A robust set of audience targeting capabilities is among the most important tools in a digital marketer’s kit for driving Real Business Results. As viewership shifts from conventional media to digital channels like CTV and Digital Audio, digital ads can reach a larger audience than ever before. But bigger isn’t always better. An audience that’s too broad will inevitably include people who simply won’t buy your product, translating to wasted ad spend. In uncertain times, when your ad budget is on the line, getting your audience right is among the best ways to drive real, measurable business results, like sales lift or in-store visits.
So, which capabilities do you need to target the right audience for your business? Here are some key capabilities to guarantee performance across the full funnel.
The Basics
Your audience targeting tools should exhibit 2 key qualities: variety and quantity. To reach the right people, you need to be able to select from a broad range of different audiences based on brand preferences, lifestyles, interests, demographic information, and, most importantly, real-world behavior based on locations people visit in real life.
Behavior-Based Audience Targeting
When developing your target audience, it is typically best to start with real-world behaviors. People’s interests and affinities provide a lot of insight into what they may buy in the future. By putting your brand top-of-mind with people who have interests related to your product, similarities with your ICP, complementary brand preferences, or simply use a competitor’s product, you can narrow your target to a smaller group of people who are more likely to convert.
While most platforms offer ad behavioral audiences that feature interests and lifestyles, GroundTruth’s audio targeting tools blend visitation data directly into the audiences. That means you can reach audiences with brand and activity preferences proven by the locations they’ve visited.
Location-Based Targeting
With the right audience targeting tools, targeting by location can be every bit as powerful as behavior-based targeting. Especially for goods and services with broad appeal, selecting audiences based on locations most likely to convert can be an ideal path. For example, belVita targeted Coffee Purchasers, belVita Brand Purchasers, and Target App Users for their behavioral audiences, but used location targeting to reach those audiences in very specific ways to drive sales:
- They used programmatic DOOH advertising in areas likely to convert to create brand awareness (fun fact: areas with DOOH had higher visitation rates!).
- They targeted neighborhoods around Target stores with high visitation rates.
- They targeted Location-Based Audiences that had proven visitation to specified Target locations.
- They used On-Premise targeting to reach their audience when at the point of purchase.
The end result of belVita’s location-targeted campaign? 221k proven in-store visits at a cost of just $0.22 per visit. Check out the full case study to see how this major brand used GroundTruth to drive Real Business Results.
Retargeting
Reaching the right target audience is an important first step to building an efficient marketing funnel, but it is just the first step. A common marketing idea is that it takes at least 7 touchpoints before someone takes action. While this number can vary in either direction, the core idea is true: you typically need to reach your audience multiple times on multiple devices before they become customers. That’s where Retargeting comes in.
Retargeting allows you to re-engage with people who viewed or interacted with your ad, nudging them closer to a sale or conversion. Even the best location and behavior-targeted audiences can benefit from retargeting, as it helps your brand stand out from the crowd, builds familiarity, and generates future sales and repeat customers.
Audience Targeting with GroundTruth
GroundTruth offers:
- 1500+ audiences constructed using a blend of real-world behaviors, purchase data, demographic information, and location data.
- Location-based targeting with access to real-time targeting, on-premise targeting, proximity targeting, and neighborhood targeting based on set geographical boundaries.
- Retargeting based on audience interactions and views.
Interested in building a successful ad campaign using a robust set of audience targeting tools? Create a free GroundTruth Ads Manager account today and launch your first campaign in minutes.
