RadiumOne Enables Advertisers to Retarget Using Hashtags and Cookies
RadiumOne is giving advertisers the ability to retarget users with ads across the Web with the use of hashtags and cookies. This “cross-Web hashtag ad retargeting” is a bit complicated, but it’s worth wrapping your head around.
“Basically, we’re just intelligently going out and targeting what people are already having a conversation about,” says Gurbaksh Chahal, CEO of RadiumOne. “If McDonald’s wants they can target people who hashtag #McDonald’s, or anyone who tags #burgers or #fries. They can even target #hungry.”
This hashtag retargeting will be available via RadiumOne’s social media platform Via.Me, along with other sites that let users publish public posts with hashtags and are integrated with the company’s retargeting platform. When a user includes a hashtag in a post or looks at a piece of content labeled with a hashtag, the site can drop a cookie onto their Web browser. As that user travels through the Web, they’ll be retargeted with ads on any site that’s on RadiumOne’s network. The cookies on their browser will trigger a real-time bidding platform that lets advertisers vie for the user’s attention.
This is particularly intriguing for startups, which can “monetize their traction without degrading their user experience,” writes Josh Constine at TechCrunch. In other words, startups don’t have to clutter their apps with ads or ask users to pay.
“More generally, hashtag retargeting creates a whole new way for advertisers to reach users who’ve shown explicit interest in their product,” Constine writes.
