Category: Audience

Audience targeting helps advertisers decide who should see an advertisement based on different characteristics, interests and behaviors and other available signals.

When this targeting is combined with programmatic advertising, advertisers can automatically buy digital advertising space and show ads to selected audience at scale.

What is Audience Targeting

Audience Targeting means selecting a specific group of people for an advertising campaign instead of showing an advertisement to everyone.

The Advertiser can create an audience based on available data and target signals. Audience targeting helps advertisers show the right message to a relevant group of people.

How does Audience Targeting work in Programmatic Advertising

Suppose a company wants to advertise smartwatches to people who may be interested in fitness.

1. The advertiser Defines the Audience: The Advertiser decides who they want to reach.
2. The Audience Is Built Using Available Signals: The advertising platform can use different signals to help identify suitable users or advertising opportunities. The signals can include things such as: First party data, website/app interactions, Location, Device information and other factors.
3. The Programmatic System Finds Opportunities: When a suitable advertising opportunity becomes available, the programmatic system evaluates whether it matches the advertiser’s campaign requirements.
4. The Advertisement is Shown: If the opportunity meets the campaign targeting and bidding requirements the advertiser can compete for the advertising space. If the advertiser wins the auction, the advertisement is displayed to the user.

Key Capabilities of Audience Targeting

1. Demography Targeting: Demographic targeting allows advertisers to reach audience based on characteristics such as age or gender where those signals are available and permitted.
2. Geographic Targeting: Geographic Targeting allows the advertiser to focus on the specific location.
3. Interest-Based Targeting: Interest-Based targeting focuses on what people may be interested in.
4. Behavior Targeting: Behavior Targeting uses available signals about a user’s previous interaction or activities.
5. Contextual Targeting: It is slightly different Instead of focusing primarily on who the user is contextual targeting focuses on what content the user is viewing.
6. First-Party audience targeting: Advertisers can use information collected directly from their own customers or users to create first-party audience.
7. Retargeting: Have you ever visited an online store, looked at a product and noticed advertisements for the same brand later? This is commonly known as retargeting.
8. Lookalike Audience Targeting: Some advertising platforms can help advertisers find new people who share characteristics or signal with an existing audience.
9. Device Targeting: Programmatic advertising can also use device-related targeting.
10. Audience Segmentation: Audience targeting allows advertisers to divide a large audience into smaller groups.Example:
    • Audience 1: New website visitors
    • Audience 2: Existing customer
    • Audience 3: Customer who haven’t purchased recently
    • Audience 4: People interested in particular products
    Each group can receive a different message.

Combining Multiple Targeting Capabilities

One of the biggest advantages of programmatic advertising is that advertisers can often combine different targeting segments. However, more targeting is not always better. If an audience becomes too narrow, the campaign may have difficulty reaching enough people or archiving efficient results.

Why Audience Targeting Is Important?

Without audience targeting an advertiser may show advertisements to a very broad audience.

Many people who see advertisements may not have interest in that product.

With audience targeting, the advertiser can focus its budget on audience that are more relevant to its campaign, this will help your business by reaching the relevant customers.

The future of Audience Targeting

Audience Targeting is changing as the digital advertising industry becomes more privacy focused.

The future of programmatic advertising is not simply about collecting more data. It is about using better signals, better technology and responsible data practices to deliver useful and relevant advertising.

Conclusion

Audience targeting is one of the most important capabilities of programmatic advertising.

It helps advertisers decide who they want to reach, where they want to reach them, and how they want to communicate with them.

Programmatic advertising automates the buying of digital advertising, while audience targeting helps determine audience and advertising opportunities are relevant to the campaign.

First party Audience is a group of users whose information a business collects directly through its own websites, apps, stores or other digital channels.

What Kind of Information Is First-Party Data?

• Website activity: You can learn which pages people visit, which products they view and what actions they take on your website.
• Purchase history: You can see what customers bought, how often they buy and how much they spend.
• Email interactions: If someone subscribes to your newsletter, you may know whether they opened your emails or clicked on a particular link.
• App activity: If your business has a mobile app, you can understand how users interact with it.

How Does a First-Party Audience Work?

Example users enter a website:

1. Users visit the Website: Users visit the website and look at several products.
2. User Create an Account: Users create an account using his email address. Now the business has a direct way to communicate with them.
3. User Adds the Product to His Cart: User adds his product to his shopping cart but leaves the website without completing the purchase.
4. User Becomes Part of an Audience: The business can create an audience of people who added products to their cart but did not purchase them.
5. Business Sends a Relevant Message: The business could send a reminder to the user about his cart or show them relevant marketing messages through an advertising platform.

Why Are First-Party Audiences Important?

First party audiences are becoming increasingly important because digital advertising is changing. As a result, businesses are paying more attention to the data they collect directly from their own customers.

How Are First-Party Audiences Used in Digital Marketing

There are several ways marketers can use first-party audiences:

Retargeting

Suppose someone visits your website but does not make a purchase. You can create an audience of eligible visitors and use it for retargeting campaigns, subject to platforms rules and the user consent choices.

Personalized Recommendations

If a customer has previously purchased some product based on that they will recommend the relevant products.

Is First-Party Data the Same as Personal Data?

Not necessarily. First-Party data describes where the data comes from – directly from the business own interactions with its audiences.

Some first-party data may be personal data, while other information may be aggregated or otherwise non-personal.

Conclusion

First party audience may sound like a complicated digital marketing concept, but the basic idea is quite simple. A website visitor, email subscriber, app user or customer can potentially become part of a first party audience.

Marketers can then use these audiences to create relevant campaigns, improve customer experiences, understand buying behavior and build stronger relationships.

Third-party Audience is a group of users identified using data collected by a company or source other than the business running the marketing campaign.

How does a Third-Party Audience Work?

Let’s understand with the simple example. Suppose a new company sells running shoes. The company has just launched its website, so it does not have much customer data yet.

1. An external company collects data A third-party data provider collects the information from various sources and uses it to create audience segments to applicable laws and permissions.
2. The data is organized into audience groups The external provider may create different audience segments. Based on their interest and people who frequently shop online.
3. The Business Select a Relevant Audience The company is trying to reach people who may have an interest in its products, even though those people may not have previously visited its website.
4. The Audience Is Used in Marketing The goal is to make the campaign more relevant than simply showing the advertisement to a completely random audience.
5. People See the Advertisement Potential customers may see advertisements for running shoes while browsing websites, apps or other digital platforms.

Third-Party Audience vs First-Party Audience

The information collected directly from this customer can be used to create first-party audience, subject to appropriate permissions and privacy requirements.

Now the company wants to reach people who have never visited its website. It may use an available third-party audience from an external source, where permitted

So:

• First Party Audience: Data comes directly from your own interactions with customers or users.
• Third Party Audience: Audience information comes from an external company or source

Why Do Marketers Use Third Party Audience?

Third Party audience have traditionally been useful for business that want to reach new potential customers.

• Reaching New users: A business can potentially reach people who have never interacted with its website or app
• Finding Relevant Audience: External audiences provide may offer segments based on interest, behaviors or other characteristics
• Supporting Customer Acquisition: A business launching a new product may use external audience segments to help introduce the product to potential customers
• Expanding Marketing Campaigns: If a company has a relatively small first-party audience, external audience sources may historically have helped expand its reach.
• Data Quality: The accuracy and freshness of audience information can vary depending on the source.

Conclusion

A third-party audience is essentially an audience sourced from an external company or data source rather than collected directly by the business using it. It has traditionally helped marketers reach new potential customers based on interests, behaviors and other audience factors. It has traditionally helped you reach people you don’t directly know.