State of Audience Targeting Industry Study Finds 85 Percent of Agencies and Advertisers Currently Utilize Targeting; 50 Percent of Advertisers to Boost Spending on Audience Targeting in 2011

New York–December 21, 2010–AudienceScience® released the results of their biannual State of the Targeting Industry study, conducted in conjunction with DIGIDAY. The overall findings indicate that marketing decision makers at top brands have further embraced audience targeting as a vital component of their programs in recent months, a development that AudienceScience attributes to better education and a demonstrated positive effect on revenue.

Key findings include:

• 85 percent of agency and advertiser respondents use audience targeting.
• Nearly 50 percent of agencies and advertisers see spending on audience targeting to increase to over $500K in 2011.
• For 63 percent of publishers, audience targeting has demonstrably increased revenue.
• Over half of agency and advertiser respondents attribute their increased display budget to the effectiveness of audience targeting and the ability to better justify the advertising spend.
• Audience Targeting and Data Management Platforms have emerged as a major provider of these services that now rival ad networks and exchanges.
• Increasing transparency, quality data and usage rights, and potential third party validation of targets are seen as ways to improve upon audience targeting.

The previous installment of this study, conducted in May 2010, established that audience targeting had become a cornerstone of most online advertising campaigns. However, in just the six months since that study was conducted, new companies and technologies have emerged to drastically alter the landscape. With the growth of so many competing and overlapping platforms and services, there is market confusion over who does what and who can offer the solutions to best achieve marketers’ specific goals and needs. Agencies, advertisers and publishers alike demand the ability to trust their partners when it comes to data quality, privacy best practices and maximizing returns.

“Analysis of this study, along with the one conducted in May, indicates that audience targeting has entered the mainstream as an essential part of any successful marketing campaign,” said Marla Schimke, vice president of marketing, AudienceScience. “Spending on Audience Targeting continues to increase as advertisers, agencies and publishers all recognize the value of audience targeting as an effective channel. With Audience Targeting and Data Management platforms leading the way, the industry continues to improve the practice to make it less complex and more accessible to marketers, mitigating the confusion around disparate offerings. Companies like AudienceScience are developing new solutions like AudienceScience Connect™, our premier Media Transaction Platform and implementing practices that ensure transparency and data quality while offering brands the assurance of maximum returns that they require.”

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