Targeting strategies for targeted advertising with maximum success

How do you reach the right target group in a post-cookie world and make online campaigns a success? And what works best for this: contextual targeting, first- or third-party targeting? We got to the bottom of these questions in a case study centred around our in-house product "Der Kopfhörer".

For our analysis, we used Burda Forward's innovative "Sugarless" targeting solutions and compared them with previous targeting using third-party data. "Sugarless Contextual" is Burda Forward's strategy for contextual targeting. The use of advanced AI techniques makes it possible to contextually categorise all published content on BurdaForward in real time - without any tracking or cookies. It also fulfils the OVK Contextual Standard, setting the benchmark for compliance and data security. With "Sugarless Audience", target groups are formed according to interests and behaviour on the basis of first-party data: precise, data protection-compliant and future-proof.

Targeting Best Case „Der Kopfhörer“ 

For one month, we ran a display campaign for the BurdaForward headphones on all of our online portals. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the targeting strategies along the marketing funnel, we carried out advertising impact measurements. The findings speak for themselves: "Sugarless Contextual" can increase purchase intent above average and is not only significantly more effective than campaigns without targeting, but even more effective than targeting with first and third-party data: Purchase intent for the headphones increased by 28 per cent compared to targeting without targeting.  

The "Sugarless Audience" targeting with first-party data shifted the focus from the context of the page to the actual users. For our test campaign, the headphones were shown to selected users who were interested in the topic. Brand awareness for "The Headphones" was 26 per cent higher after the campaign than in the group without targeting. In contrast, general third-party targeting solutions show significantly less impact when targeting specific campaign content and target groups.

The key findings at a glance:

1. Performance and Activation 

Contextual targeting proved to be a powerful tool for activating potential buyers. It increased purchase intent above average and is particularly suitable for performance campaigns.

2. Branding and Awareness  

The BurdaForward solution for first-party data has proven to be particularly useful when it comes to drawing people's attention to a product and encouraging them to buy, as this form of targeting generates a very broad reach.

3. Cookieless convinces 

Customised first-party or "cookieless" solutions, which are tailored to the needs of customers and publishers, outperform standardised targeting approaches with third-party data.

You can read the entire study in our research section.  

We would be happy to tell you which solutions you can already use to successfully shape the cookieless future and how sugarless targeting can also make your campaigns more successful.

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