Behavioral Targeting
Targeting ads based on users' past online behavior, browsing history, and interaction patterns.
What Behavioral Targeting means
Behavioral targeting uses data about users' past online activities — website visits, app usage, purchase history, search queries, and content engagement — to serve relevant advertisements. This targeting method faces increasing regulatory scrutiny under privacy laws like GDPR (which requires explicit consent for tracking-based targeting), CCPA (which gives users the right to opt out of data sale/sharing for targeting), and ePrivacy regulations (which govern cookie-based tracking). Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework and Google's Privacy Sandbox initiative have significantly disrupted behavioral targeting capabilities. Advertisers are increasingly shifting toward contextual targeting and first-party data strategies as behavioral targeting becomes more restricted.
Related terms
Retargeting
The practice of showing ads to users based on their previous interactions with a brand's digital properties.
First-Party Data
Data collected directly by an organization from its own customers and users through direct interactions.
Consent
A user's explicit or implied permission for data collection, processing, or advertising targeting, required by privacy regulations.
App Tracking Transparency
Apple's iOS framework requiring apps to get explicit user permission before tracking their activity across other apps and websites.