sell tickets right away, but since so many airlines all use the same messages of 'low fares,' and travelers now comparison shop for fares, they are only getting people to choose them on price," says Anne Hunter, vice president, data and analytics.
A good strategy to complement many airline buys is to expand the audience to business travelers and family travel planners, and then show them the benefits of your airline.
"Surprisingly few airlines buy larger audiences like this, and instead they are just ratcheting up the competition and rates in the same segments with the same types of offers," Hunter points out.
By focusing only on those who already like what you have to offer, you can never grow your prospective audience.