In today’s competitive marketing environment, it’s crucial to ensure your messaging reaches your target audience. Understanding that audience is the first step toward crafting personalized messaging and delivering it in a way that encourages engagement. Using behavioral targeting, you can use a consumer’s online behavior to make more meaningful connections and get better results.
What Is Behavioral Targeting?
Behavioral targeting is a marketing technique that uses data about someone’s online behavior to deliver tailored advertisements. Tracked behaviors can include activities like:
- Website visits.
- Product views.
- Search queries.
- Purchase history.
- Ad clicks.
- Abandoned shopping carts.
With privacy restrictions making traditional tracking more complicated, advertisers have turned to newer technologies to target consumers. Predictive technology makes it easy to reach potential customers in real time, delivering the perfect creative based on the content they’re currently consuming. Best of all, no identity data or third-party cookies are required.
“It’s the closest thing marketing has to empathy at scale,” says Elena Novikova, CEO and marketing strategist of Lumus Inc. “It’s not just about data — it’s about patterns, pacing, and timing. It’s the difference between showing someone an ad for something they already bought and showing them the exact variation they hesitated over three days ago. It’s not built on assumptions like age or gender, it’s built on digital behavior: Where they clicked, how long they hovered, what they came back to, what they almost bought but didn’t. It’s marketing that listens before it speaks.”
How Behavioral Targeting Works
Behavioral targeting is a multistep process that involves collecting data, analyzing that data, and using it in retargeting customers with relevant ads. The right tools are essential, and many of today’s top solutions use the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to target users in real time.
Realize’s advanced AI capabilities enable precise targeting, engagement optimization, and budget simulation, maximizing advertiser ROI.” button_text=”Learn More” button_url=https://www.taboola.com/advertise]
Here are the steps in the typical behavioral targeting journey:
1. Data Collection
Using cookies, pixels, and/or device identifiers, platforms gather information on website visits, product views, time spent on pages, click-throughs, and purchases. That information can be collected solely through your own website visits (first-party cookies), through third-party tracking cookies, or through pixels that send information directly to a server.
2. User Profiling
Once data has been collected, it’s time to get to work. Platforms gather data on individual users to create a user profile. Those profiles typically reflect a user’s interests, preferences, and engagement levels. Thanks to AI, today’s tools can harness decades of data to match someone to similar users, giving them the ability to accurately predict behavior.
3. Audience Segmentation
Once profiles have been created, platforms segment users into buckets. Those buckets lump them together for marketing purposes. Categories can include:
- Cart abandoners.
- Frequent buyers.
- Price-sensitive shoppers.
Once segmented, businesses can market deliberately to groups of people rather than sending mass messages. You might reach out to cart abandoners with special offers, for instance, or offer VIP discounts to consumers who’ve shown long-term loyalty to your brand.
4. Ad Delivery
AI-powered advertising solutions can now deliver ads in a variety of formats, based on a consumer’s current activities and/or past behaviors. You can target consumers with carousel ads or videos, for example, to grab attention. These tools can even deliver the creative most likely to convert.
Why Is Behavioral Targeting Important?
Behavioral targeting provides benefits to both marketers and the audiences they’re targeting. Here are a few of the top reasons it matters:
Increases Ad Relevance
Generic ads can serve as white noise to many online users. Consumers are used to seeing ads everywhere they turn, so they’ve become accustomed to tuning them out.
Behavioral targeting is the perfect antidote to ad fatigue. When users see ads that align with their interests, they’re more likely to pay attention and even click. That said, McKinnon Mitchell of McKinnon Marketing Method points out that relevance doesn’t just capture new users — it’s also a great way to ensure you keep the customers who’ve already interacted with your brand.
“When customers feel understood and seen, they stick around,” Mitchell says. “Behavioral targeting helps you create moments of unexpected value, whether it’s a well-timed upsell, a thoughtful win-back email, or a reminder that their favorite product is back in stock. You’re not chasing loyalty, you’re earning it with every behavior-informed interaction.”
Boosts Conversion Rates
If you’re paying for an ad, your top goal is to get conversions. You want consumers to click on your ad and make a purchase, sign up for your services, or, at the very least, learn more about your offerings. Top performance marketing platforms can target customers later in the buying journey to boost the chances of a conversion.
“When your messaging, offers, and timing are based on actual behavior — like past purchases, product views, or time spent on site — you’re not guessing, you’re guiding,” Mitchell says. “Behavioral targeting lets you anticipate needs before the customer articulates them. The result? Less friction, fewer drop-offs, and a smoother path to purchase. Think of it as removing the ‘maybe’ from their decision-making.”
Reduces Wasted Spend
At one time, advertisers poured money into billboards and radio ads, hoping a percentage of the audience would take action. In today’s digital marketplace, though, it’s possible to narrow your targeting to reach those consumers most likely to be interested in your products or services. Behavioral targeting can refine your efforts to bring a bigger return on ad spend (ROAS), especially if the tech tools you’re using feature AI bidding assistants that optimize your campaigns in real time.
“You don’t waste money on a large audience in the hopes that something will stick when you know who is interested based on clicks, views, or purchases,” says Brian Akdemir, director of e-commerce at Bahdos. “You spend your ad money on people who have already done something with your brand.”
Supports Personalization at Scale
Segmenting audiences is key to delivering personalized messaging, but manual segmentation is tedious. Today’s plug-and-play tools make setting up segmentation a breeze, and AI technology lets you segment users in real time based on both past and current activities.
“Every customer feels like the message was made just for them, even though your automation is doing the heavy lifting,” Mitchell says. “Behavioral data fuels dynamic content blocks, product carousels, and tailored messaging across platforms. One campaign, infinite variations — built to adapt in real time to what each individual user is doing (or not doing). That’s personalization without the burnout.”
Types of Behavioral Targeting
Behavioral targeting comes in a variety of flavors, each with its own unique benefits. They include:
Retargeting
A customer visits your site multiple times, always viewing the same product. This shows a clear interest in that product, even if the visit doesn’t result in a purchase. You can use behavior-based targeting to continue marketing to that potential customer in the days and weeks that follow, potentially bringing them back to click the buy button.
Purchase-Based Targeting
Behavioral targeting can also be used to encourage past purchasers to come back for more. You can target past buyers with similar products, or sales on accessories to complement items they’ve already bought from you. This type of targeting can be even more powerful when you use tools that build in predictive AI to anticipate what product a past purchaser is likely to buy next.
Engagement-Based Targeting
This type of targeting starts when a customer engages with your content, whether through viewing one of your videos, clicking on a link in an email, or visiting your site after seeing an ad. You can gather information on these users and segment them to craft ads that target them. AI-powered tools can even deliver ads in real time that are geared toward re-engaging those users.
Predictive Targeting
Rather than delivering ads based just on a user’s past behaviors, predictive targeting presents ads based on actions a user is likely to take in the near future. AI and machine learning are used to anticipate someone’s behavior and take basic retargeting to the next level.
What Behaviors to Track To Build High-Intent Audiences
Targeting high-intent audiences is a great way to make the most of your ad spend. Here are some behaviors to track if your goal is conversion:
Page Views and Time on Site
How long is each customer hanging out on your site? Which pages tend to get the most view time? Long visits to product pages can signal purchase intent. Repeat visits to a product page can also show a consumer is considering adding something to their shopping cart. Platforms with built-in predictive analytics can target these hot prospects and deliver offers in real time.
Search Queries
For years, advertisers have used search behaviors to target potential customers, but AI-powered tools can push this to the next level. Using someone’s online search queries, these tools can target them based on what they’re interested in right now.
Add-to-Cart Actions
Adding something to a shopping cart is a clear sign of interest. Solutions that specialize in either mid- or bottom-funnel performance can help you identify add-to-cart actions in real time and deliver offers designed to either ensure conversion, or upsell the user on related products.
Cart Abandonment
Have you ever added something to your cart and delayed purchasing, only to get an email later? That’s behavioral targeting at work. Email isn’t the only way to target cart abandoners, though: You can also use AI-powered tools to create targeted offers to cart abandoners after they leave your site.
Past Purchases
Your previous customers are ideal targets for your marketing efforts: They’ve already shown an interest in your products and, assuming they’re happy with their purchases, they’re primed to become brand loyalists. Using the latest tools, you can identify those customers and work to sell them on complementary products.
Click Paths and Funnel Drop-Offs
Where are users drifting away? Top tools can extract patterns from your website visits to identify pain points. You can then address those pain points to find ways to boost the number of customers continuing on their journey with you.
How To Create Behavioral Segments for a Lead-Gen Campaign
Product sales aren’t the only reason to segment customers for behavioral targeting purposes. The following segmentation steps can help you gather leads for sales team follow-up or ongoing marketing purposes:
1. Define Your Funnel Stages
To get started, separate your target audience into the three major funnel stages:
- Top of funnel (TOFU): These users are at the early stages of engaging with your brand. They might include blog readers, first-time website visitors, or ad clickers.
- Middle of funnel (MOFU): Slightly further along in the journey are these users. Webinar attendees, whitepaper downloaders, and landing page visitors typically fall in this category.
- Bottom of funnel (BOFU): These users are closest to converting. They might include product demo requestors and pricing page viewers.
2. Choose the Behaviors You Want to Track
Once you’ve identified who you’ll be tracking, it’s time to look at the behaviors you’ll aim to track. Here are some common lead-gen behaviors to get you started:
- Time spent on certain pages.
- Repeat visits to specific content.
- Abandoning a lead form after starting it.
- Downloading gated assets.
- Clicking calls to action (CTAs) but not converting.
3. Create Segments Based on Behavior Patterns
Once you’ve chosen your behaviors, you can look at specific behavior patterns to target. They might include:
- Someone who visited a product page more than three times or stayed longer than two minutes.
- Someone who began completing a lead-gen form but abandoned it midway.
- Someone who conducted a combination of intent-signaling behaviors — for example, viewing a product demo, then visiting your pricing page.
4. Align Your Creative and Brand Messaging
It takes a little extra time, but for best results, make unique creative and brand messaging to match each segment’s place in the funnel. If someone is engaged but not converting, you can serve content that builds trust, such as case studies. For form abandoners, a more simplified signup could get results. You can also consider more urgent messaging, such as referencing limited-time offers. Limited-time offers can also work well for those who viewed your pricing, but didn’t act.
5. Continuously Optimize With AI and Data Feedback
As you gather data, tweak your campaigns to match the results you’re seeing. This includes adding new filters and testing different creatives. You can also use AI-powered tools for suggestions on how to expand or suppress your audiences for better results.
How To Use Behavioral Targeting To Increase Conversions
If conversions are your goal, whether in the form of subscriptions, signups, or purchases, you’ll need to adjust your strategy to match. Here are some steps to boost your conversions using behavioral targeting:
1. Segment Users Based on Intent Levels
Normally, audiences are separated into cold, warm, and hot leads, but with behavioral targeting, you’re specifically looking at users who are further along in the funnel. Divide your users into these segments:
- Warm prospects: These are users who’ve engaged with your content at some point but haven’t taken action yet.
- Hot leads: Consumers in this category have viewed your pricing information or requested more information.
- Cart/form abandoners: Users in this category are already partway to finalizing a purchase.
2. Deliver Behavior-Specific Creatives
Now that you’ve defined user behaviors and segmented them, it’s time to make ads that speak to each type of user. Customize messaging to match what each segment has shown an interest in:
- Warm prospects: Offer social proof or reinforce your brand’s value proposition.
- Hot leads: Suggest a product demo or extend a special offer as an incentive.
- Cart/form abandoners: Remind them of the action they didn’t complete. Consider extending a special offer as an incentive.
3. Use AI to Continuously Improve Performance
With AI-powered tools, you can monitor your targeting efforts so that you can learn and improve moving forward. AI can monitor your targeting and determine which messaging and ad creatives work best for each segment. Predictive analytics can adjust your bids in real time and deliver the ads that are most likely to convert. If some of your campaigns start to show signs of ad fatigue, machine learning can identify the issue and suppress those ads in favor of others that are more likely to get attention.
Behavioral Targeting vs. Contextual Targeting (Key Differences, and Which Is Better)
Contextual Targeting
With contextual targeting, ads are delivered based on the surrounding content on the webpage, rather than specific actions someone has taken in the past.
Behavioral Targeting
Behavioral targeting uses someone’s website visits, clicks, and purchase history to personalize ads. Since behavioral targeting requires gathering consumer data, it can bring privacy concerns.
Which Is Better?
Both contextual and behavioral targeting have their places, so it’s important that businesses know when to use each type. If you’re trying to nudge bottom-funnel users over the finish line, behavioral targeting is a better option. For MOFU and TOFU audiences, though, contextual targeting works better, particularly if you’re concerned about privacy regulations. Today’s top tech tools combine both approaches to make the biggest impact.
Behavioral Targeting vs. Demographic Targeting (Key Differences, and Which Is Better)
Behavioral Targeting
With behavioral targeting, a user’s online activities are considered when delivering ad messaging, e.g., a user’s browsing history or previous purchases may trigger ads. Today’s solutions can deliver ads in real time based on factors like hovering, scroll time, or browse time.
Demographic Targeting
Simply put, demographic targeting is based on a user’s identity. Factors like age, gender, and income are gathered and used to deliver targeted ads. This approach not only creates privacy concerns, but it can also be less effective than targeting a consumer in real time based on current activities.
Which Is Better?
When it comes to conversions, behavioral targeting wins. It allows you to personalize campaigns and reach consumers based on their interests. Demographic targeting can still work well for awareness campaigns, but if you want to make the most of your ad spend, behavioral targeting is a better option.
Key Takeaways
Behavioral targeting allows marketers to create highly personalized ad experiences based on actions users have taken in the past. It improves ad relevance, which can boost conversions and reduce wasted spend. With today’s AI-powered tools, brands can deliver ads contextually in real time, offering messaging relevant to a user’s current activity.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is an example of behavioral targeting?
The best example of behavioral targeting is seeing a dynamic ad for a product you looked at yesterday. The content you’re visiting at that moment may have nothing to do with that product, but it draws your attention anyway because you were recently considering making a purchase.
“The problem is that consumers have become very knowledgeable of how marketers are showing them things, and there is now an expectation that if they look at a product, the product is going to show up in their feed everywhere,” Mitchell says. “So the art in this is using data and understanding human behavior to plan out exactly how you follow them with messaging/offers. That takes some trial and error to find the perfect mix.”
What are examples of behavioral targeting in e-commerce?
E-commerce provides a prime opportunity for behavioral targeting. Some examples of behavioral targeting in e-commerce are:
- Retargeting cart abandoners with a discount offer.
- Suggesting items based on a person’s shopping history.
- Issuing a special offer after a user spends a certain amount of time on your website.
“In e-commerce, behavioral targeting is the backbone of personalization,” Novikova says. “Dynamic product recommendations that evolve with each click, homepage layouts that change based on previous browsing, triggered flows that send a discount only to users who viewed a product three times but didn’t add to the cart, or post-purchase follow-ups that don’t just say ‘thank you,’ but anticipate what the user might want next. The payoff? Relevance. And relevance is what separates good marketing from ignored marketing.”
What are the benefits of behavioral targeting?
Consumers are bombarded with ads throughout the day. Without targeting, you run the risk of being ignored. However, when ads are relevant to the person seeing them, they’re more likely to pay attention. Some benefits of behavioral targeting are:
- Better targeting.
- Higher conversion rates.
- Reduced ad fatigue.
- Lower cost per acquisition.
“The main benefit of behavioral targeting is that it leads to better conversion rates,” says Paul DeMott, chief technology officer of Helium SEO. “When you show people the right offers at the right time, they’re more likely to make a purchase. It also helps reduce wasted ad spend, since you’re not showing ads to people who aren’t interested. On top of that, it improves the overall user experience, because customers are seeing content and offers that actually matter to them. It’s a win for both the business and the customer.”
How do I target users who abandoned their cart in the last 7 days?
The first step in targeting consumers who left items in a shopping cart on your site is tracking them. If you aren’t already doing this, dig into the features of your website and ad platform: Many offer reports geared toward helping you see exactly where customers are dropping off your site. Some ad tools even allow you to retarget users based on this criteria.
Mitchell offers this step-by-step guide to targeting cart abandoners:
- Set up a cart abandonment segment using your CRM (customer relationship management), analytics tool, or ad platform.
- Filter users who added items to their cart.
- Exclude those who completed checkout.
- Add a time constraint: Last seven days.
- Trigger an automation: Email sequence, retargeting ad, or push notification. Bonus points if your message addresses why they might’ve left — price, uncertainty, or just “shiny object syndrome.”
- Pro move: Add a dynamic coupon that expires in 24 hours to light a fire under their indecisive self. Whatever the reason they left, if you put a timeline on the product, the sense of urgency is heightened, and this sparks our innate “fear of missing out.”
How can I segment users based on browsing time or product views?
Like shopping cart abandonment rates, targeting website visitors by view time and browsing time starts with tracking. You’ll need to set conditions like “visited product page for more than 90 seconds” or “viewed more than three products in the same category.” From there, you can use AI tools to target those users when it makes the most sense.
“Analytics tools are your best friend here,” Mitchell says, specifically mentioning Google Analytics, Klaviyo, and Meta Pixel. “The better the tool, the better your segmentation will be, and the better your results will be.”
