Behavioral Targeting- Good or Bad?

I just attended a meeting that discussed the topic of behavioral targeting. This has been a sore subject for me personally and professional for quite some time.

"Is it a invasion of privacy or since you are "anonymous" is it OK? "

I should like the benefits of behavioral targeting for my clients but I do not like someone "following" me around on the Internet. So, I guess I must say that I am mixed on how I feel.

At the meeting the panel of experts were explaining how behavioral targeting is helping make ads more relevant to the consumers. By serving more targeted ads, the consumers will pay attention to them and the conversions/click thrus are better.

Here are some highlights that may help you understand behavioral targeting a little bit better:

From the panel I learned a lot about how Yahoo is using behavioral targeting: they basically separate users into two buckets:
1. Engagers
2. Shoppers
They have decided what level in the "funnel/buying process" the user is in, so whether you are a shopper or a engager you get served the appropriate ad/message for the stage you are in.

Another valuable lesson I learned was that there is a difference between being a "logged-in user cookie" and "blind cookie." A "logged-in user cookie" is someone who has logged into their yahoo portal and is browsing the web or the yahoo sites. A "blind cookie" is someone is has not logged into yahoo and is just browsing on the yahoo sites and then goes off to other sites.

The key between the two types of cookies is that if you "erase you cookies" so that you are not being served behavioral targeted ad or not being tracked
a. if you are a "logged in cookie"- that data is already been kept; so in short you can not delete that cookie.
b. if you are a "blind cookie"- you are in the clear until you come back to yahoo and continue to browse.

Now, before I stated that I do not like being "followed" around the Internet- so the question comes up; what about privacy? The panel had a generic answer to that question, it went something like 'how properties should have a user agreement where privacy walls should be in place so too much information won't be given out.'

They did bring out some really good points that users could put into play on their own:
1. Do not put your full name in the user name, change is up a bit
2. Be careful what sites you sign up with; a lot of them will sell your information (mailing address, email, etc...) to a 3rd party source for marketing materials
3. Clear out your cookies on a monthly basis if you are worried about being tracked or your privacy.
4. On Yahoo you can actually change your settings not to show any advertising

Behavioral targeting can be good or bad; but in the ad network space it is the way to reach your target demographic. If you advertising on a endemic site, you do not have to use behavioral targeting, because your customer is already there. So, it truly depends on what your goals and objectives are when you are discussing whether behavioral targeting is for your client/company. It does add additional cost to the campaign, but it does give you added return on investment.

Ruthie