Audience Targeting- Key Indicator of Online Advertising Success: DIGIDAY/AudienceScience Survey Results

Advertisers and Agencies Who Employ Audience Targeting Have Doubled Their Projected Increases in Digital Display Spending for 2011; Publishers Who Leverage Audience Targeting Forecast an 86 Percent Hike in Display Ad Revenue

New York–May 5, 2011–Today, from the stage at DIGIDAY:TARGET, AudienceScience^®, a global online advertising technology company, will release findings from its "Audience Targeting: Mapping the Future Evolution of Audience Targeting and Data Management" survey, conducted in conjunction with DIGIDAY. The study reveals that most stakeholders in the digital advertising ecosystem will witness increased revenue or spending in the arena, and that audience targeting is among the main drivers of these gains.

The study canvassed more than 500 media executives from each of three key sectors in the digital marketing business: advertisers, agencies, and publishers. It found that 84.8 percent of agencies and 76.3 percent of all advertisers use audience targeting currently. Advertisers who employ audience targeting plan on increasing their digital ad budgets more than 72 percent in 2011 and agencies will spend nearly 66 percent more in 2011. These estimates are both double the increases projected for 2011 last May. Both respondent groups reported that the budget spikes are justified by the more effective results realized by audience targeting. The reason most often cited by advertisers and agencies for why audience targeting causes display ad budgets to increase is that it's "more effective so we can justify more of it." Agencies were more likely to say "better measurement impressed budget planners" than advertisers, while advertisers were more likely to appreciate the "greater reach in our target market."

"This survey represents a very important inflection point for audience targeting technology," says Marla Schimke, vice president of marketing, AudienceScience. "We are seeing direct correlation between the growth in display budgets and the use of audience targeting. This is clear and unshakeable evidence that audience targeting represents the core of effective online display campaigns. For advertisers and agencies, it is simply the most effective and efficient way to target your audience and for publishers, it consistently helps drive more revenue. At AudienceScience, we are proud to have created the technology that has helped drive the evolution of audience targeting and how advertising is bought and sold online."

Highlights of the survey:

• The difference between respondents' projections from last May and last month for 2011 spending on digital advertising is even more dramatic. For advertisers and agencies who target their online ads, and who projected that their budgets would increase this year, spending forecasts increased markedly -- by 209 percent for advertisers and 225 percent for agencies.
• Advertisers look to audience targeting to increase brand awareness. The majority of advertiser and agency respondents report that being able to measure set KPIs to determine target ad campaigns effectiveness was 'very important.' When asked to rank all KPIs for audience targeting, advertisers put "lift in brand awareness" first, followed closely by "lift in brand favorability."
• Publishers that employ targeting have seen a dramatic increase in display ad revenue. The average increase over 2010 for this group was 86 percent. That's a 45 percent gain from budget projections of last year.
• Audience targeting is expanding to new forms of digital media consumption such as the hot areas of mobile and streaming video.
  • 67 percent of publishers have offered in-stream video audience targeting
  • 72 percent have offered mobile audience targeting
  • 65 percent of advertisers and agencies have employed targeting for in-stream video
  • 62 percent of advertisers and agencies have employed targeting for mobile
• Behavioral Targeting is the most popular of all other kinds of Audience Targeting for advertisers, and falls just second for agencies after demographic targeting.

The complete results of the study are available at no charge. To receive your copy of the study, click here.