Paid Media Audience Targeting Essentials
Want to learn how to optimize audience targeting and maximize your return on investment (ROI)? Read on as Michael Shaug, founder and CEO of Premier Online Marketing, shares valuable insights and strategies to help you get your ads in front of the right people.
Leverage First-Party Data
Using first-party data is an advanced targeting strategy that can significantly boost your campaign’s performance. First-party data includes information collected directly from your customers, such as purchase history and interaction data.
- Upload customer lists into your ad platforms to create highly targeted campaigns. This can include past purchasers, high-value customers, and even segments based on product categories.
- Use this data to find similar audiences (lookalike audiences) who share characteristics with your top customers.
- Keep your customer data updated so that your targeting stays accurate and relevant. This approach helps you stay aligned with your audience’s evolving behaviors and preferences.
Geographic Targeting
Focusing your ad spend on specific areas where your customers are located can significantly boost your campaign’s effectiveness. This strategy involves a detailed analysis of your target market’s location and adjusting your campaigns accordingly.
- Prioritize ad spend in areas where your dealership or business is physically located. For example, if you are a dealership in Austin, Texas, allocate more budget to Austin and its surrounding neighborhoods.
- Use your CRM to identify the top 10 zip codes where you have made the most sales. Target these areas for higher visibility in these key zones. We like to use 1 mile and 1 Kilometer radius targets to get as close to where our target automotive shoppers are likely to be.
- Apply positive bid adjustments to high-value areas and exclude regions that do not generate sufficient ROI.
Demographic Targeting
Segmenting audiences based on income levels is essential, particularly for high-ticket items. By focusing on the income brackets who can afford your products, you ensure that your ads are shown to potential buyers that are most likely to make a purchase.
- Concentrate on the top income earners who are more likely to purchase high-value items like luxury cars or premium motorcycles.
- For premium products like luxury vehicles, or expensive motorcycles, or SxS’s, exclude lower-income segments to avoid wasting ad spend on audiences unlikely to convert. Not everyone can afford what you are selling, but they can click on your ads and waste your ad budget.
- Use bid adjustments to target or avoid certain segments. Implement positive bid adjustments to reach users in affluent areas, as they are more likely to make a purchase. Use negative bid adjustments to reduce your visibility to audiences less likely to convert.
Behavioral Targeting
Creating audiences based on user behavior is a powerful way to ensure your ads are seen by highly engaged potential customers. This involves tracking user interactions and segmenting audiences according to their behavior on your website.
- Track metrics such as time spent on the website, pages visited, and specific product interactions. This data helps identify users who are more likely to convert.
- Create audience segments of users who have spent significant time on key product pages or those who have engaged with your site multiple times. For example, if the target timeframe for an engaged user is 2 minutes, create an audience that captures all the users who are onsite for enough time. IP exclusions might be helpful so your employees don’t muddy the data by being on your website most of the day.
Remarketing
Not every customer converts on the first click. For some users, it can take up to 7 touches to make a sale. This is why remarketing is so important.
- Use behavioral data to build remarketing lists, targeting users who have previously visited your site but did not convert. Tailor your ads to address their specific interests and encourage them to return and complete a purchase.
- Create engaged user audiences for ‘multi page/VDP visitors’. Serve remarketing ads based on the vehicle type your audience wants. Generic remarketing is great, but specific vehicle targeted remarketing yields better results and meets your users where they are.
- Create audiences for ‘web converters’ or ‘callers’ so you can understand those user characteristics specifically and optimize for that outcome.
Exclusion Targeting
Exclusion targeting is as important as positive targeting. By excluding irrelevant or non-performing segments, you ensure that your ad spend is focused on the most promising audiences. This is essential for effective ROI marketing practices.
- Negative Keywords:
- Regularly update your negative keyword list to exclude terms that are not relevant to your products or services. Each dealership should have several thousand negative keywords in their lists to prevent wasted spend (Cheap, Low Credit, $1500 Car, Parts, etc)
- Geographic Exclusions:
- Identify and exclude geographic areas that consistently show low conversion rates. This helps concentrate your budget on regions with higher ROI potential.
- IP exclusions
- As mentioned above, employees spending time on your website can skew the data, so be sure to exclude any associated IP addresses.
These advanced audience targeting strategies can greatly improve the success of your paid search campaigns. With precise targeting, your ads will reach the right people at the right time, helping you get the most out of your investment and achieve better results in the competitive world of digital marketing.
If you’re looking into inorganic growth strategies in marketing like paid advertising, hiring an PPC agency to help with your paid marketing strategy is the first step. Book a call with one of our experts and get a free consultation to learn where you stand and what action to take to boost your ROI in your paid search campaigns.
