Personalizing advertising content

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Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2

There are many different methods that you can use to personalize advertising content for your users, including:

  • Cookies. You can use information stored in cookies to access the demographic data of your users and target advertising that is relevant to user profiles. This method is used by most advertising service vendors. For more information about using cookies with Windows Media Services, see the Windows Media Services SDK.

  • Usage history. If you are using authentication, you can track users' choices and activities on your Web site and then provide appropriate advertisements, based on these activities. Over time, the usage history can help you to target advertising to your site audience. This method is good for Web sites that have high user return rates.

  • User-provided interest information. This is the easiest way to provide personalized advertising to your users. It requires that you use an authentication method to identify your users to the server. You can ask users what their interests are when they set up accounts on your Web site and then provide advertisements that are appropriate.