Behavioral vs Contextual Targeting is a popular question amount publishers, but there is no simple answer to it. First, let’s understand these terms. Behavioral targeting is done with respect to the data present about the behavior of the user. For example, if a user is looking to buy shoes, she will be targeted for shoe ads.
In Contextual targeting the behavioral data is absent, and the ad is shown on the basis of the content of the webpage. In this case, an ad for shoes will only be shown on pages that talk about shoes.
Needless to say, both of these are powerful tools and cannot perform without the other, Finding the right balance between these two will give publishers desired results.