November 26, 2010 | Written by Dusty Dean
How does it work?
You begin by tagging your targeted pages with their small JavaScript code. The recommended place for this tag is immediately following the TITLE tag on each page.Once your pages are properly tagged you can begin familiarizing yourself with the BTBuckets system of “buckets” and “targets”. Buckets and targets are always connected to each other.Buckets are where you store and classify visitor behaviors, and targets are descriptions of the actions performed once a visitor meets the bucket criteria.What are some examples?
The exciting part of BTBuckets and behavioral targeting is that you can create your own custom buckets and targets to meet your unique business needs.Some of the default buckets included with the service are:Social Media – Users who arrived on your site by clicking in a link on one of the major social websitesReturning Visitor – Users who have visited your site in the past and are returning to your site for another visitNew Visitor – Users who are visiting your website for the first timeSearch – Users who arrived on your site from a search engineHow is privacy addressed?
They use first-party cookies to track users and have established a universal opt-out form for users who request to not be tracked.Additionally, websites using this service should update their privacy policy and inform their users of the use of behavioral targeting and offer them a link to the opt-out form.Will it integrate?
Absolutely. In fact, it integrates with AdWords, Google Analytics, Facebook, Google Website Optimizer, Twitter, OpenX, WordPress and YouTube.Should you consider it?
It depends. We are confident that behavioral targeting strategies will become more prevalent and essential as Web marketing continues to evolve and mature.Game changers such as Google Analytics, Google Website Optimizer and the many website optimizer start-ups continue to rapidly advance Web marketing.However, it’s important to consider where you are in your optimization and analytics strategy before adding layers of more advanced segmentation and behavioral analysis.As always, we recommend carefully analyzing your website trends over time, do strategic A/B or multivariate testing, then finally consider behavioral targeting of your visitor segments.Photo: Screenshot taken from BTBuckets. November 26, 2010 | Written by Dusty Dean