Hit The Bullseye With Audience Targeting
Let’s pretend for a minute that you’re cruising around the internet reading articles, doing some shopping, and staying up to date on your social media feeds. Then, as if out of nowhere, you see a big banner ad for some trail running shoes. You didn’t know you needed these specialty shoes, you didn’t even know they existed before seeing the ad, but now you absolutely have to have them.
You’ve just experienced what digital advertisers call ‘prospecting’, one of the key uses for digital campaign audience targeting. It’s a tactic that puts ads in front of new audiences who are likely to click and buy the featured product. While not every marketer uses it, everyone who has looked at their computer or phone screen has most certainly experienced it.
For many new to digital advertising, audience targeting may seem like a complex science with loads of convoluted formulas and algorithms. Since it’s an incredibly important element for your campaign, the first step in a successful full-funnel marketing strategy, this may put you off from trying to run a digital campaign in the first place. Lucky for you, the FieldTest digital ad platform makes reaching your key audiences simple!
Think of it like this: you’ve got your amazing product and you’ve created a ton of exciting content. Now you just need a little “predictive magic” to make sure it gets in front of the right audience. Say hello to audience targeting.
So What is Audience Targeting?
Essentially, audience targeting is when a digital advertiser places their products or services in front of a specific group of people. More specifically, it’s the use of first-party and third-party data to target particular audiences based on their demographics, interests, location and behaviors.
With audience targeting, this kind of tactical, data-driven filtering helps determine the audience that sees your ads. How you target your message depends on your offerings, campaign goals, and funnel stage. This may sound complicated but it’s really quite simple! At the top of your funnel you’ll reach out to potential customers who have likely never heard of your brand. In the mid-funnel you’ll shift focus to fostering a relationship with the people who responded to top of funnel creatives. At the bottom of the funnel you’ll focus only on the highly qualified intenders who responded to your mid-funnel creative. This means you’ll invest most of your targeting legwork at the top of funnel and use the resulting data to reap returns all the way down!
How to Find Your Target Audience
Now that you’ve got a better grasp on what audience targeting entails, you’re probably wondering how to put it to work. Your target audience is out there and with the right strategies and tactics you’ll find them, create a connection, and eventually make them loyal customers.
If you currently have a sturdy customer base, all you need to do is profile your customers. But if you’ve got a new business or product, you’ll need to define your audience. To do that you’ll need important data based around audience behavior, demographics, and location. This is all about being true to your brand and your product. For example, if you’re selling tractors, you wouldn’t want your ads popping up in major metropolitan markets like New York City or downtown Los Angeles. You’d make sure they appear on the phones of farmers in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Nebraska. If you’re selling yoga mats, you’ll want to target the cities saturated with yoga studios like San Diego and Portland. Invest a little time and research and you'll know your audiences like the back of your hand!
Audience Targeting with FieldTest
So you’ve decided who your audiences are and laid out a marketing plan to reach them, but the question remains: How exactly do I put these concepts to work? Many digital marketers hit this roadblock with their audience targeting, as they don’t have access to the data resources they need to identify and reach their exact audience. This is where FieldTest comes in! Our digital ad platform has access to millions of searchable data segments baked right into our ad builder. That means accessing the wealth of audience targeting data is as simple as searching for key interests, habits and locations and adding them to your campaign. It really is that simple!
Our data sourcing and savvy targeting tactics have had incredible campaign success with a range of clients, including our recent work for 277 Fifth Avenue, a luxury condominium in New York City. They tapped into our vast data inventory and targeted ultra-high net worth investors and specific buying groups that would be most interested in the property. They also targeted luxury shoppers who visited high-end websites around the world such as Sotheby’s or Christie’s. With smart creative and calculated audience targeting, we helped 277 Fifth increase sales from the very first quarter of working together!
Make Audience Targeting a Priority
Don’t let audience targeting get lost in your advertising strategy. It’s an essential component to a successful campaign, and when it’s done right it’ll take your ROI to new heights.