Turn the Clock on Ad Targeting

Advertisers everywhere, rejoice! A more precise way for you to target consumers through social media has been released. LocalResponse has teamed up with Datasift – a social data platform – for historical intent targeting (HIT).

Historical intent targeting allows marketers to access social information from public networks, such as Twitter, Instagram and FourSquare. It can pull only from information that has been made publicly available. For example, a pin shared on Twitter is fair game.

LocalResponse says that although this targeting method is available for all advertisers, they are focusing more on the retail and entertainment industries for now. HIT offers the opportunity for marketers to send more relevant messages to consumers.

Those looking to advertise the up-coming DVD release of a movie, for instance, can go back and find all of the people who tweeted about seeing it in theaters. Entering into the holiday season, retailers can look at previous tweets to discover the most talked about shopping locations on Black Friday.

Another way in which HIT is helpful is in identifying the progression of the purchase path. If a user tweeted in 2010 about being pregnant, then brands such as Baby Gap have insight into who their current customers may be, increasing the accurateness of messages.

Similar to the social ad targeting capabilities on Facebook, this certainly has the potential to increase advertising effectiveness. By taking personal thoughts and interests into account, brands can further increase their knowledge on audience demographics.

Reaching back into the past can leave more room for error as preferences change, but it also can appeal to user nostalgia or predict current information based off of previous check-ins or tweets. It will all come down to how brands decide to utilize this new pool of information.

Share your opinion on this advertising method in the comments below!