Online Ad Targeting Is Pretty Much Like Dating

It turns out that it’s pretty simple to understand what women want. All you have to do is ask them. Of course, you have to be listening and willing to put it into practice. Having been married for nearly 9 years, I’m no genius at dating; but there are some parallels here that even my feeble brain can pull out.

In March of this year, behavioral targeting company Q Interactive did just that when they surveyed 1,800 female Internet users about the practice of targeted advertising. It turns out that women are actually okay with it – to the extent that they view it positively and actually want more of it.

When faced with an online ad that was closely aligned with their interests or activities, only 11% thought it was “weird,” while nearly 66% thought it was “cool.” Admittedly, this is when faced with ads from trusted brands. There’s no indication how the respondents felt when such targeted happened from untrusted or unknown brands, however.

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