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What is Behavioral Targeting and How Can it Benefit My E-Commerce Business?

With the current rough estimate of 24 million e-commerce stores globally, there is one way you can always stand out from the crowd – personalization. 

Every user is distinct, meaning that how they respond to marketing campaigns will also differ based on their personal habits. That’s where behavioral targeting comes in.

By using a tool like Verfacto, you’ll be able to track visitor behavior and analyze it, generating insights into what form of on-site marketing a user will best respond to. 

By acting upon this data with behavioral targeting, you’ll be able to personalize the advertisements a customer sees, accommodating for what they like and increasing the chance they convert to a paying customer. 

What Is Behavioral Targeting?

Behavioral targeting is the process of analyzing data about customer habits and using this insight to launch personalized on-site marketing campaigns to individual users.

This behavioral tracking kind of advertising will appear to each user individually, boosting engagement, ensuring that users stay on each page for longer, and making sure no customers fall through the gaps.  

Not only will these targeted pop-ups, ads, and offers be incredibly personalized and boost conversion, but they’ll also improve the user experience. 

Customers who feel accommodated for are more likely to convert into repeated customers, boosting the LTV of your client base and increasing brand loyalty.

If you would like to learn more about customer targeting, check out this post about the topic.

How Does Behavioral Targeting Work?

Data-driven marketing platforms like Verfacto draw upon multiple sets of data to execute behavioral targeting. In this article, we’ll elaborate on the most basic data sources used for behavioral targeting, as well as demonstrating how each data source can directly benefit your e-commerce business.

Why Is It Important for my Business?

Digital marketing is an evergreen market that isn’t going anywhere any time soon. In fact, the year 2020 saw an average of 12.2% increase on company digital marketing spending.

But, with an increased interest in digital marketing comes higher demand, pushing up CPC and squeezing marketing budgets thin. 

As the cost of digital marketing continues to increase, any customer that clicks on an ad and then doesn’t make a purchase on your store results in a loss of money for your business. 

Instead of suffering along with rising marketing costs, you can implement behavioral targeting into your business and cut back on marketing costs.

Behavioral targeting will individually accommodate to a user by analyzing customer data, changing which pop-ups or discounts are triggered on your website for different users.

By personalizing the user experience, you’ll be able to boost your conversion rate per customer. Instead of blindly launching marketing campaigns, behavioral targeting will adapt to each individual and deliver highly personalized advertisements.

Doing so will increase their likelihood of conversion, lowering your CPC and boosting your sales revenue. 

How Does Verfacto’s Behavioral Targeting Work?

By analyzing behavioral patterns, Verfacto can build up a model of how certain customers react and respond to your website.

Common trends in the data reveal typical pathways taken by users. By understanding these habits, you can then adapt your marketing approach, using targeting to boost sales without giving away unnecessary discounts.

But how does this work? First of all, Verfacto builds up a data set of your customers. This includes factors like:

  • Pages visited
  • Amount spent on each page
  • Buttons, content, and ads clicked
  • Acquisition channels
  • Dozens of smaller behavioral details

By analyzing this data, Verfacto can then find common customer trends. 

For example, if a customer spends more than 6 minutes browsing through your product, visits multiple pages, and scrolls through the information on your home page, then there is a 55% chance they will add a product to their basket.

If someone exhibits these patterns, it’s an indicator that they’re likely to make a sale.

But, if they complete these steps and then don’t add anything to their basket, behavioral targeting will trigger Verfacto to then send them a personalized pop-up. This will offer them a small discount, which is normally enough to persuade them into adding a product to their basket. 

And just like that, a viewer that was going to leave has been converted into a paying customer. 

With behavioral targeting tools like Verfacto, no one slips through the gaps.

What Information Can Data-Driven Marketing Tools Like Verfacto Deliver?

Data-driven marketing tools break users down into individual segments. Basic tools like Shopify Analytics will break user segments in a B2C business down into metrics such as age, location, and gender.

But these categories aren’t detailed enough to truly personalize a user’s experience. 

An advanced tool like Verfacto will further these analytical profiles, expanding user segments to include metrics like buyer personality, values, type of buyer, and so on.

By analyzing trends in user behavior, Verfacto will provide in-depth information on CLV, AOV, add to basket rate, returning visit rate, and second purchase rate for each user segment. 

Different marketing strategies work for different segments. While one group may be more inclined to buy after receiving a discount pop-up, another might be enticed by a flash sale. 


By identifying what type of a user a customer is, you’ll then be able to use behavioral targeting to accommodate for their buying habits, and urge them into triggering your desired result. 

What Data Does Behavioral Targeting Take Into Account?

There are four primary sources of data that behavioral marketing draws upon. We can break these down into the following categories:

  1. Geolocation
  2. Purchase History  
  3. Total Page Visits
  4. Total Website Visits

Each one of these data sets lends Verfacto’s intelligent data-driven marketing software a different piece of the puzzle. When all these pieces assemble, Verfacto will be able to create and launch personalized, on-site marketing campaigns that will increase customer engagement and boost sales.

Let’s take a look at the data points.

1. Geolocation

Out of the four basic data sources for behavioral targeting, this one is perhaps the most straightforward. Geolocation data refers to the geographical location from which a user accesses your site. This ranges from vague metrics, such as which country a customer is from, all the way up to letting you know the town they’re in. 

Location matters for two main reasons, the first of which is to adapt to their native language. Suppose someone is accessing your site from a country where the native tongue is not English. In that case, Verfacto will be able to point them towards shifting to the domain that accommodates their native language.

Although this shift is simple, it’ll make every user feel more at home as they’ll be able to interact and browse through your products in their own language.

Second of all, location can give you an idea of the general climate of the area someone lives in. While this may not be particularly useful for some e-commerce businesses, those that have seasonally variable products will find this information vital. 

A clothing e-commerce platform recommending arctic coats to someone living in the Middle East will be severely mistargeting their users. But, with geolocation, you’ll be able to change your site to match a user’s personal requirements. 

With behavioral targeting, lighter and more breathable materials and styles will be recommended in hotter climates. The opposite will also occur for people living in colder climates.

Every customer gets exactly what they need with behavioral targeting.

2. Purchase History

Behavioral data tools will build up a personal purchase profile of your users. While some users may like buying lots of products at once, others may buy fewer items more frequently. Verfacto will store data on the AOV of a customer, purchase frequency, recorded use of discount codes, and the number of carts created. 

Subtle changes in user behavior can make a significant impact on how customers interact with your website. With behavioral targeting, you’ll be able to adapt what customers see based on their habits.

Upon interacting with your site, Verfacto will segment users into a particular type of buyer profile. Behavioral targeting will then launch personalized, on-site pop-ups that will match their typical pattern of behavior.

While one customer that likes discounts will receive a small discount, another that typically buys lots of items at once may be up-sold with cleverly placed cross-selling opportunities.

Verfacto brings your website to life with behavioral data, ensuring it is continuously optimized for the customer at hand.

3. Number of Visits to Your Site

The way in which an e-commerce store targets new customers and loyal customers should vary greatly. While new customers may lack trust in your business, returning customers already know that you’re a reputable brand.

By tracking the number of visits a user has had to your site, Verfacto’s behavioral targeting systems will then be able to change the on-site content shown to that user.

A user that has lots of experience on your website may already know their way around. In that case, less time should be spent pointing them in the right direction or explaining your brand story. Most likely, they’re coming back to your site for a particular product. 

By changing your on-site structure to more easily outline products, you’ll be able to get your loyal customers to see more of your products. As they see more, the chance they like an item and decide to add it to the cart will also increase. For loyal customers, focusing on sales and products is critical.

However, for a customer who has recently clicked on your site for the first time, your goal should be to sell them on your brand. 

Instead of having on-site pop-ups pointing them to products, you could outline your store’s story.

By building a rapport with the customer, you’ll be increasing the likelihood that they’ll trust your company enough to make that first purchase. 

4. Number of Visits to a Product

Humans are creatures of habit. Even the most disciplined of us find ourselves coming back to products we like time and time again.

Suppose a user keeps returning to a product, maybe even adding it to their cart, but not buying it. Behavioral targeting will pick up on this habit and act upon it.

Repeatedly visiting a product is a clear signal that a user is interested. If this happens frequently, you can trigger Verfacto to send a slight discount to the user. Even a low percentage like a 5% coupon could be enough to push them over the edge.

You can even gauge the size of the discount you want to offer based on how many times a user is returning to a product. 

With behavioral targeting, your site will naturally adapt to please your customers. 

What Forms of Personalization Can It Offer?

Once Verfacto has established the type of customer a user is, it will then compare their habits to past data sets. From this, you’ll be able to run on-site marketing which is personalized for that user. 

This style of behavioral targeting will enable you to:

  • Create custom pop-ups that are designed to appeal to certain types of customers 
  • Create time-based flash sales and campaigns based on the hours when most users are active
  • Create and send target messages to a user, accommodating to their buying habits

With behavioral targeting, you’ll be targeting users based on who they are and what they do on your site. Analyzing data and acting upon it through behavioral targeting makes sure you approach each user with the very best chance of converting them into a paying customer.

Final Thoughts

Coupling a data-driven marketing tool like Verfacto with behavioral marketing is a surefire way to boost your conversion rate, increase CLV, and make sure that everyone that visits your site feels accommodated for.

Don’t fall into the trap of general marketing. Use behavioral targeting to personalize your e-commerce store and supercharge your sales.

If you want to start harnessing the power of behavioral targeting for yourself, then Verfacto is currently offering a one-month free trial. Click the link and get started today!

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