After years spent taking aim, online publishers have finally started to hit the longstanding goal of interactive media: high-precision target marketing. Just in the last year, a number of major publishers have either deployed or started studying audience management systems―from companies like Accipiter, Revenue Science, and Tacoda―that track users' online behavior at a site in order to target and follow them with ads and promotions that are highly relevant to their interests. Of course, better targeting reaps higher CPMs for publishers, but the early adopters of these behavioral tracking systems are discovering several ways in which the next evolution of ad technology gooses the bottom line. A sophisticated behavioral tracking system is a far cry from simply selling an airline ad space in your travel section. At WSJ.com, which uses Revenue Science, a user might hit the site's travel section five times a month, causing the sales team to define and cookie that reader as someone in the market for travel. The system then follows that user around the site during any visit and serves them a travel ad campaign, effectively increasing the available ad inventory for that category.
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