Audience Targeting: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Crowd Targeting

Definition: Audience targeting, also known as crowd targeting, is the process of placing users into audiences based on demographic or behavioral data, and then targeting those audiences via ad campaigns, emails, and more.

Do you ever feel like certain brands and advertisements just understand you? That’s audience targeting at work.

Brands that successfully use audience targeting can create personalized marketing messages that resonate with their audience to encourage more clicks, conversions, and ultimately sales for their business.

On this page, we’ll dive into the ins and outs of audience targeting and answer common questions, such as:

• What is audience targeting?
• How does audience targeting work?
• Why do you need audience targeting?
• What are the best audience targeting strategies?

What is audience targeting?

Audience targeting is the process of separating consumers into segments, or groups, based on their demographics, interests, and more. With audience targeting, you can create promotional materials specifically for the consumers who are most likely to purchase your products and services.

How does audience targeting work?

Now that you know the answer to the question “What is audience targeting?” let’s dive into some more details about how audience targeting works. Audience targeting can involve analyzing customer data and creating buyer personas to identify your ideal customers to more personalized marketing materials.

When audience targeting is done successfully, you can create content that resonates with specific types of consumers, encourage them to engage with your marketing content and ultimately make a purchase.

Audience targeting works by separating consumers into segments, or groups, based on their demographics, interests, purchasing history, and more.

For example, you can target consumers based on their age, location, or whether they’re a previous customer. If your company offers multiple products and services, you can consider which types of consumers are the most likely to purchase each product or service.

You can also analyze essential customer data and behavior on your website to learn more about your audience so you can identify which types of consumers are the most likely to convert into customers. This process is also called behavioral targeting.

Why do you need audience targeting?

So, why do you need audience targeting? Check out some key advantages of audience targeting below:

• Generate more high-quality leads: Audience targeting helps you create marketing content, like ads, that reach the consumers who are the most interested in your products and services. That means you can generate more high-quality leads for your business.
• Increase your web traffic: Audience targeting enables you to create personalized promotions that resonate with your audience, encouraging them to click on and engage with your content. As a result, you can drive more high-value traffic to your website.
• Earn a higher return on investment (ROI): The goal of any marketing strategy is to earn the highest possible ROI for your efforts. Audience targeting ensures that your marketing messages reach your ideal customers, helping you to maximize your sales and ROI in the process.

If you want to power your digital marketing strategies to reach the consumers who will provide the most value for your business, investing time in audience targeting is a must.

4 awesome audience targeting strategies to maximize your revenue

If you’re ready to reach more members of your target audience, we’ve got you covered.

Check out these four audience targeting strategies to help you reach your ideal customers:

1. Analyze audience data with Google Analytics

Without first identifying your target audience and understanding what motivates them to make a purchase, you can’t successfully target your marketing to the right consumers.

Luckily, with data analytic tools like Google Analytics, it’s easy to track and analyze essential information about your current and potential customers.

With Google Analytics, you can:

• View audience demographics
• Analyze essential metrics, such as your conversion rate
• View the sources of web traffic and leads
• Analyze audience behavior, such as which pages users visit on your website and how much time they spend on the page

Once you’ve tracked and analyzed data from your website visitors and previous customers, you can identify and better understand your target audience. For example, you might notice that most of your website visitors are from one particular city or town.

You can then use this information to segment your audience to create groups of consumers interested in different products and services that your business offers.

2. Consider using audience targeting features in Google Ads

One of the best digital marketing strategies that enable you to reach your target audience is pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. PPC ads allow you to create ads that display on search engine results pages (SERPs) each time a user searches for keywords related to your business.

Google Ads is one of the most popular platforms to launch and manage PPC campaigns. Plus, it comes with plenty of audience targeting features to help you ensure the right users see your ads.

With Google Ads, you can target users based on their:

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Device types, such as smartphones and tablets
• Interests
• Keywords they search for
• And more

By taking advantage of the plethora of Google Ads’ targeting options, you can ensure your PPC ads reach high-value consumers to help you generate more quality leads and conversions for your business.

3. Invest in search engine optimization (SEO)

Investing in an SEO strategy can increase your rankings in the SERPs to boost your online visibility and help more users discover your business online.

SEO helps you get your brand in front of the consumers who are actively searching for your products and services online.

You can use SEO to help you reach your audience by creating more opportunities for your website to rank at the top of the search results for keywords related to your business.

To do this, you can conduct keyword research to identify high-value keywords and phrases that your target audience is searching for online. You can then insert these keywords throughout your website to help boost your rankings.

You can also create custom content that answers your audience’s questions and provides them with solutions to their queries.

When you create custom content that contains high-quality keywords and provides value for your audience, you can help ensure your website appears at the top of the search engine result pages (SERPs) each time a user searches for phrases and solutions related to your business.

As a result, SEO is an excellent way to drive more high-value web traffic and leads for your business.

And when a one ranking spot increase in search engine rankings can increase your click-through rate (CTR) by more than 30.8%, it’s easy to see why so many businesses have taken the plunge into implementing an SEO strategy.

4. Use social media ad targeting options

Next on our list of audience targeting strategies is using social media targeting. With more than five billion active users on social media, it’s an excellent channel to promote your business and reach your target audience.

Multiple social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, offer audience targeting features to help you ensure your ads reach the users who are most likely to convert into paying customers.

For example, Facebook ad targeting enables you to reach users based on:

• Demographics, like age and location
• Job status
• Relationship status
• Interests
• Hobbies
• Purchase history
• Connections to your brand, like if they follow your social media profile
• And much more

When it comes to attracting more qualified leads for your business, using social media ad targeting options is a must.

Always reach your target audience with WebFX

Are you ready to create compelling advertisements that reach your target audience, but aren’t sure how to get started? That’s where WebFX comes in.

At WebFX, our team takes the time to get to know your business to develop custom marketing campaigns that suit your company’s needs and help you achieve your business goals.

Our experts can help you create engaging marketing messages that always reach the most high-value consumers for your business with audience targeting.

We’ve helped businesses drive over $6 billion in revenue with our industry-leading digital marketing services in just the past few years. And we can help your company achieve impressive results too.

Speak with one of our strategists today by calling 888-601-5359 or contact us online to learn how we can help take your business to new heights.