Most people have figured out the way online advertisements work. You search for baking recipes on Google, and the next thing you know you are inundated with adds for bakeries or rolling pins. Data is processed quickly and turned around in a way that helps businesses target users who may be interested in their organization. 

While this concept is still relatively new, it has proven thus far to be successful. Now it is evolving.

Earlier this week, an article in the New York Times blog examined the ways marketers are increasing their efforts to obtain pertinent data and use it to enhance the way they run their campaigns and target various customer types. While information is always going to serve as the base of any digital marketing effort, the way in which it's managed has greatly improved in recent years.

"The amount of information available to advertisers has increased exponentially, from credit card and telecommunications companies and even from brands," wrote Tanzina Vega, the article's author. "Instead of using old retargeting methods, such as showing someone an ad for a car that person just viewed online, brands are using new technologies to help them decide, often in advance, whether a consumer should be shown an ad for, say, a luxury car or an inexpensive car, or any car at all."

Brands are focusing on processing power and coming up with new ways to use their data, according to Scott Hagedorn, an executive at a data marketing company, who spoke with Vega about this phenomenon. And while the focus shifts from obtaining information to finding better ways to use it, software is becoming even more important. 

To succeed in an increasingly competitive marketplace, businesses need to ensure they are equipped with custom database software systems that can help marketers discover new uses for their information.