A Vision for Personalized Advertising
Privacy and user control are very important to us here at AdRoll.This is a post that Adam and Aaron wrote for AdExchanger about a vision of how targeted ads can be a big benefit for web users:Dear Internet User,The Internet is great because it allows ideas and content to flow freely. You can hop from your custom Pandora radio station, to your bottomless Gmail account, to the Twitter feed of an historical liberation movement, to a casual game of “Words With Friends.” We’ve come to rely on these services and expect to access them for free, without paywalls or contracts.Advertising makes this possible. Advertising is the lubricant of the Internet.
Unfortunately, much of the advertising you’ve seen sucks. That’s because the first phase of online advertising was dominated by direct response marketing. Without robust targeting capabilities, advertisers developed an overreliance on obnoxious practices such as dancing aliens and obtrusive popups.
But ads can be much better. New technologies are enabling ads that are relevant, interesting and provide you value. These technologies can lead us into a new phase of online advertising, where marketing is effective because it’s personalized, not because it’s intrusive. However, the key to this new phase is that you, the user, must be in control.
To illustrate: remember how everyone used to hate email marketing? That’s changed. Now people liberally share their email addresses to access daily deals, sales, and last minute concert announcements. When they don’t want to receive email anymore, they unsubscribe. The rules are clear, abuses are more easily identified and addressed, and the system works well for both marketers and users.
The same systems can work in display advertising. You choose which brands you’re interested in and when to unsubscribe. Advertisers won’t know who you are personally, but they can be confident you are a person receptive to their message. With this confidence, advertisers help your favorite sites flourish by paying them more.
And you will be in the driver seat, with an inside track to products, services and specials that you want. This partnership between users and advertisers will ensure that information and content remain free, as they’re meant to be.
- AdRoll