Audience Segmentation
Audience segmentation is about breaking down your target market based on certain criteria so you can deliver ads to the right people in the right places.
However, audience segmentation has rapidly advanced since the start of digital marketing. The demographic-based approach used to be the largest look into a consumer: whether someone is a male or female, how old the person is, and his or her permanent address.
Today’s users are now engaged on their smartphones, laptops, tablets, wearable fitness bands, etc. across countless apps, browsers, emails and more. Simply knowing a person’s gender and age doesn’t provide any information about how he or she spends the entire day, his or her consumer behaviors, personal interests, unique wants or needs.
The traditional approach to audience segmentation isn’t enough to stand out amongst your competition. In an era where consumer data is more advanced than ever before, whoever understands people best will deliver the strongest campaigns to the right audiences.
Why audience segmentation is essential:
Let’s say a major bank wants to increase the number of credit card signups in the next quarter. They should deliver a campaign to the right people who are most likely to respond to their offer.
Just because a group of people are 25+ and live in the U.S. doesn’t mean that they are:
- In-Market for a Credit Card (with an approved credit score)
- Credit Card Owners
- Avid Shoppers
- Homeowners
- Mobile Banking Users
Audience segmentation is much more powerful when utilizing valuable touchpoints to create a full profile of your ideal customer, then delivering relevant offers to a hyper-local, targeted audience based on your unique campaign goals.
With more technology available than ever before, we can understand people on a deeper level to provide personalized marketing experiences. That is if you’re using the information wisely.
Here are two ways audience segmentation can help you understand people on a deeper level.
Behavioral Segmentation
Behavioral segmentation allows you to go beyond the surface level and connect with your target audience based on their lifestyle and personal interests.
Collecting behavioral information involves actively listening to your target audience to develop a deeper understanding of their consumer behaviors, interests, and media preferences. This includes gathering offline consumer data, such as purchase behaviors, as well as online consumer data, such as website activity, to build accurate profiles of your audience segment.
Now more than ever, mobile behavioral targeting has become the largest open window into an individual’s unique consumer profile.
Mobile Segmentation
App downloads and usage are the most insightful ways to get to know today’s user. After all, U.S. adults spend more than the majority of their digital engagement time on mobile.
Mobile segmentation is the process of dividing a potential customer base into audience segments based on relevant, marketable mobile actions such as:
- Unique mobile device IDs
- Mobile app downloads
- Mobile shopping habits
- Social activity within apps
- Real-time location data
- Mobile web activity
Mobile segmentation allows marketers to target consumers based on a variety of aspects, otherwise unattainable (or less attainable) without consideration of the consumers’ mobile media preferences.
Not only can you monitor daily consumer habits, but you can also utilize geo-targeting capabilities. Geo-targeting allows marketers to pinpoint users’ exact locations through smartphones, and in turn, serve them with region-relevant advertisement campaigns.
Customize Your Audience
The more you know about your marketing goals, the better you can understand your ideal customers and audience segment.
Effective audience segmentation ensures that your marketing dollars are invested in real people who are most likely to respond on certain media, have already expressed an interest in your product/service, and are geographically accessible to a specific retail location.
We believe every campaign should be as dynamic and unique as its consumers. The powerful combination of consumer data allows you to customize audience segments to maximize customer engagement and drive campaign success.
