How to Better Target Your Audience

With so many ways to send a message to an audience today, it can be overwhelming trying to figure out which method works best. There are, however, a few simple ways you can reach your target more effectively.

Plan Your Campaign Fully

An ad campaign needs to be completely thought through. Throwing together creatives and sending them out at random won’t return any decent results. Make sure you decide on your message, audience, budget, creatives and contingency plans well in advance of launch day.

Utilize the Right Data

More data sets available mean more information can be used for effective audience targeting. The key is knowing how to connect the data sets (e.g. National Online Voter File®, National Consumer File, Polk Automotive Data, etc.) to understand the targets. By utilizing unique data sets, advertisers are able to know where to place an ad so the desired target is likely to see it — lowering the amount of wasted impressions and increasing ROI.

Target at the Addressable Household level

A partnership with 10 of the top 12 internet service providers (ISPs) in the U.S. allows privacy-compliant household addressable-based digital ad targeting. Only a4 has the capability to do this type of targeting. ISPs assign IP addresses to consumers’ households when they sign up for broadband service. As IP addresses frequently change, a4’s technology instantly maps the new IP address to the physical address of that household, enabling the ongoing delivery of targeted digital advertising. These authenticated IP addresses are exact and precise.

Consider Multiscreen

A multiscreen campaign uses the same data for TV and digital to reach an audience across all devices, or “screens.” No longer does an advertiser have to choose one or the other. Using the same data set, a client can target via TV and digital and receive recommendations on an optimized TV and digital mix based on the actual media consumption data of the specific audience.

Use the Best Tool

A superior planning and activation tool can make all the difference. There are platforms available that can even intuitively determine the right amount of spend on a TV and/or digital campaign. An effective tool will allow the user to experiment and see how many households can be targeted by each variation of how a segment is defined. This provides a more comprehensive campaign.

Make Adjustments

Check in with your campaign as it’s running and you will be able to optimize it based on the current results. Adjusting the campaign as needed allows for the ability to produce better KPIs like more impressions, a lower bounce rate and a higher CTR.

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