The 24/7 Real Media SVP of media and technology presents charts and data to help educate marketers.

In September 2004, 24/7 Real Media brought behavioral to the forefront of online advertising with the launch of 24/7 OnTarget. During this time we have learned an enormous amount about what behavioral targeting can do, and how it will be used to achieve amazing advertising results in the future. However, before any of this happens, advertisers, media buyers and publishers will need to understand more about what behavioral targeting is, what it can do for an online campaign and how it can deliver better financial returns to both sides of the ad publishing transaction.

24/7 Real Media has continually worked to help educate publishers and advertisers while refining the taxonomies and methods used to create behavioral segments. Because of this, and increased ad volume, results for each behavioral targeting segment have become more predictable, so that advertisers are increasingly able to focus their ads on the audience that they want to reach rather than on content areas where they might (or might not) be found.

Today behavioral targeting is quickly settling into its rightful place as a powerful and accurate tool among a broad range of targeting options with its ability to deliver better return-on-investment and significantly increase CPMs for parts of the publishers' run-of-site inventory. The following information and charts highlight how behavioral targeting impressions by market distribution, eCPM for given segments, impression served, Click Through Rates (CTR) and market segment for impressions served are emerging to help educate and present a clearer picture for marketers and publishers who are seeking maximum ROI for their future campaigns.

Market distribution of behavioral targeting impressions served
The chart below highlights (in percentage terms) the distribution of impressions across the 24/7 Web Alliance on a quarterly basis. This shows how Run of Network (RON) increased the most in absolute terms, by increasing 50 percent. The number of behavioral targeting impressions grew much faster, with impressions tripling within the same period. In percentage terms, behavioral targeting more than doubled its share of a growing market and dramatically increased its share of the targeted sector (i.e., non-RON).

Next: eCPM segment trends, and trends in behavioral targeting impressions served