TD Ameritrade engaged
MSN to generate a campaign that tested the impact of behavioral targeting. TD Ameritrade wanted to know if delivering display ads to consumers based on their recent online behavior would effectively result in greater audience value and increased brand awareness.
MSN collaborated with Marketing Evolution, a frontrunner in online marketing analysis, to engineer the study. During the last week of April 2006, TD Ameritrade creative ran across various sites on the MSN Network, including:
- Reach a target audience of personal investors that are male, age 25+, income 50K+, with an awareness of online brokers and TD Ameritrade.
- Test the relative value of behavioral targeting versus more generally targeted communication.
- Evaluate the impact of behavioral targeting on brand awareness.
- Discover how effectively behavioral targeting can reach a target audience.
Atlas Rich Media served ads within the context of the selected MSN inventory to groups of control and exposed respondents. Both groups were surveyed, and their responses were measured to determine the differences across key metrics. Any positive increase was attributed to the impact of the creative.
Behavioral targeting delivered a consistently superior target audience for TD Ameritrade. When compared to Hotmail ROS and Hotmail demo placements, the behavioral targeted audience was:
- More Likely to Open an Account in the Next 12 Months.
- More Likely to Recommend Online Brokerage in the Next Three Months.
- More Likely to Have a HH Income of $150K+.
- More Likely to Have a Portfolio of $200K+.
- More Likely to Have Been Investing 15+ Years.
The behavioral targeted placements for TD Ameritrade drove an eight percent gain for top-of-mind awareness, generating the only positive branding impact across the campaign. This movement in unaided brand awareness is a significant indication that behavioral targeting reaches more relevant users.
The respondents among the behavioral targeted group showed a much higher likelihood to open a TD Ameritrade account within the next 12 months. The research also indicates that the Hotmail demographically targeted control groups were among the most likely to open a TD Ameritrade account.
Showing positive, measured results, TD Ameritrade successfully leveraged behavioral targeting on the MSN Network to reach its desired audience and raise brand awareness. The study indicates that behavioral targeting strengthens advertising relevance by serving ads to specific users who have shown interest in products and services, thereby increasing the value of the audience.
