There is a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. We looked at the kitchen sink mentality. Advertisers have branched out from one or two forms of behavioral targeting to test other methods, but they are operating behind walls with respect to each technique. The ability to coordinate multi-channel events implies that we can look outside the web to build profiles of our customers and prospects and then use those segments to better target people online. Creatively, behavioral targeting opens up the potential of uncontrolled costs and workload. But if you break down your targeting into palatable pieces -- say targeting three groups at a time with three creative strategies -- you won’t break your bank.

The disparate sources of data that we get from online behavioral targeting initiatives brings up the problem of being able to make an informed decision that leads to actions that produce results. But we can mitigate this if we use a common cookie that can be accessed by all of our targeting technologies in a uniformed manner.

First there was one form of behavioral targeting. Then there were several. Advertisers went from using one to several. Now they can tie them together and achieve a new holistic result with first-party cookies.