Enhancing geotargeting with temporal targeting, behavioral targeting and promotion for comprehensive contextual targeting

摘要

Offline stores rely on customers who are geographically close to the store. However, how to target at online users to draw them to the offline store remains a challenge. This study investigates how to enhance geographical targeting by a suite of other targeting strategies, including behavioral targeting, temporal targeting, and use of discount in an online-to-offline commerce context, to form a more comprehensive contextual targeting strategy. Our randomized field experiment in the restaurant industry reveals that nearer distance, right timing, matching with users' preference for service type, and users' recent visits to food websites all increase the ad click-through rate. Furthermore, a preference for on-site service intensifies the negative effect of distance, and the recency of food-related website browsing mitigates the distance effect. These findings show how different targeting strategies complement and enhance each other in affecting online users' responses to ad of an offline store.