Have you ever had the eerie sensation of the internet reading your mind? You browse for a new pair of shoes, and suddenly, every website you visit bombards you with ads for that pair. Coincidence? Hardly. Welcome to the world of behavioural retargeting, where your online actions are the breadcrumbs leading advertisers straight to you. “We tailor our targeting to reach specific audiences by analysing interests, behaviours, past interactions, and purchase history. Our ad strategy focuses on both attracting new customers and retaining existing ones. We use tools like Meta Suite and Google Ads to segment audiences and optimise communication, ensuring that our message reaches each group. This method allows us to make data-driven decisions that improve the success of our marketing and overall engagement,” Mihir Jain, sales and marketing director, Insight Cosmetics, told BrandWagon Online.
Suspect 1: Cookies
It all starts innocuously enough. You visit a website, perhaps eyeing those sleek sneakers. Unbeknownst to you, that site plants a tiny data file in your browser called a cookie. This isn’t the chocolate chip kind; it’s more like a digital Post-it note that says, ‘This user showed interest in sneakers.’ As you continue your online journey, this cookie whispers your past behaviour to advertising networks, allowing them to serve you ads related to your previous interests. Furthermore, 70% of online shoppers are likely to abandon their carts, making them prime targets for retargeting campaigns, according to Statista, a market research firm.
Real-Time Bidding
The power behind these ads lies in Real-Time Bidding (RTB), a process that enables brands to bid for ad space on the websites you visit. This auction happens in milliseconds—faster than you can close the tab in frustration. But why invest so heavily in chasing potential customers? Because it works. Retargeting ads boast a 10x higher click-through rate (CTR) than standard display ads, according to AdRoll. By serving ads to users who’ve already shown interest, brands increase their chances of converting browsers into buyers. After all, it’s easier to convince someone who’s already intrigued than to start from scratch.
However, the mechanics of retargeting are evolving. Third-party cookies—the backbone of this strategy—are walking on a thin rope, with Google’s on-and-off ‘situationship’ with these. With consumers questioning the extent of privacy being invaded by third-party cookies, companies are scrambling to develop cookie-less alternatives. Enter first-party data, where brands use insights collected directly from their own platforms, and contextual targeting, which places ads based on the content of the page rather than user behaviour. For example, a fitness blog might host ads for protein shakes, regardless of the reader’s cookie trail.
Consumers, meanwhile, are growing warier of being digitally tailed. 81% of Americans feel that they have little control over the data companies collect, as per a 2023 Pew Research study. “This privacy-conscious world no longer appreciates brands learning about them through such a “backdoor.” There’s probably an impact for businesses primarily selling advertising at a massive scale, but there are just a few such big players. The rest will benefit far more from a solid first-party strategy, which begins with having a good CDP,” Raahul Seshadri, director – Engineering, WebEngage, said. In response, regulators have stepped in with privacy laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP Act) in India. So, the next time you spot an ad for the blender you googled last week, remember it’s not your device spying—it’s martech doing its job. Whether you find it creepy or clever, retargeting ads are a testament to the digital age’s unmatched ability to merge technology, psychology, and commerce.
As the industry races towards a privacy-conscious future, one question will linger: Will ads still feel this personal, or will they finally give us some breathing room? For now, the only certainty is that your browsing history isn’t as private as you think.