Behavioural Targeting: Personalise Offers & Earn Big

With 10,000 ads we see daily, breaking through digital noise becomes one of the biggest marketing hurdles. Unfortunately, you may not be able to overcome this challenge simply by creating useful and visible content – you also need something that helps you deliver this content at the right time to the right reader, viewer, or listener: behavioural targeting. 

Behavioural targeting enhances your digital advertising across the board, from personalisation to traffic generation to conversion rates. Every consumer gets what they need when they need it.

Graphical representation of the appeal of personalisation

Read on to learn how behavioural targeting works and how you can implement it within your business model.

What Is Behavioural Targeting?

Behavioural targeting, a component of behavioural marketing, is the personalisation of user experiences across touchpoints based on their past interactions. For example, for prospects who recently visited a life insurance site, you can display life insurance ads on Google.

The cornerstone of behavioural marketing in general and behavioural targeting in particular is user tracking software, such as Phonexa’s HitMetrix. By capturing and visualizing user website interactions, HitMetrix makes it so much easier to deliver the right content to the right consumer.

Likewise, HitMetrix helps address UX pitfalls, such as suboptimal button placement or an excessively complex shopping cart, thereby simplifying clients’ journeys and elevating your lead-to-customer rates.

 

Book a demo to learn how Phonexa’s HitMetrix can help personalise your performance marketing strategies. 

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Behavioural Targeting Benefits 

More accurate customer profiles You build your ideal customer profiles (ICPs) based on genuine interests, not just clicks. It allows you to define and target new audience segments with specific campaigns.
Increased relevance  Personalising your ads makes them more resonant and increases click-through rates (CTRs).
Drawing on seasonal activities  Behavioural insights reveal how users behave during holidays like Christmas and Halloween, enabling you to tailor your campaigns accordingly.
Behavioural retargeting As you explore items left in shopping carts, you gain a better understanding of how to promote products that are just a few clicks away from being purchased.
Improved customer lifetime value Behavioural marketing can impact purchase frequency, average order value, and customer retention, leading to repeat business.
ROI maximization With behavioural personalisation, you rely on informed marketing strategies instead of “posting and praying,” increasing the return on every penny invested.

Behavioural Targeting in 4 Steps

1. Data Collection 

First of all, collect your prospects’ behavioural data using

  • Cookies: Files stored on users’ browsers to gather data across websites
  • Tracking pixels: An invisible piece of code embedded in sites or emails to log user information
  • Analytic platforms: Software that records page views, time on sites, and click paths
  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems: Databases with users’ past purchases and interactions

First and Third-Party Data 

Third-party data is sourced from across the web and reveals how your prospects interact with other domains – their most frequent queries, the amount of time they spend in specific marketing channels, and more. Third-party data enables granular campaign adjustments by exposing customers’ interests and intents from top to bottom. 

Next, there’s website data you can collect and use:

  1. Spot an issue: Leverage behavioural tracking software to identify friction points within your website
  2. Develop a solution: Devise several fixes for your issue, such as two to three variations of button placements
  3. Test results: Conduct A/B testing and measure the metrics of each variable to determine which performs best

 

2. Audience Segmentation

Once the data is collected, it’s time to put it into action and segment your audience into groups based on:

Category Users who have
Browsing Visited websites to acquire, for example, financial assistance or plumbing services
Purchase history Bought specific products 
Engagement level Expressed interest in certain content or offers
Lifecycle stage Abandoned shopping cart, bought repeatedly, or became new visitors

3. Shaping Offers 

Each segment of your audience should receive a behaviour-based message through one of the following channels:

  • Google Ads: Promote products or pages that users have expressed interest in
  • Emails: Engage with your audience by addressing their interests and intents
  • Website: Display relevant pages and offers and promote “recently viewed” products
  • Social media: Leverage dynamic creative optimisation (DCO) to retarget users interested in specific offers through Facebook or Instagram ads.

Imagine you’re a company that operates different types of loans. With behavioural insights, you can discover prospects who search for student or business loans, which allows you to promote relevant services through Google Ads or email campaigns.

“You don’t have to have a huge audience to be successful – you just need to have an engaged audience.” – Jeannine Crooks, from Amplify Webinar

4. Campaign Optimisation

Once your campaign is live, start collecting feedback and adjust your strategies based on these insights. 

If you want more granular optimisation, explore Lynx reports, which record audience behavior so you can analyse clicks and conversions. With Lynx, you can quickly narrow it down to the best-performing demographic segments.

 

Take a product tour or book a demo to learn how Phonexa empowers behavioural targeting

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Behavioural vs. Contextual Targeting 

Contextual targeting is another effective personalisation tool that focuses on the page’s context rather than the user’s past actions. Although it’s not as comprehensive as behavioural targeting, it’s cheap, while its effectiveness depends on the content of your page and the complexity of your marketing strategy. 

Here’s how it differs from behavioural targeting:

Feature Behavioural targeting Contextual targeting 
Focus User’s past behaviour The context of the current page
Relevance Based on long-term interests and genuine intent Based on immediate interests
Drawbacks Privacy concerns and reliance on cookies Less effective personalisation and results 

Established businesses can pair strategies by promoting cheaper items through contextual ads, while behavioural ads handle more considerable purchases.

Challenges of Behavioural Targeting 

Over-Targeting 

Here’s the thing about behavioural marketing – whenever it’s overused, it starts repelling customers rather than generating them.

Graphical representation of creepy brand interaction types

Source: SmartyAds

It’s crucial to find an advertising balance and avoid invasive types of personalisation. However, if walking the line is your style, be sure to track the consequences so that you don’t harm your business.

Lack of Comprehensive Data 

Customer journeys are complex, and it might not always be easy to track them from top to bottom. As a result, you might not factor in all switches and experiences.

Example: A user conducts product research on a PC, then proceeds with more in-depth queries, such as reviews of specific offers, on a phone. Since you don’t have a full search history, you build targeting based on PC activity, which may be suboptimal.

You may also receive inaccurate behavioural data due to missclicks, which, for instance, occur when a person pockets a turned-on phone and makes numerous accidental taps. On the bright side, missclicks can be revealed with software like HitMetrix due to their frantic nature.

Privacy Regulations 

As Google moves towards discontinuing third-party cookies, an increasing number of marketers are concerned about their campaigns, particularly those based on consumer behavior.

And while the phasing out of cookies is still a distant prospect, you have other matters to consider, such as obtaining permission for behavioural data collection following the GDPR.

There’s also a CCPA, which applies to companies operating in the US. With its “opt-out” model, you should prepare for users to stop sharing their behavioural data at any moment.

Elevate Your Performance Marketing With Phonexa’s All-in-One Software Suite

While HitMetrix pushes the boundaries of personalisation, your business has other areas for improvement. Leave them to Phonexa’s all-in-one software suite – a multifaceted solution that enhances businesses across the board:

 

Get Phonexa’s all-in-one performance marketing software suite at a single price:

LMS Sync Lead tracking & distribution software
Call Logic Call tracking & distribution software
E-Delivery Email & SMS marketing software
Cloud PBX Cloud phone system
Lynx Click tracking software
Opt-Intel Suppression list management software
HitMetrix User behaviour recording & analytics software
Books360 Automated accounting software

Build your plan, or book a demo to learn more about Phonexa.

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Frequently Asked Questions 

What is behavioural data?

Behavioural data is information about a user’s past online actions gathered by tracking tools. The time users spend on websites, products in their shopping carts, and frequently visited pages are all examples of behavioural data.

What’s the difference between third-party and website behavioural data?

Third-party behavioural data is gathered across the entire user’s web activity, enabling granular ad personalisation. Website data, in turn, contains users’ digital behaviour within your domain, making it suitable for CRO.

Can you build ICP with behavioural targeting?

You can use behaviour targeting to understand how different consumers react to specific marketing scenarios. Then you can analyze the best-performing groups and build your ICPs.

Conversion Funnel Optimisation: How to Drive Users to Action

Without a doubt, conversions play a crucial role in sales regardless of the business’s niche or size. And while you can convert a few users with a superficial approach, reaching game-changing conversion rates requires a well-thought-out conversion funnel.

However, creating an effective conversion funnel is a real challenge that requires expertise in multiple marketing fields. Likewise, you need advanced lead management software to be data-driven across the board and automate routines.

Continue reading to explore conversion funnel optimisation fundamentals and find the best practices to enhance your performance.

Book a demo to explore how Phonexa’s toolkit enhances funnel optimisation.

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What Is a Conversion Funnel?

A conversion funnel is, in fact, a consumer processing algorithm that helps you send the right message to the right lead at the right time so you can effectively nurture and convert them into customers. Among other things, you coordinate emails, social media posts, website content, and ads, developing a comprehensive marketing strategy that caters to all your audience segments.

Visual representation of the conversion funnel and average lead-to-customer conversion rate statistics

With a well-designed conversion funnel, you have every chance to surpass the average lead-to-sales rates while also building a strong base for continuous improvement:

  • Study your customers in depth to learn to produce resonating content, from awareness to retention 
  • Allocate your resources optimally, drawing on key performance indicators (KPIs) across your campaigns
  • Improve customer retention by routing them through a funnel and nurturing them beyond

Comparing Conversion, Marketing, & Sales Funnels

Type Objective Key Metrics
Conversion funnel Drives a user to convert into a buyer, subscriber, or application user, etc. Conversion rate, click-through rate, cart abandonment rate, etc.
Sales funnel Persuades a user to purchase without focusing on brand awareness and customer loyalty Sales qualified leads (SQL) and deal close rate
Marketing funnel Besides driving conversions, generates brand evangelists by nurturing users beyond the bottom of the funnel Customer retention rate, repeat purchase rate, and customer lifetime value

Conversion Funnel: 3 Stages

Top of the Funnel (TOFU)

First of all, to get consumers into your funnel, you need to  build an ideal customer profile (ICP):

  • Demographics: Age, gender, location, salary, and marital status
  • Firmographics (only for B2B): Company size, industry, growth trends, and location
  • Psychographics: Values, beliefs, goals, pain points, and interests
“For any campaign you’re doing, ask this: Who’s my ICP? How am I bringing value? Not, “what is my product due –” that’s not the question to ask. What’s their problem, and how am I solving it? Is this really being distributed effectively? – Talar Malakian

You want to use TOFU to establish your brand as a helpful resource, for which, according to an estimated 16.4 billion daily Google searches, SEO fits well. 

For example, if your audience is looking for financial services, you may target it with SEO-optimised “Where to Take a Loan?” or “5 Common Mortgage Myths Debunked” posts. While educational content like this builds trust for your brand, implementing banners or mentioning your offers discreetly plants a seed of interest in your audience’s minds – content at the following stages cultivates it into a conversion.

Middle of the Funnel (MOFU)

After your prospects consume enough of your educational content, they start to evaluate their options – that’s when they’re in the middle of the funnel.

Now, you want to position your offer as a solution to one’s problem without being obtrusive. A popular way to achieve this is to create product comparisons for websites or, if your audience prefers it, social media.

If you deploy your content across multiple platforms, it’s essential to connect it to your omnichannel marketing strategy.  Add “Share” buttons to your website articles so readers can share them across channels.

Dedicate a significant portion of your MOFU content to gathering users’ contact data, such as email addresses or phone numbers, for personalised email and SMS campaigns – Phonexa’s E-Delivery powers both. 

With E-Delivery, you can measure the deliverability of your content, segment your audience by response behaviours, and gain granular SMS dissemination controls. A/B testing, a part of the E-Delivery package, enables you to test Phonexa-driven upgrades and identify what works best.

 

Take a product tour and explore how Phonexa’s E-Delivery can enhance your SMS and email campaigns. 

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Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU)

Your prospects are already well aware of your offer, and educational posts are no longer relevant – it’s time to roll out the strongest marketing incentives:

  • Limited-time offers: Stress an urgency through expiring discounts and time counters
  • Retargeting: Send emails offering discount codes for items left in the shopping cart
  • Free trials: If you sell digital products, offer users to test them for free within a limited time or with restricted functionality
  • Refunds: Promise users to return their money if they’re not satisfied with a product or service

While these techniques may work through social media or websites, it’s more effective to deliver them via email letters, which, thanks to their granular personalisation, are more capable of driving a reader to action.

Best Conversion Funnel Optimisation Strategies

1. Website Optimisation

Your website is a focal point of your conversion funnel – optimising it is a top priority.

Graphical and statistical representation of SEO effectiveness

These practices will elevate your website in search engine results pages (SERP):

Type of SEO How to carry out
Technical Structure your website, improve loading speed, and make sure your website is mobile-friendly, secure, and that all important pages are indexed 
Internal Use keywords, interlink your pages, divide your content into smaller paragraphs, lists, and headers, produce meta tags, and write alt tags for images
External Acquire backlinks through guest posting and brand mentions

2. Social Media Page Optimisation

Much like websites, social media pages don’t gain visibility unless you put in effort.

Here’s how to optimise your Instagram, LinkedIn, or other media:

  • Complete your bio and contact information
  • Implement keywords and hashtags
  • Create useful content, occasionally repurposing it from your website
  • Encourage your audience to comment, like, and subscribe to leverage algorithms
  • Post your content at the times of your audience’s peak activity

3. Email Marketing Optimisation

You only need 3 basic things to optimise your emails at a basic level:

  1. Catchy subject line: Ensure that the subject line states the benefit, arouses curiosity, or even poses an exciting challenge, etc., while being up to 60 characters long
  2. Reader-focused body: It should present benefits that are relevant to the recipient, while maintaining a tone of voice that aligns with your brand’s image
  3. Clear CTA: Conclude your email with a call to action, ensuring there’s no friction between your offer and the reader

 

But then again, you can make your emails even more effective by coordinating them into a series. For example, if you know that a specific user abandoned a shopping cart before making a purchase, your series may look like this:

  1. A friendly reminder that features the item a person wanted to buy
  2. A small discount as a renegagement incentive
  3. A time-limited discount to evoke urgency

 

4. Launch Ad Campaigns

  • TOFU: Broad ads with rather educational than promotional content
  • MOFU: Specific ads that retarget users who have already engaged with your content
  • BOFU: Highly persuasive ads with a strong call to action, designed to convert a user

5. Gather Metrics and Continuously Optimise Conversions

Whether you operate a website, an email campaign, a social media page, or all three, conversion funnel analytics can help you optimise your conversion funnel across stages. 

Here are some of the primary conversion funnel metrics:

Metric Stands for Applies to
Click-through rate The percentage of users who click your link in SERPs Websites
Reach The number of unique users who see your content through feed, shares, or recommendations Social media
Open rate The percentage of recipients who opened your email letter Email

Use these and other KPIs to identify faults within your funnel and eliminate them. For example, if many people open your emails but don’t convert, it means that your subject line is persuasive, but the overall message is off.

6. Collect Users’ Data through Sign-Ups

Some marketers don’t realise that you don’t necessarily have to collect users’ contact information through submission forms – you can also do it through sign-ups. 

To make it work, hide some useful website content behind the sign-up and enable registration through email or social networks. Next, ask registered users for permission to send them marketing messages, which is essential to avoid jeopardising your deliverability, and append new recipients to your campaigns.

7. Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)

CRO is a marketing practice designed to simplify the conversion process. To achieve it, you must collect users’ behavioural data, which you can’t do with mere UTM tags – you need a comprehensive solution like HitMetrix.

Here are some of its features:

  • Session replays: View recordings of website sessions to identify areas of frustration 
  • Heatmaps: Inspect your website pages through colour prisms that highlight friction points, clicks, mouseouts, and more
  • Friction evaluation: Explore decisions that yield conversions or cause users to bounce

 

CRO algorithm available to HitMetrix users:

  1. Identify friction points: Analyse behavioural data through recordings or heatmaps to reveal problematic spots
  2. Develop solutions: Devise several solutions that you believe must eliminate friction points
  3. Test results: Measure KPIs to identify what performs optimally

 

Get Your All-in-One Performance Marketing Software Suite with Phonexa

Relying on guesswork when optimising your conversion funnels won’t get you far. That’s why you need Phonexa, an all-in-one solution that provides businesses with actionable insights and game-changing performance marketing tools:

  • LMS Sync: Track your leads’ journeys, distribute them according to pre-set parameters, and receive real-time feedback to enhance your campaigns
  • Cloud PBX: Score your agent’s productivity to stimulate their improvement and integrate with an uninterrupted cloud-based phone system
  • Call Logic: Track and distribute your callers and set up an interactive voice response to handle larger call volumes
  • Lynx: Acquire tracking links that reveal the traffic sources, such as specific campaigns and channels

 

Get Phonexa’s all-in-one performance marketing software suite at a single price:

LMS Sync Lead tracking & distribution software
Call Logic Call tracking & distribution software
E-Delivery Email & SMS marketing software
Cloud PBX Cloud phone system
Lynx Click tracking software
Opt-Intel Suppression list management software
HitMetrix User behaviour recording & analytics software
Books360 Automated accounting software

 

Build your plan now, or take a product tour to explore Phonexa’s innovative solutions.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between conversion and sales funnel optimisation?

Given that the sales funnel is a type of conversion funnel, their optimisation strategies align:

  • Get your SEO in place
  • Produce personalised emails
  • Deploy ads
  • Conduct CRO

The only difference is that the sales funnel coordinates its efforts to drive a sale, while the conversion funnel may focus on generating app downloads, subscriptions, or other actions. 

What tools can I use to optimise funnels?

Any service that gathers KPIs, such as conversion, bounce, or click-through rates, is a foundational tool for funnel optimisation. You should build upon it based on your business needs. Thus, interactive voice response suits companies with high call volumes, while email automation software is great for managing multiple email campaigns.

What is funnel optimisation for affiliates?

Affiliates align their funnels with business goals, such as generating leads or driving sales. They produce content that sets the stage for affiliate links, banners, or forms that promote specific products or services.

The Complete Guide to Mouse Tracking for Better User Insights

Seasoned marketers know mouse movements reveal user intent far beyond clicks and scrolls, helping optimise the UX and drive conversions.

Mouse tracking exposes key user behaviour patterns, from hidden struggles to engagement hotspots, letting you optimise every click and cursor movement.

“If you’re using a true end-to-end tracking solution, you’ll likely have an idea of what conversions need to look like along the way in order to achieve what you need. But if and when they don’t, be ready to make changes and adapt things to ensure that you’re not just planning on hoping that things will change when you’ve done nothing to help that change happen.” – David Pickard, CEO at Phonexa

Build your plan now, or book a demo to discover how Phonexa’s on-site user tracking creates a user-focused environment that boosts lead generation and conversions.

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What Is Mouse Tracking?

Mouse tracking continuously records where a user’s cursor moves to gather interaction data. It’s a budget-friendly alternative to eye tracking, which needs specialised gear and is less common.

Better yet, combine both: studies show users often glance at an area before moving their mouse there. So tracking eyes and cursor together gives a fuller view of user focus and intent.

Bar chart showing the percentage of fixation by screen region, focusing on the % for the left half and the right half of the page

Source: Nielsen Norman Group

Seven Mouse Tracking Methods

Cursor Movement Tracking Did you know 80% of users focus on the upper-left area? Place key elements, such as CTAs, there for better visibility.
Click Tracking Tracks which buttons and links get clicked most, helping optimise CTA placement and boost engagement.
Hover Tracking Shows where users pause their cursor, revealing interest even without clicks, which is great for improving content layout.
Scroll Tracking Since users typically read only 20-28% of a page, understanding scroll helps place crucial info where it’s seen.
Heatmap Tracking Visualises hotspots and cold spots via click, mouse, scroll, and attention heatmaps to guide design improvements.
Attention Tracking Analyses that pause the cursor to identify focus zones, capturing user attention within the first 15 seconds, are key to retention.
Gesture Tracking Interprets touchscreen swipes, pinches, and zooms to reveal user interaction on mobile devices.

What Mouse Tracking Reveals

User Engagement Shows which screen areas attract repeated attention and cursor hovering.
Navigational Insights Confusing cursor paths suggest poor site structure or design flaws, causing user frustration.
CTA Effectiveness Evaluates CTA interaction; low clicks may signal a need for better placement or personalised design. Personalised CTAs can boost conversions by 202% (HubSpot).
Drop-Off Points Identifies where users leave purchases or forms, helping target areas for conversion improvements.
Heatmap Analysis Visualises hotspots and cold zones based on mouse activity to guide UX improvements.

 

Graphic representation of how the real heatmap looks, showing the specific areas of the page where mouse movements were the most active and where the user's focus areas were at that moment

The heatmap, generated through mouse tracking, reveals users focus intensely on headlines and top menus, indicating a preference for main content over peripheral elements. To boost engagement, simplify navigation, and place key CTAs and info in these high-activity zones identified by mouse tracking data.

Unlock Deeper Insights with Phonexa’s HitMetrix Heat Mapping Tool

Understanding customer interaction is vital. HitMetrix offers detailed heat mapping and behaviour analytics tracking mouse movement, browsing speed, and more, for a comprehensive view of user engagement.

 

Here are the interaction insights you unlock with HitMetrix:

  • Key on-site metrics and obstacles to conversions, such as misclicks, navigation delays, and cursor exits
  • Visual data summaries presenting user journeys through clicks, scrolls, and taps
  • Heatmaps and click tracking reveal where users focus and what blocks conversions
  • Session replays enable in-depth user behaviour analysis

Tracking clicks and navigation paths helps identify user engagement patterns and uncover UX problems to improve site performance.  

Build your plan now, or take a product tour to see HitMetrix in action.

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Why You Need a Performance Marketing Ecosystem

Digital engagement is increasingly complex, and mouse tracking plays a vital role in your tech toolkit. However, it only captures on-site user interactions, so a more comprehensive solution is necessary. Simply put, mouse tracking alone isn’t enough. Businesses from affiliates to enterprises require an all-in-one system that tracks every interaction across all channels. Phonexa offers this comprehensive platform.

Discover Phonexa’s All-in-One Performance Marketing Software Suite

Phonexa’s all-in-one solution covers everything from mouse tracking to lead distribution. With eight integrated tools, including heatmaps and behaviour analytics, marketers and affiliates can streamline campaigns and data in one place.

“We have the ability to track everything from first impression when that customer first enters the marketplace, all the way through to final conversion, and we also help to bring them back again later and keep them using your service.
We have a pretty consultative approach. We don’t just dive in and show people a demo – we’ll spend some time discovering their business and spending, finding out if there is a use case for our software. There’s nothing worse than someone trying to force you down a road of using software that’s not the right fit for you. If Phonexa isn’t the right fit for you, we will be the first people to tell you that.” – David Pickard, CEO at Phonexa

In practice, Phonexa enables fast and efficient lead generation, buying, and selling from a single platform, incorporating features such as mouse tracking for deeper insights into user behaviour. No hassle, no excess reporting, just unified tools driving your business forward.

 

Get Phonexa’s all-in-one performance marketing software suite at a single price:

LMS Sync Lead management software
Call Logic Call tracking and distribution platform
E-Delivery Emails and SMS marketing platform
Cloud PBX Cloud-based phone system
Lynx Click tracking software
Opt-Intel Suppression list management tool
HitMetrix User behaviour tracking and analytics solution
Books360 Automated accounting software

Build your plan now, or book a demo to learn more about Phonexa. 

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is mouse tracking, and how does it improve website usability?

Mouse tracking records users’ cursor movements, providing vital insights into behaviour and preferences that help enhance site usability.

What methods do mouse tracking tools use to analyse websites?

Mouse tracking tools employ methods such as cursor movement, clicks, hovers, scrolls, heatmaps, and attention tracking, each offering unique insights into where users focus and how they interact.