Contextual advertising is having a renaissance in mobile marketing. As many iOS users opt-out of tracking and mobile marketers look for new ways to target the right users, contextual ads have risen back to prominence.
Behavioral targeting has been the dominant marketing strategy in mobile in recent years. However, with new privacy laws and regulations, such as the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, in-app behavioral data has become more difficult to obtain.
So, in the absence of that behavioral data on mobile, savvy marketers are now turning back to the tried and true method of contextual advertising. In fact, research shows that the global contextual advertising market is set to reach $335.1 billion by 2026.
With the new shifts in user privacy, it’s critical mobile marketers and user acquisition managers put this strategy into their marketing toolkit.
Contextual advertising is an automated process utilizing algorithms to match an advertisement with relevant content in an app or webpage. For instance, a cryptocurrency exchange platform can target users by placing an ad in a fintech app, or a food delivery app might choose to run ads in the Pinterest app to people searching for recipes. Contextual advertising can also be used for cross-selling, such as running an ad for a game in a similar game.
Behavioral targeting tracks users' behavior and serves ads according to their browsing history. This method has allowed marketers to deliver increasingly personalized ads. For example, a user views the latest pair of Nike shoes on their phone. Then, the user sees a Nike shoe ad on social media, later on, a news app, and still later, in a gaming app. In behavioral targeting, the ad is specifically for the user and not for the environment in which the ad is viewed.
In contrast, a contextual ad is based on the environment, the “context” in which it appears. In this case, a Nike shoe ad may only be seen if the user is in a fitness app or shopping app. The ad will not pop up in other places unrelated to shoes, like in behavioral targeting.
