Deciding Who To Target: What Do I Need To Consider?
opens IMAGE file Advertising 101 says that you need to know who your audience is when you are creating an ad. The demographics of your target audience are crucial for marketing, and especially digital marketing today. But smart marketers know that Advertising 201 says that you can know exactly who you’re talking to in an ad and there’s no excuse for not doing so! At Data-Dynamix, we understand the intricacies of data and how you can use it to get really specific with your ad targeting. However, many of our clients need assistance when deciding how to target.
When speaking with our customers, we like to uncover the IDEAL person that is walking in their front door or purchasing something online. What do they look like? You know what we say as salespeople…“Client knows best!” It then becomes our job to educate. That is the biggest part of our jobs anyway. IDEAL is the starting point for any good selection process. We want to start the process with what we refer to as data stacking. Data stacking is expanding or detracting from the ideal. This can be increasing or decreasing ranges from below. It’s most important that we leave ourselves with enough consumers to serve our content relative messaging and deliver enough response for your clients to make a difference in their business. The goal being to have results that your client will be more than ready to deploy another campaign.
With over 300 audiences segments available at any given time you can be sure to find just who you’re looking for and some. Consider a few of the main filters we pull data from:
Age
There’s a huge difference between the psychology of an 80 year old and an 18 year old. Similarly, the generations in between all react to advertising differently as well. Our digital world is a very different place and some adults have grown up with nothing digital, whereas some have spent their whole life surrounded by digital messages. You have to know what age you are targeting to be able to craft a successful email or display ad campaign. Then, when you do know that target age group, you can craft your graphics and written message to cater to that generation.
Age is often the crucial factor that we include in any of our data demographics. Age is great because you can narrow your audience by psychological perspective, potential interest, or even buying power. For example, a BMW car dealership may not target a newly-graduated crowd of young adults. They would want to target an age group that has a consistent history of income to be able to afford a BMW.
Gender
Men are from Mars and women are from Venus. The differences between men and women are often very stark and dividing. Men and women may have different interests. The two genders also have other affinities to certain “types” of messaging. Wording something one way, with certain types of colors, will attract men and turn away women. The opposite is also true. Many marketing campaigns segregate data by targeting different genders.
Location or Geography
Location is perhaps the most important data factor to consider. Many businesses running email campaigns or online/in-app advertising, are based on driving people to a particular location. A brick and mortar business will want to segregate data based on zip codes so that their message is going out to the applicable audience. Even large-scale campaigns have a desire to target certain geographical areas. Consider presidential political elections: they may be advertising to the entire nation, but they also know that there are certain states or cities that need to be swayed more than others. They will target their campaign efforts based on geography.
Geography is incredibly important to a campaign’s success; especially, with newer tools such as geo-fencing. Conquesting can take on a whole new meaning. Who doesn’t like to get competitive with the competitor? The rise of mobile apps and mobile advertising allows for ads to be strategically placed and then retargeted based on your specific location. You may get special ads and offers pop up for local businesses based on your geographical location alone. For example, you may be car shopping at one Honda dealership, and then you start seeing ads for other nearby Honda dealerships because your geographical history or internet search history triggered a retargeting campaign to sway your decision. These types of ads may only discriminate based on geography, but they can be highly effective in our mobile-friendly society.
Income Level
As we mentioned earlier with the luxury car example, ability to afford the product may be the first level of data discrimination a retailer does. By targeting ads strategically to people within certain income levels, you can send your focused message to people who are more likely to purchase. Advertising luxury cars to someone barely scraping by is going to be wasteful. Compare that with focusing your data list to send to people who are making $100,000+ a year, you may have a better response.
Credit Score Ranges
Credit scores can be a very important factor for your business. Categories like Automotive, Real-Estate, Furniture, and even Mortgage Companies want to be speaking to consumers who have the ability to purchase. Credit scores can become as weighted as an individual’s income level. Many consumers want that $65,000 car or truck, but is the bank going to let them drive away after all your efforts to get them to your dealership?
Credit ranges can be transversely used to source consumers that have found themselves in credit trouble. Many companies have solutions for just these consumers who need help. All of the above categories have subprime solutions offerings with huge profit centers. This category can have some of the highest responders due to the fact that they really need help.
Now Go Deeper With Device ID and IP Address Targeting
Now understanding all of these demographic filters is vital to get at your ideal person, but many of these filters are still a little incomplete. They are highly educated strategies, but not always as concrete as we would like. That’s why we incorporate IP Address and Mobile Device ID targeting. Every device we use connects to the Internet with an IP Address, which corresponds to a physical location. Each mobile device also has their own mobile device ID. When we connect the dots between activity on one, we can serve up ads in either place based on actual activity. Therefore, if we have data matching demographics and geography to those identifiers, you can display digital advertising to the very devices your target buyers use!
And on and on…
Who do you want to target? We can pull successful data to fit the needs of your business AND deliver ads to those qualified people. There are endless combinations and part of the process is figuring out which combination of data and information will help your brand have the best success in a campaign. Just remember that the focus of utilizing data is to use your marketing dollars smarter, not harder. Data-based marketing is smart marketing and will yield you better results and stronger growth!