Targeted advertising: why it is needed, how it is set up and works
By the end of 2023, the number of mobile subscribers had grown to 5.7 billion, accounting for 71% of the world’s population. Approximately 4.8 billion of them have social media accounts as of April 2023. How do you find a client among such a huge online audience? The solution is targeted advertising, a strategy aimed at a specific audience based on various criteria such as age, gender, location, and interests. When users register, information is collected to help determine the audience for advertising materials. It’s important to clearly define your target audience in order to set up your campaign effectively.
What are the types of targeting?
To target the audience, there are various parameters that allow you to accurately determine the target audience and achieve better results from your advertising campaign. Socio-demographic metrics include characteristics such as age, gender, and education of users. Geo-targeting allows you to determine the location of ads, while behavioral and time targeting takes into account the actions and time of users on the network. Interests reflect users’ preferences and values. The main targeting formats include ads in social media feeds, stories, in-page navigation, recommended posts, snapshots, and in the right or left column. The visual component of the ad plays an important role. Different ad formats, such as video ads, carousel, slideshows, etc., are used to effectively convey information.
What is the difference between targeted and contextual advertising?
Targeted advertising on social media uses user data to precisely target ads, attracting the attention of new users.
Contextual advertising is based on search queries and targets an interested audience looking for specific information.
Targeted advertising is focused on cold audiences, using warm-up methods to attract their attention.
Contextual advertising is aimed at a “warm” audience with a preliminary interest in, and demand for, a product or service.
The payment model in targeted advertising is CPM (cost per thousand impressions), while in contextual advertising it is CPC (cost per click).
Who can use targeted advertising?
Contextual advertising experts emphasize the importance of choosing the right goals, audience, and creative approach for targeted advertising that meets the specifics of the business. The stages of the sales funnel and the use of KPIs are key to a successful strategy.
The classic advertising funnel includes the See (a person doesn’t know about the company and its products), Think (a person knows about the product and the company but hasn’t bought anything), Do (a user wants to buy something and has shown interest in the product), and Care (a user for whom the strategy goal has been achieved) stages, which vary depending on the product, budget, and objectives.
For example, if you sell children’s clothing, advertising campaigns can be aimed at optimizing shopping cart purchases by focusing on the Do and Care stages.
In the case of B2B products, such as CRM systems for medical institutions, the emphasis can be on Care, Do, and Think, depending on the business model.
Effective targeting of decision makers is essential for B2B advertising on social media platforms such as Facebook.
Social media targeting has numerous advantages. It allows you to accurately identify your target audience and personalize ads for each segment. Quick analysis of statistics allows you to optimize campaigns on the go.
The key advantage is the ability to promote products without your own website, as well as tools that help expand the audience.
However, there are also drawbacks. Strict moderation of creatives and different settings on each platform can complicate the process of an advertising campaign.
Despite this, social media still allows you to successfully promote your products and services. It is important to fit targeted advertising into the overall marketing strategy.
Which social networks to choose for targeting
Advertising platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Telegram have their own features and benefits for advertisers.
Facebook, with 24 million users in Ukraine, is particularly attractive for advertising because it has a variety of formats and a wide reach to different audiences. Ads can be set up through Facebook Ads Manager, which makes managing campaigns easy.
YouTube is ideal for video advertising with a large audience in Ukraine. With Google Ads, you can fine-tune your targeting and select specific channels for your ads.
Instagram – attracts a mostly female audience and is a good option for B2C businesses. Ads can be managed both through the Instagram interface and through Facebook Ads Manager, but the latter has more features.
Telegram is a messenger that offers opportunities for advertisers, although it has no tools to describe the target audience. However, ads can be placed on channels with a large number of subscribers.
The choice of platform depends on the goals of the campaign and the target audience.
What else you need to know about targeted advertising
The social media pixel
A social media pixel is a special code that is installed on a website or mobile application to track visitor behavior and collect their data. It allows you to segment your audience by creating personalized advertising campaigns, including remarketing, look-alike audience formation, and targeting optimization.
Remarketing and retargeting
Retargeting is an advertising strategy that targets users who have already visited a website or expressed interest in a product but did not convert. The social media pixel collects data to build remarketing lists.
Look-alike is a tool for finding new customers among the network’s audience by forming a similar audience based on the original base.
Campaign optimization – by tracking targeted user actions, you can optimize your ads by removing ineffective ads.
Advertising effectiveness – for evaluation, indicators such as conversion, cost per 1000 impressions, click-through rate, cost per targeted action, and ROI are used.
Cost – it is important to consider the competitiveness of the niche, payment method, platform, audience settings, geography, and campaign duration.
Budget – before planning, it is important to determine the goal and various factors such as average check, cost per customer acquisition, conversion and click-through rates of ads.Start of form
The beginning of the form
A list of things to do before launching targeted advertising.
- The goal of the campaign: This is the first and key step. Determine what exactly you want to achieve – raise your brand, attract new customers, or increase sales.
- Audience analysis: Carefully study your audience – their age, gender, interests, location. This will help you set up targeting more effectively.
- Competitor analysis: Studying the competitive environment will help you understand what your competitors are doing and how you can improve your strategies.
- Prepare a landing page: Make sure your website is ready to receive traffic from your ad campaign and has an attractive design and easy navigation.
- Create advertising materials: Develop a variety of ad formats and creative copy that will grab your audience’s attention.
- Study the campaign settings in detail: It is especially important to study the settings of your Instagram and Facebook campaigns, as the right settings will help you maximize your campaign results.
- Customer profile: This is a tool for better understanding the target audience and setting up targeted campaigns. Use data about your potential customers to create personalized advertising materials and optimize your customer acquisition strategy.
Don't forget to
Targeted advertising is an effective way to advertise goods and services only to those who meet certain parameters. Accurately defining the target audience is important. The advantages include working with a targeted audience, personalization of ads, and the ability to optimize an advertising campaign. The key role is played by the preparation stage, including the creation of a client portrait, competitor analysis, and the preparation of a landing page and the development of ads.