Bazaarvoice adds ad targeting platform based on consumer intent

Bazaarvoice’s visualization of its network

For more than 5.000 brands, Bazaarvoice’s cloud-based software allows visitors to rate or review products, or to upload product-related imagery.

Now, the Austin, Texas-based company is taking the next step, by announcing a first-party data-based ad platform that targets those visitors with ads and offers relating to the products they’ve viewed, rated or reviewed.

The company says that its network of sites and apps reaches three out of every four shoppers in the US, tracked via cookies or mobile device IDs. The ratings, reviews and consumer-generated content are also syndicated throughout its network, which includes Adidas, Best Buy, Crate & Barrel and Chico’s.

“Once we see that a consumer is in-market for sneakers and goes to a retailer [site],” VP of Brand Partnerships Graham Harris said, “we can build a segment for that kind of shopper.”

The segment can include intent data from visits by that consumer across multiple sites in the Bazaarvoice network, he said, showing that she might be interested in several types of red shoes. The network includes 100 million unique consumer products, the ability to track a user through a sale, and over 160 million targetable shoppers every month.

The company’s ad platform can utilize these intent and purchase signals to target those same visitors on other sites, in apps and on Facebook.

Bazaarvoice provides segment targeting data and delivers the ads, working with data management platform (DMP) Krux, cross-device mapper Crosswise, and demand side platforms (DSPs) DoubleClick Bid Manager and The Trade Desk.

Harris pointed to HookLogic as one key competitor, in that they can target segments of in-market shoppers, but he noted that consumers’ posting or viewing of ratings and reviews is not taken in consideration in HookLogic and that his company’s network can target about three-quarters of all US shoppers.

Amazon, of course, is also a competitor that does track the displays of ratings and reviews. But Harris said his company’s network combines intent and purchase signals from thousands of retailer and brand sites and apps.

About The Author

Barry Levine

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.