Behavioral Targeting Boom

AOL has announced its plan to acquire Tacoda, one of the leading behavioral targeting firms that allows marketers to serve ads to online users based on their search behavior. This acquisition may not be as large in scale as Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick for over $3 billion, but it does reflect an emerging trend in the online advertising industry.

According to eMarketer, the behavioral targeting market is expected to increase to $3.8 billion by 2011, indicating the rapid growth of this necessary technology. More and more publishers are utilizing this form of targeting to reach their audiences in a direct and personal approach. As more and more publishers adopt this technology, marketers will request that they practice greater transparency with reporting to allow them to better gauge their users’ search behaviors in order to better serve targeted ads.

Other companies now under the Time-Warner/AOL umbrella include advertising.com, Tacoda, AOL and 3rd Screen Media, showing that AOL is trying to become a one-stop shop for interactive advertising.