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We are going to target you with behavorial ads--and blog about it


Here's the idea. The Numerati is about tracking and predicting
people by their data. So why not use a domain of that very
science--behavioral advertising--to spread the word to the most likely
readers?
That's what we're going to do. In the coming weeks, my publisher,
Houghton Mifflin, will be running an advertising campaign for The
Numerati on the vast network of sites affiliated with Platform
A/Tacoda, a division of AOL. We'll be studying the patterns of the
people who click on Numerati ads. Which web sites do they come from?
What types of profiles do they have? Do some profiles click more on one
type of ad than another?
We'll
make adjustments, and I'll describe the process, step by step, on this
blog. I'll also be sounding out readers on
the conclusions we reach and the advertisements we distribute. Maybe
you can steer us along a more reasonable path. Or perhaps the data will
lead us along a path that appears to defy all logic--but still works.
Are
there things I cannot talk about? Only one that I can think of: Money.
I'm not privvy to the details about how much this campaign costs. But
if I can wheedle any numbers out of the process, I'll do my best to
blog them.
Here's how the campaign should work. Our team
starts out by imagining the ideal readers for The Numerati. This
decision is made the old fashioned way, with the gut. For starters,
we'll be looking at two types of people, the datamining types who
resemble The Numerati and the arty-literature type crowd that might
page through an article about The Numerati in a magazine like The New
Yorker. I may have quibbles about those choices. Maybe you do too. But
the process has to start somewhere.
Over the first week, the ads
will be dropped along the Internet pathways of people who meet these
profiles. I'll go into much more detail as this process continues. As
Web surfers begin clicking (and ignoring), the data may show that the
Numerati/New Yorker types we imagined may be less interested in the
book than folks from entirely different tribes. At that point, we'll
start tweaking. All the while, the data will be pouring in, and I'll be
blogging about it.
Is this the new way to find readers? Our
opening premise, based largely on our guts, is that it is. But the data
will tell the story. That's the way of the Numerati. (other post about this on Blogspotting)
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Kirkus Reviews - https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/stephen-baker/the-boost/

LibraryJournal - Library Journal

Booklist Reviews - David Pitt

Locus - Paul di Filippo

read more reviews



Prequel to The Boost: Dark Site
- December 3, 2014

The Boost: an excerpt
- April 15, 2014

My horrible Superbowl weekend, in perspective
- February 3, 2014

My coming novel: Boosting human cognition
- May 30, 2013

Why Nate Silver is never wrong
- November 8, 2012

The psychology behind bankers' hatred for Obama
- September 10, 2012

"Corporations are People": an op-ed
- August 16, 2011

Wall Street Journal excerpt: Final Jeopardy
- February 4, 2011

Why IBM's Watson is Smarter than Google
- January 9, 2011

Rethinking books
- October 3, 2010

The coming privacy boom
- August 17, 2010

The appeal of virtual
- May 18, 2010





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