Digital Marketing Handbook

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Semantic targeting 291


identify the sense or meaning of words, leading to a misplacement of ads. For example, the word "orange" can be a
color, a fruit, a telecommunications company, a mountain bike, and countless other variants.

How semantic targeting works


Semantic targeting aims to match the specific context of content on page within a website to an available advertising
campaign. A key difference of semantic targeting to a contextual advertising system is that, instead of scanning a
page for bided keywords, a semantic system examines all the words and identifies the senses of those words.[7]
Because most words are polysemous, i.e. have more than one meaning, without having an understanding of the true
context in which words occur, it is possible to incorrectly assign an advertisement where there is no contextual link.
A semantic targeting system has to examine all the words before it can accurately identify the subject matter of the
entire text and deliver an in context advertisement.[8] For example, if the user is viewing a website relating to golf,
where that website uses semantic targeting, the user may see advertisements for golf related topics, such as golf
equipment, golf holidays etc. Advertisers can locate their ads in given categories using an ontology (computer
science) or taxonomy, ensuring that their ads will only appear in the context that they request.
Semantic targeting is also capable of identifying the sentiment of a webpage, through effective analysis of the
language used on page. Sentiment analysis can determine whether content is talking about a subject in a positive or
negative light. If the page was being detrimental about a particular subject, the semantic targeting system could deter
the placement of a related ad alongside the story.
Other capabilities of a semantic targeting system include the availability of brand protection filtering. This can
enable the blocking of an ad placed alongside content of a controversial nature. Such systems can deter placement
against such subjects as Adult/Erotica, Alcohol, Nudity, Offensive language, Bad News and other such topics. This
would then avoid the potentially brand damaging occurrence of, for example, and airline advertising alongside a
story about an air disaster.[9]

References
[ 1 ]Renee Boucher Ferguson (2008-03-27). "A Battle Is Brewing Over Online Behavioral Advertising" (http:/ / http://www. eweek. com/ c/ a/
Enterprise-Applications/ A-Battle-Is-Brewing-Over-Online-Behavioral-Advertising-Market/ ). E-week.com.. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
[ 2 ]"FTC Staff Proposes Online Behavioral Advertising Privacy Principles" (http:/ / http://www. ftc. gov/ opa/ 2007/ 12/ principles. shtm). Federal
Trade Commission. 2008-12-20.. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
[ 3 ]"Steve Irwin’s Death : Contextual Advertising Gone Bad" (http:/ / http://www. shmula. com/ 194/
steve-irwins-death-contextual-advertising-gone-bad). Shmula.com. 2006-09-05.. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
[ 4 ]"Contextual advertising gone bad" (http:/ / http://www. etre. com/ blog/ 2007/ 11/ contextual_advertising_gone_bad/ ). etre.com. 2007.11.02..
Retrieved 2008-10-10.
[ 5 ]"When Contextual Advertising Goes Horribly Wrong" (http:/ / mashable. com/ 2008/ 06/ 19/ contextual-advertising/ ). Mashable.com.
2008.06.19.. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
[ 6 ]"McCain campaign pulls ads from some anti-Obama Web sites" (http:/ / http://www. cnn. com/ 2008/ POLITICS/ 07/ 01/ mccain. ads/ ). CNN.com.
2008-07-01.. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
[ 7 ]Graham Charlton (2008-05-16). "Q & A Prof. David Crystal & Sacha Carton on semantic targeting" (http:/ / http://www. e-consultancy. com/
news-blog/ 365601/ q-a-prof-david-crystal-and-sacha-carton-on-semantic-targeting. html). e-consultancy.. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
[ 8 ]"Semantic Targeting" (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20080213195315/ http:/ / http://www. isense. net/ index. php?id=68). isense.net (copy on
web.archive.org). Archived from the original (http:/ / http://www. isense. net/ index. php?id=68) on 2008-02-13.. Retrieved 2010-10-20.
[ 9 ]Scott Brinker, (2008-09-13). "Semantic advertising: 4 different kinds" (http:/ / http://www. chiefmartec. com/ 2008/ 09/
semantic-advertising-of-4-different-kinds. html). iChief marketing technologist.. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
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