Abu Dhabi: If you're looking at a new camera model on a website, what are your chances of clicking on an ad that would pop up later on a different website about that specific camera? According to recent research, that's highly unlikely.

Recent research by two assistant professors of marketing at the London School of Business and MIT Sloan School of Management suggests that customised online ads are often ineffective. The study looked at whether it is always optimal for advertisers to provide more specific ad content based on consumers' earlier product interests, as well as when increased specificity of information in an ad is effective.

When online shoppers were simply looking at a product category, ads that matched their prior web browsing interests were ineffective, the research shows. However, after consumers had visited a review site to seek out information about product details — and had better defined what product they were looking for and were closer to a purchase — then personalised ads became more effective than generic ads intended for a mass audience.

Trend

So to go back to the first example, if you are on a website looking at the reviews of a specific camera brand and model and your online behaviour has shown that you are interested in buying that camera, then if an online ad pops up — even if it's on a website different from the one you're on, with an offer to buy that camera — it's highly probable you will click on the ad and maybe make a purchase.

That is exactly how customised online advertising works today. "They all work on the same premise which is the data you give and the actions you take," said Dimitri Metaxas, executive regional director for Digital at Omnicom Media Group.

On the other end, it all comes down to two things: speed and relevance of messaging, he explained. One way this happens is through web searches or what is called contextual advertising, where people search for a specific product and you give them an ad that specifies that need.

Facebook, for instance, works that way by using the data that its users give to send across the most relevant ads.

"They may know what brands you're a fan of, what kind of music you like, your circle of friends," he said. "For many, Facebook knows too much."

However, while this is in some way targeted based on provided information it doesn't always work since an interest in someone's music doesn't necessarily mean you're going to buy their CD. You may or you may not.

Connection

Behavioural online advertising, which is at a more complex level, requires the connection of several behavioural actions that one has taken and making a conclusion on what that user is looking for to put out the ad that would be of most relevance to him or her.

That kind of advertising would not only happen on one website but across multiple platforms. "It can happen almost in real time," said Rami Sa'ad, director of emerging technologies at Vivaki.

This behavioural data that is gathered could be the reviews you've read or even the transactions you've made, he said.

But how does this behavioural data gathering process happen to start with? It's done through what is called a ‘cookie,' or a small data file. Service providers send cookies when users surf their websites allowing them to gather information about their online behaviour — a process that users can opt out of by simply deleting their cookies.

"A cookie allows you to know what the person has previously accessed online," said Saad. "By placing this cookie on this machine, I don't know anything about you. All I know is that this computer accessed a photography article."

"It's the same thing as when a website knows who you are and so you don't need to log in with your information again," Metaxas said. "If you want to have web experience that keeps asking you to log in and can't store information that would target messages to you, then disable your cookies."

Every cookie has a time to live that is set by the party that has placed it, Sa'ad said. "If you show interest in a certain movie, you don't want to be hammered with ads about it for more than two weeks; you would have probably already seen it by then," he said.

However, this complex level of online advertising, which according to the experts results in high conversion levels, is only happening at a very small level in our region as of now.

One of the main reasons, Sa'ad said, is because publishers need to have aggressive technology that would gather that data. "A lot of them don't have the data or know the value of the data [that they can get]," he said.

According to Metaxas, the same techniques used in the US are used here, only not at the same level of richness of data.

Application

"These techniques have been in development for years," he said. "There's no doubt in my mind that the reasons why things don't work is not because the theory is wrong, but because the application of the theory doesn't have enough depth to it."

Metaxas said that behavioural targeted advertising is driving better conversion rates for their clients today.

"We would be delivering 10 million ads within a month, which compared to the others that's quite small."

So if you're able through this tool to get two people in every 100 to make a purchase instead of one, that's a 100 per cent increase, he said. "That's a huge difference in your return on your investment."

For Sa'ad, this is an inevitable direction in which the digital advertising world is heading.

"You're going to win or you'll have to play catch up with the rest," he said.