As behavioural targeting leaps on in bounds here in the U.K., Jeremy Mason of Revenue Science digs into what makes the European BT market such a promising and fertile marketplace for advertisers.

As the digital revolution continues to evolve, we're seeing a model of online advertising that is running a marathon on one continent and now sprinting on another. Behavioural targeting has come a long way in the U.S. in the past four years, but the rapid growth across Europe (and even in South Africa), is proving that a technology can be seamlessly integrated at the local, national and international levels without batting an eye. The maturation of behavioural targeting in these places is not surprising when we break down the advancement of this technology.

Yesterday
The initial iteration of behavioural targeting came during the first wave of the dotcom era with simple cookie retargeting and segmentation. However, privacy and data ownership issues, young technology, an advertising market not able to support sophisticated online sales/buying systems and limited third-party oversight stunted the emergence of the most logical online advertising model -- targeting individuals rather than pages.

When the tech bubble burst in 2000-2001, advertisers and publishers both realised the necessity and importance of cleaning up these messes in order to push all targeting technologies forward. Search providers made enormous strides in targeting technology and, more importantly, the merging of third-party advertisers and marketing networks really helped the technology flourish in the U.S. 

Why is this brief history lesson important? As with any new technology, there have been some growing pains for behavioural targeting in the U.S. However, in Europe, behavioural targeting has matured at a faster rate, largely because the early hurdles behavioural targeting faced had already been jumped -- or bluntly put, stumbled past -- in the U.S.

With a little help from my friends
A major advantage that the European market has parlayed into behavioural targeting success is the clear identification of which categories behavioural targeting responds to the most positively, and then the clear understanding of how to make those categories successful. As in the U.S., the strongest categories in Europe are the financial, auto, travel and technology markets. Europe has picked up where the U.S. started and has aggressively targeted these markets. So, instead of figuring out which markets can best utilise behavioural targeting through trial and error, European advertisers and publishers have been able to jump in mid-stream and use the best practices already in play. These include using different recency and relevancy metrics, and engaging more closely with agencies to determine the best definitions.

However, Europe is far more than a mirror image of the U.S. As a point of reference, we see the market developing in its own distinct direction. For example, the U.K. has seen tremendous growth in categories like green/environmental issues, luxury, real estate and education. Agencies often have difficulty finding contextual placements for these categories, so behavioural targeting has become a valuable option. 

It won't be long
As with many innovative technologies, the early adopters pave the way for mass market penetration. The European market has had an easier time embracing the technology because over the past few years, the technology has gotten deeper and more sophisticated. For example, the basics of behavioural targeting technology -- from user interface to actual performance -- were more advanced from day one in Europe compared to the U.S. Also, the European market benefits from the addition of more advanced behavioural targeting techniques, such as audience segments with several different attributes. whereas the U.S. has had to grow into this thinking.

One example of Europe benefiting from a later start in the behavioural targeting space is how the quality newspaper sites in the U.K. rapidly implemented behavioural targeting within two years of its availability. This gave a common currency to agencies as they planned media buying across several different publishers. Agencies responded so well to these options that major broadcasters (Sky and Channel 4 for example) and magazine groups (Emap and Future as two examples) are now enabling behavioural targeting functionality. As a proof point of how well behavioural targeting has been adopted in the U.K., we have seen behavioural targeting growth developing faster in Europe than it did in the U.S. or Japan.

Across the universe 
So, where is behavioural targeting going next in Europe? Recently we have seen behavioural targeting successfully implemented in The Netherlands (with Telegraaf Media Groep), one of the largest media companies in Portugal (Cofina) is in implementation and a major publisher in the Scandinavian market is about to implement the technology. This expansion out across Europe into new markets is a direct result of the success seen in the U.K. and other markets and shows that behavioural targeting is just hitting its stride.

Agencies have responded so well to behavioural targeting due to top-tier publishers selling behavioural targeting properly. Agencies demand that audience quality is the main priority, and when publishers are transparent with the segment creation, everyone can get behind the opportunity. As premium inventory continues to get more and more constrained and as the number of campaigns online grows, we expect to see more behavioural targeting across all traditional and niche categories.

And in the not-too-distant future, we expect to see truly global behavioural targeting campaigns, with metrics to validate the use of this targeting platform. The evidence overseas is building, and we're witnessing how adverts are becoming more relevant not just for campaigns, but also for users without borders.

Tell me what you see 
The future is very bright indeed for behavioural targeting in Europe. I'd love to hear your thoughts on campaigns you've run, where you see the behavioural space heading and what we can do to make it as smooth and successful as possible for you.

Jeremy Mason is director of client services, Europe, at Revenue Science.