?More relevant targeting leads to reaching the right customer and driving better results,? said Jennifer Wise, analyst at Forrester Research, Cambridge, MA. ?It also means that marketers have to become more strategic in their targeting and demand this higher level of targeting. 

?Don't just target based on demographics likely to be interested in your product, instead target based on behaviors, expressed interest, inferred affinities and lifestyles,? she said.

Pinterest?s new tools will give advertisers a more precise way to reach the intended audience beyond its 30 different categories for pins, Advertising Age reported. For example, instead of just ?food and drink,? advertisers can target ?Italian fine? or ?red wine? and move from ?sports? to ?soccer.?

Pinterest could not be reached for comment.

Advertisers will now also be able to target users by audience, such as "outdoor enthusiast," and test animated pins that move when users scroll. 

Since Jan. 1, marketers have had access to Pinterest?s Promoted Pins, with the expansion including new brand ad formats for more advanced targeting.

Pinterest's Pinstitute aims to help businesses learn how to connect with their followers and see a greater return from Pinterest. The visual storytelling capabilities offered on Pinterest appeal to brands as they continue to invest heavily in digital marketing while trying to find strategies to create deeper consumer connections.

Kraftrecipes.com was among the first brands to take advantage of Pinterest?s Promoted Pins to reach customers with the right content at the right time.

General Mills, Nestlé, Expedia.com and Gap also have used Promoted Pins, taking Pinterest?s potential as a marketing platform to the next level. 

InMobi?s Appographic Targeting program leverages audience insights that go beyond app ownership and app category. It has delivered up to 72 percent higher install rates, 26 percent lower cost-per-install and 30 percent higher consumer lifetime value on app promotion campaigns.

Appographic Targeting is based on InMobi's analysis of more than 10,000 apps on the app store to identify the core elements that define a given app. The InMobi audience, including one billion unique mobile devices, has been categorized into 200 Appographic segments. 

Marketers can use these segments for sharper targeting of app-install campaigns.

 

For instance, a flight booking app can be promoted to users who engage with apps that offer trip planning, hotel booking, holiday packages or travel reviews.

Similarly, a shopping app can be promoted to users who engage with other apps that offer any type of deals and discounts, sell men's or women's apparel, or apps that sell specific products such as books and shoes.

A mid-core game can be promoted to users who enjoy apps that are based on city construction, clan-battle or medieval themes. 

 

?The end result of this sort of targeting is that a user sees ads for apps that he/she is most likely to install,? said Piyush Shah, vice president for products with InMobi.

?As the app economy on mobiles explode, marketers will see immense traction through such app-based targeting.?

InMobi?s pilots have shown up to 70 percent higher app install rates and up to 30 percent better lifetime value.

 

The inMobi and Pinterest endeavors point to the need for mobile targeting to improve to get past basic demographics and category-level segmentation to work. 

?Mobile ads have to be individually relevant to consumers to be less interruptive and meet this high expectation for all mobile experiences,? Ms. Wise said. 

?This means that marketers have to go from targeting a segment to an individual ? and that requires knowing their behaviors and affinities. 

?InMobi and Pinterest are making the right moves here to provide that level of targeting.?