Maximize your marketing efficiency with an audience strategy
To be successful in today’s competitive business landscape, it’s essential to have an effective audience strategy in place to collect relevant first, second, and third party data. By taking a closer look at the performance of different audience segments who you’re targeting and the best ways to reach them, you can maximize the returns of your media investment.
How to build a strong audience strategy
First step: Collecting 1st party data
Collecting 1st party data is an essential part of any audience strategy. This is generally collected from the likes of your Google Analytics account, Google Ads, CRM, ad servers and CDPs.
Collecting 1st party data can be a complex process depending on the type of data you need to collect. Below is an outline of how we collect 1st party data from your various advertising platforms.
1. Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
To start with collecting 1st party data from GA4, you have to ensure that your website is properly tagged with the correct tracking code for your page views and events, as this will allow you to see all user interactions within your site in detail. We also check you have set up specific goals for each page view so that when users interact with them it can be tracked and assigned to a specific audience segment.
2. Google Ads
The Google Ads conversion tracking feature allows you to track conversions on your website and use that data to build audiences for remarketing. To build audiences you should:
- First, you need to set up conversion tracking in your Google Ads account by creating a conversion action and adding the conversion tracking code to your website. The conversion tracking code is a snippet of JavaScript that is placed on the page of your website where conversions occur, such as a thank-you page after a purchase.
- Once the conversion tracking code is in place, it will track and record conversions on your website. This data is then sent to your Google Ads account, where it can be used to build audiences.
- To build audiences, you can use the “Audiences” tab in your Google Ads account. Here, you can create new remarketing lists by specifying different criteria, such as users who have completed a conversion or users who have spent a certain amount of time on your website.
- Once you have created an audience, you can use it to create a remarketing campaign in Google Ads. This will allow you to target ads to users who are most likely to convert, based on their previous behavior on your website.
- You can also use the audience data to create a lookalike audience, which allows you to target similar users who have never visited your website before.
3. Ad servers
In order to use the floodlights from Campaign Manager (CM) to build audiences, you will first need to set up and configure the floodlight tags on your website or mobile app. Floodlight tags are small snippets of code that you place on specific pages or events within your website or app in order to track specific actions or conversions.
Once you have the floodlight tags set up, you can use the data collected by the tags to build audiences in CM. You can create audiences based on specific actions or events captured by the floodlight tags, such as visiting a certain page or completing a purchase. You can also use the data to segment your audience based on demographics, interests, or other characteristics.
Once you have created your audience, you can then use it to target specific ads or content to those users… understanding of your customer behaviors, preferences, and needs to better serve them.
Second step: Have 2nd party data agreements in place
Second-party data is data that is exchanged between two parties, usually for marketing purposes. This type of data typically originates from one company and then is shared with another. Common sources of second-party data include customer loyalty programs, subscription services and registrations.
Having 2nd party data agreements in place is essential to ensure privacy and security. These agreements are used between two companies, often a publisher and your company, to establish parameters for collecting and using consumer data. Through these agreements, both parties agree on the types of information that can be collected from users, how it can be used, when it should be destroyed or returned upon request, and any other provisions related to the sharing of user information.
This helps safeguard customer privacy while allowing businesses to gain insights into their target audiences through tailored advertising campaigns. Additionally, having these agreements in place demonstrates that a business takes its customers’ privacy seriously which encourages trust and loyalty among them. Indaru has experience negotiating these deals and can support you in your process.
Third step: Select high-quality 3rd party data suppliers
Third-party data is information that has been collected from sources outside of your organization, such as data providers, and then made available for purchase or licensing. It can include demographic information about consumers, transactional data from online purchases, or even insights into customer behavior gleaned from social media posts. 3rd-party data can enrich and add context to 1st and 2nd-party data.
Third-party data suppliers can be an integral part of any audience strategy. High-quality 3rd party data can provide reliable and accurate customer insights, enabling you to better understand your target audiences and create more effective campaigns that deliver maximum ROI.
On the other hand, there are some risks associated with using third party data including:
1. Data Quality risks
Third party data may be inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, which can lead to ineffective marketing campaigns and wasted resources.
2. Legal Risks
Third party data providers may not have legal rights to the data they are providing, which can lead to legal action against the company using it.
Fourth step: Audience activation
The final step of your audience strategy is activating your audience segments within, for example, your DSP platforms such as DV360, MediaMath, The Trade Desk and so forth. By using custom audiences, you can target your ads based on specific criteria, such as audience interests or specific audience traits. In addition, this can help you improve your conversion rate and ultimately increase your ROI. And because you’re able to target precisely who sees your ads, you can also save money by not wasting impressions on people who are unlikely to convert.
Having an effective audience strategy can help you maintain a competitive advantage to your competitors.
Why your business needs an audience strategy
1. Content That Resonates
A good audience strategy can help your business create content that captures the attention of your desired audience. This involves understanding the needs and interests of those within the target group – what do they care about? What motivates them? How can you draw them in with your messaging? Having this knowledge allows you to tailor content specifically for these customer segments, increasing engagement and conversion rates as well as creating loyal customers who feel heard by your brand.
2. Effective Allocation of Resources
An audience strategy also helps your business better understand where you should be investing time and money when it comes to your marketing efforts. By narrowing down key segments in your target market, you can put more resources into areas which promise higher returns on investment (ROI) while avoiding wasting time and money on market segments that are unlikely to convert.
3. Campaign Optimization
Having an understanding of your various audience segments enables you to optimize campaigns across different channels using data-driven insights gained from studying customer behaviour online. This enables you to not only save costs but increase RoAS by properly targeting your ads according to user characteristics such as location or interests.
In addition to this, a thorough understanding of your audience can help you choose the most effective advertising channels to reach them through, allowing you to focus your efforts on campaigns that will bring the desired results.
4. Stay Ahead of Competitors
Having an effective audience strategy can help you maintain a competitive advantage to your competitors. With the knowledge gathered from studying your own consumer base, you will be able to identify gaps left uncovered by other players in the market and be able to better serve this segment, thereby empowering your business to tap into new opportunities previously unexplored.