The term “one size fits all” may be true for some things, but it certainly is not the case in digital marketing. A marketing approach that targets one type of audience may not be as effective on another audience. As any savvy digital marketer knows, the more precise the campaign, the better the results. The method for achieving this goal is audience targeting, a process that allows marketers to find the target audience for the current campaign. This blog will define the target audience, describe the importance of understanding them, and introduce the different approaches for effective segmentation.
What Is a Target Audience?
A target audience refers to the specific group of people a digital marketer aims to reach with a campaign. These individuals are most likely to be interested in a product or service and share common characteristics, such as age, gender, income level, location, interests, or buying behaviors. Marketers define a target audience by analyzing factors like demographics, psychographics, geographic location, and online activity. By identifying these key attributes, marketers can create tailored ads that resonate with this group, improving the effectiveness of the campaign and increasing the likelihood of driving sales and achieving a higher return on investment (ROI).
Why Is a Target Audience Important?
Your target audience is the group most likely to respond positively to a digital marketing campaign. While they may not be familiar with your brand initially, they are more inclined to engage with your product or service based on shared characteristics like needs, interests, or behaviors. When marketers effectively target the right audience, the likelihood of conversion increases, leading to more successful campaigns. Over time, a well-targeted audience can result in repeat customers, driving higher lifetime value (LTV) as they make multiple purchases.
The target audience is also the prime marker for all other facets of the digital marketing campaign. This segment will help the marketer determine things such as advertising strategy, marketing budget, creative generation, and more. Each product may have a secondary target audience or more beyond that, but the campaign manager may choose not to pursue such non-primary segments.
Benefits of Audience Targeting
Audience targeting can benefit digital marketers and brands by:
- Boosting traffic to websites, apps, and email subscriptions. Targeting a specific audience increases the likelihood of website visits, app downloads, and email sign-ups by reaching people more likely to engage.
- Obtaining quality leads. Targeted advertisements can reach interested prospects closer to the purchasing point.
- Improving ROI. Audience targeting can help marketers reach the desired customers with less effort and less ad spend, improving overall ROI.
How Do You Find Your Target Audience?
The best target audience for a particular digital marketing campaign is the segment with the most interest in purchasing the product or service. The first step is to create a buyer persona, which can be done by brainstorming or via data analyses. It takes some legwork to identify the correct audience, a task that can be completed through the paths outlined below.
Brainstorming
The quickest way to put together a buyer persona is to brainstorm one. Either alone or in a committee, think about what you already know about current audiences and hypothesize which groups may find interest in the product. Gather existing customer data to support the initial ideal customer profile (ICP) while prioritizing potential audience segments. Assemble such details as age, gender, income, location, and anything else that may apply. An illustration is optional but may prove helpful. Use this as a starting point for improving and refining your customer profile.
First-Party Data
First-party data is information that the marketer has direct access to. Collect this vital information from internal sources such as:
- Website analytics
- CRM systems
- Customer feedback
- POS transactions
- Mobile apps
- Email campaigns
- SMS campaigns
In order to collect first-party data effectively, make sure to confirm user consent, follow a universal tracking protocol, peruse active security measures, and anonymize sensitive user data into an aggregated ICP. Once collected and analyzed, first-party data can drastically bolster advertising campaigns.
Third-Party Data
Third-party data is information that is obtained from an external source. Such data can be purchased from industry publishers, demand-side platforms (DSPs), audience data marketplaces, and focused auctions. While obtaining third-party data can be simple, it is important to validate the quality and relevance of it before purchasing to ensure relevance and avoid unnecessary resource loss.
Offer Solutions to Pain Points
A surefire way to prime your digital marketing campaign for success is to identify the ideal customer’s pain points. The best pain points to target are ones that require external help that you can administer. From there, simply consider the possible solutions and proceed to offer them to the customer in advertisements.
Types of Audience Targeting
Audiences can be targeted in several ways, such as demographics, geography, context, technography, interest, and behavior. Such methods are described below.
Demographic Targeting
Targeting an audience based on demographics relies on personal information such as age, gender, income, and education level. This type of targeting is a staple in many digital marketing campaigns. Example: A marketing team may need to find buyers for Honda Passport vehicles. The team may decide to target individuals over 22 of any gender who earn at least $60,000 annually and possess at least a bachelor’s degree. According to prior research, this demographic is more likely to have interest in a mid-range SUV.
Geographic Targeting
Geographic targeting focuses on the location of a particular audience, such as a city, country, or zip code. It is extremely helpful to local businesses that rely on physical connections. Example: A marketing team may need to help sell pizza in Reno, NV. They could decide to tailor their advertisements to anyone living near or visiting the city and could be physically near the pizzeria. This type of targeting can help increase foot traffic to the establishment and improve the possibility of future visits.
Contextual Targeting
Contextual targeting looks for audiences that will visit related web pages. Anyone visiting the web page may see an advertisement relating to the page’s content. Example: A marketing team could be selling hiking shoes online. They could bid on paid search advertisements that revolve around keywords that relate to hiking, the outdoors, and camping.
Technographic Targeting
Technographic targeting takes into account the types of technology the audience is using, which includes devices, platforms, and software. Marketers can bundle components together or target specific ones. Example: A marketing team may be helping a client find buyers for soy sauce. The team could target recipe apps on smartphones that include recipes requiring soy sauce.
Interest-Based Targeting
Interest-based targeting identifies audiences based on their possible interest in a product, as per their online activities. This could be based on web page visits, social media interests, videos watched, and more. Example: A marketing team may be looking for buyers for a hair care product. The team may decide to focus on individuals who have an affinity for beauty products, as signified by visits to beauty blogs, follows to influencers, interactions with social media posts, opens or clicks within emails, and review posts for related products.
Behavior-Based Targeting
Behavior-based targeting observes the activities of consumers online and tailors campaigns based on them. Such activities could be viewing products in e-commerce stores, placing items into shopping carts, interacting with online ads, or purchasing a product. Example: An online shopper places socks into their cart. Advertisers can serve ads relating to socks, such as shoes, fitness clothing, or sports gear.
Retargeting
Retargeting is all about audiences who interact with your website without purchasing. Advertisements can be sent out after they leave the website to appeal to their interests. Example: A website visitor clicks on a blog post about pontoons, which places a cookie in their browser. The cookie allows interested parties to identify and advertise to them. After leaving the site, the user will see ads about pontoons or related products.
Remarketing
Remarketing focuses on existing customers who may want similar products or to purchase another round of the same item as before. It is an excellent way to reengage prior customers and visitors to certain web pages and possibly upsell them. Example: A customer purchases from or visits the store page of a basketball at your online store. A remarketing campaign launches and reminds customers to purchase replacement or surplus basketballs. Other products could be accessories relating to basketball, such as basketball sneakers, jerseys, or sweatbands.
Purchase-Intent Targeting
Purchase-intent targeting is all about working with those interested in buying a product. Example: A user searches for the keyword “cheap houses in Los Angeles.” Since this is a ‘buyer’ keyword, it shows the intent to purchase, and the user will see advertisements for low-cost housing in the Los Angeles metro.
Life Event Targeting
A major life event is a significant experience in a person’s life, such as a marriage, home purchase, or college graduation. Marketers can target this type of audience to serve advertisements revolving around such pivotal events. Example: A couple is planning on getting married in the summer. A marketing team could focus on serving ads with products or services that could help them have a more pleasant or easier wedding experience.
Existing Customer Targeting
Existing customers can be targeted through dynamic advertising and specialized software. Customer data can be used to serve ads to them, regardless of device. Example: A customer purchased an HD television from a local retailer. A marketing team can use their information to serve advertisements related to the purchase as they continue to use the internet on their smartphone, PC, or other devices. The advertiser can choose to promote items the user may want, such as HD TV accessories, speakers, or streaming services.
Lookalike or Similar Audience Targeting
Audiences that share traits with existing customers can be targeted, too. Lookalike, or similar, audience targeting allows marketers to scale by marketing to potential customers who may also be interested in purchasing. Example: A family in the Boulder, CO, area ordered a giant bag of dog food. A marketing team could find a similar demographic in similar locations to serve advertisements for similar products.
Get Precision Audience Targeting With J&L Marketing
There are many different audiences in the world, and targeting can help you identify the best opportunities for sales. Demographic, geographic, and behavior-based targeting are just a few audience-targeting options that could boost your advertising success. For a more hands-off approach, let us handle your audience-targeting activities. Our marketing team is known for being certified experts in the field since 1991 and is available to manage your campaigns. Contact us for a free consultation and discover the best audiences today.
