B2B;

Search companies are racing to introduce sophisticated behavioral targeting tools, a trend that continues to personalize the search experience for users and has vast potential benefits for advertisers.

Google has been quietly testing a feature that delivers ads to users based not only on the words on which they are searching but also is influenced by their previous search.

“Google aims to understand a user’s intent through task-based search patterns and thereby boost the relevance of the ads shown,� said Nick Fox, group business product manager for ads quality at Google.

“We are testing targeted ads based on multiple search queries performed in a single session,� Fox said. “We look at a user’s previous query and see how well it intersects with the current query. If it’s significant, we’ll use it to help targeting on the current query.�

Steve Jacoby, president of SendTraffic, a search engine marketing agency and a division of Traffix Inc., an online lead generation company, isn’t that impressed. “The idea of linking a previous search with the next search makes sense to me but I don’t think it’s groundbreaking,� Jacoby said.

But Kevin Lee, executive chairman at Didit Search Marketing, said Google’s move is good for the industry and for users.

“Any kind of behavioral targeting in the search environment potentially allows search engines to understand that person’s intention because they have two pieces of information,� Lee said. “I think this is good for b-to-b marketers. The biggest challenge b-to-b marketers face is that some of the keywords they are buying are ambiguous, and behavioral targeting provides the engine additional clarity regarding the searcher’s intent.�