Saijo George

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tuesday13 Jul 2021

Study Shows The Level Of Inaccuracies In Targeting Users By Big Brands

https://adalytics.io

25 audience research volunteers were asked to read a study description and fill out a consent form. Participants had the option of self-reporting a number of demographic attributes, such as gender, race, profession, and age.

Once a volunteer had filled out the study consent form, they were asked to use the Adalytics browser extension, which allows them to track the ads they are shown while browsing the internet.

After collecting data for at least two weeks, some study participants received personalized surveys to help contextualize some of the ads they were being shown.

The study participants consisted of 14 males and 10 females (1 did not report gender), with ages ranging from 24 to 63. The participants were primarily based in the United States, although four participants were in other OECD countries. The participants included digital marketers, ad tech professionals, physicians, lawyers, software engineers, retirees, journalists, academic researchers, and one C-Suite business executive. Six participants were small business owners or early-stage startup founders.

Here are some of the highlights:

  1. Amazon, Progressive, Vrbo, and American Express serve ads to a wide range of users, whereas brands such as Toyota, Mastercard, and CVS appear to have significantly narrower audience reach with their ads.
  2. Zappos and PayPal are segmenting customers based on the conversion funnel, but PayPal appears to be overly optimistic with prospective customers’ intent.
  3. Pharma companies such as Pfizer, Novartis, Sanofi, and Bristol Myers Squibb are incorrectly serving drug ads intended for doctors to non-healthcare professionals.
  4. Nike appears to be 93% accurate with regards to targeting users by gender, while Merino Shoes and Santoni Shoes serve a majority of their women’s footwear ads to men and men’s footwear ads to women.
  5. Some VC funded Silicon Valley startups appear to be using lookalike audiences that are too loosely defined.
  6. A 5 person company in Atlanta was able to reach a wider audience than several Fortune 500 companies that were running awareness or prospecting campaigns on hundreds of websites.
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