Chapter 3: How to Develop an Audience for Your Campaigns
3.1 Conducting Research on Past Customers
Audience development is a pivotal component of digital marketing strategy, crucial for tailoring your approach to engage and convert potential customers effectively. Before setting up an audience in Meta, conducting comprehensive research to create multiple audiences based on customer behavior or traits is essential.
Utilizing Google Analytics offers valuable insights into your website visitors, their behavior, and preferences. Here are ways to leverage Google Analytics for audience development:
- Audience Reports: Explore demographic characteristics, interests, and behaviors of your site visitors to tailor content and messaging.
- Engagement and Acquisition Reports: Analyze user interaction and navigation paths to optimize the user experience and guide visitors towards conversion.
- E-commerce Insights: For online stores, assess purchasing behavior to understand which products are most popular and profitable.
3.2 Identifying Key Target Audiences
It’s advisable to thoughtfully consider who your target audience is before launching your campaign rather than making spontaneous decisions. Initial results can guide future adjustments and testing of different audience versions.
How to find the audience section in your Business Manager:
3.3 Understanding Different Audience Types
Meta and other social media platforms offer a variety of audience creation options. Here’s how to navigate these options effectively:
Top-of-Funnel Audiences
- Interest-Based (Saved) Audiences: Utilize Meta’s data points, including page likes and content engagement, to define audiences by interests.
- Location: Create separate audiences for different locations to ensure targeted and effective ad delivery.
- Age and Gender: Start with broader age groups and refine based on budget and product relevance. Consider separate campaigns for different genders if applicable.
- Interests (Detailed Targeting): Maintain a thematic consistency within each interest-based audience for more effective targeting.
Layered or Stacked Audiences
Combine broad interests with additional layers, like “luxury goods,” to refine your targeting further. Include behaviors like “engaged shoppers” for overly large audiences.
Lookalike Audiences
Create audiences that mirror the characteristics of existing customers or engaged users to reach potential customers with similar interests and behaviors.
Middle and Bottom of Funnel
- Middle of Funnel (MOF): Focus on engagement, such as page fans or engagement audiences, to target users familiar with your brand.
- Bottom of Funnel (BOF): Target users who visited your site but haven’t purchased, using custom audiences based on website actions.
3.4 Excluding Audiences
Exclude certain audiences, like recent purchasers or website visitors, from TOF campaigns to optimize ad spend and focus on acquiring new customers.
3.5 Impact of Apple iOS Update on Online Marketing
The Apple iOS 14.5 update introduced App Tracking Transparency, significantly affecting digital advertising by limiting user tracking and data collection. This has made remarketing less precise, prompting marketers to adapt strategies and utilize tools like Meta’s Conversions API for improved tracking and reporting.
Another potential audience to consider is those interested in wellness and/or personal care. For brands targeting younger demographics, targeting shows or clothing brands that this group is likely to engage with may be beneficial. The key is to explore different ideas and see what resonates. Once you find an idea, use suggestion tools to generate even more ideas!