Whether you’re a novice or an experienced marketer, conducting advertising campaigns on platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn can be confusing. These social media platforms are making constant updates to their advertising capabilities, and the options can become overwhelming very quickly. When it comes to audience targeting, making sure you hit the right audience the first time can save significant time and money. Here’s how to get creative with your audience targeting to drive clicks and conversions.
Explore Demographics
As a company, you should already have a clear understanding of who your target audience is. The product or service you offer likely fills the need for people in a specific age range, geographic location, or other demographic specification. Build your audience with these initial things in mind, but don’t be afraid to explore and experiment with different sectors of interest in your industry. For example, if you’re a travel agent looking for new clients, your target audience is likely middle to upper-class adults with interests in travel, but there are endless ways you can narrow that audience to make your ads more effective; solo travelers, honeymooners, and family vacations are all potential ways you can creatively target this group. Taking time to brainstorm the niches within your ideal audience is a great way to explore demographics and reach your audiences in a more creative way.
Create Custom Audiences
One of the most effective ways to get creative with your audience targeting is to utilize custom audiences. In Facebook, custom audiences are designed to help you retarget people who have previously interacted with your brand, or people who look like those who have. Utilizing these can be an extremely effective way to set your ads up for success. Want to run a video ad? You can create a custom audience of people who have engaged with your past videos. Trying to encourage email sign-ups? Narrow down your audience to people who have already visited your website. Especially for retargeting and lower-funnel ads, getting creative with your custom audiences is highly recommended.
Think Outside The Box
If you’re trying to advertise to a broad target audience in an oversaturated industry, it can be difficult to feel like your business is standing out from the crowd. One way to set yourself apart from the competition is to think outside the box when it comes to targeting. Take a moment to ask – are there segments or demographics that could benefit from your product, but are being underserved? For example, a skincare company might want to target those with interests in beauty products – but what about gamers or sports players? Those groups likely need skincare products just as much as someone interested in beauty, but they may not be the first-choice audience for other companies. Exploring demographics outside of the “norm” in your industry can help you find niche audiences and hit people who are less saturated with your competitors’ ads.
76% of marketers fail to use behavioral data for online ad targeting.
Get a team of creative experts on your side who can find the audience you need to drive clicks and conversions with your ads. KWSM is experienced in building social media ads for countless industries and is ready to work with you to find your advertising success.
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