While direct marketing (displaying the same promotional material to all consumers) and content-relevant ads (showing promotional material related to the content of an article) are both personal advertisements, they are independent of the particular consumer. Promoters of predictive marketing argue that it increases purchases by predicting what a consumer wants to buy and then showing them adverts for that. Even if the consumer does not know of a product's existence, predictive buying technology can, through an analysis of the consumer's interactions on other websites, purchase history and other factors, bring that product to the consumer's attention.
