We all know what advertising is, so there really isn’t much to say here. The first thing most people think of when you talk about marketing is advertising. It’s been such a big tool for marketers in the past, and continues to be one of the dominant weapons in the arsenal. Over time though, the nature of advertising has changed quite a bit. In the old days, you simply had to reach a mass audience and sales would follow. Today however, advertisements are much more focused. With the maturation of digital, online, and social media, this trend will not only continue, but will be taken to the next degree.

Targeted ads are when a company places ads in a location where they will reach their intended audience. If you’re selling toys, sponsor a children’s program on TV. If you’re selling to women, put an advertisement in a women’s magazine. Stuff like that. Even those are kind of broad examples, but you get the idea. This same philosophy works for online media as well. Look at how Google AdSense works. If you’re page is all about sports, then sports ads will pop up on you page. All of this is really a no brainer for marketers, and is simply the natural evolution of the advertising model.

One of the biggest advantages to targeting your ads is that you are not wasting any resources. By focusing only on media that your target audience relies on, you are not wasting money on people that don’t care about your offering. Of course, there is still a huge focus on mass appeal, but this is usually for products that have mass appeal themselves. Things like beer and food for example.

Personally, I think that we’ll see even more segmenting and targeting as time goes on. And why not. I think in the future we’ll see more advertisers decide to sponsor specific websites (instead of relying on AdSense), and make online ads more interactive. When you focus your ads on the people that are most interested in what you’re offering, then only good things can happen.