ValueClick Media has released Precision BT, a new behavioral targeting suite for online advertisers.
Precision BT’s Precision Profiles tool uses the databases of ValueClick and its clients to fuel algorithms that determine the likelihood that an online consumer will behave a certain way or be interested in a certain offer. Consumers are segmented based on a variety of data and can belong to more than one segment at a time.
“ValueClick has amassed a critical mass of consumer information and is enriching these consumer profiles through relationships with custom third parties,” explained Joshua Koran, VP of targeting and optimization for ValueClick. “Precision BT takes in these inputs, applies meaning to them, and then, through predictive algorithm, guesses which visitors are in which interest segments. Then our ad server identifies the best context through which to reach those visitors.”
Data used in the Precision BT system has been gleaned from Web browsing, ad interaction, searches and online shopping, but ValueClick maintains a strict stance against gathering personally identifiable information (PII), such as names, e-mail addresses and phone numbers.
The behavioral targeting tool in the Precision BT suite is an update of ValueClick’s Precision Retargeting offer, available since 2005. This piece identifies ValueClick network visitors that have shown sales potential in the past, and then serves targeted messages to promising prospects. ValueClick plans to add more behavioral targeting tools to the suite next year.
Koran said that Precision BT differs from other behavioral targeting tools because marketers’ needs are built into its segmenting rules.
“We start with the marketer’s goal in mind and look back at the information we have access to,” he said. “Visitors to a site are assigned to segments based on the likelihood that they will do the things the marketer wants, whether the marketer is looking for conversions or something else. That’s different than grouping people based solely on historical activity, without the behavioral algorithm that is looking for these good events.”
Another difference Koran pointed out is Precision BT’s flexibility, which allows the system to work with clients’ data in their original format.
