According to an August 2nd article on bizreport.com by Kristina Knight, large numbers of marketers have begun targeting audiences online using what I've always thought to be pretty traditional methods - demographic, geographic and lifestyle segmentation.
The article states, "According to the AudienceScience report 80% of marketers are now using behavioral targeting techniques, 76% target by geographic location and 75% use demographic information to target. Most marketers believe behavioral and demographic targeting are their best options, but what is most interesting is that publishers are now seemingly in agreement with advertisers. More than 70% of publishers surveyed for the report said they were using some form of audience targeting to better engage consumers, to sell ad inventory at higher rates and to deliver better campaign performance."I'm actually quite surprised that this appears to be news. Any marketer who isn't already properly segmenting and targeting their audiences, probably shouldn't be in the marketing field. Most good marketers and product development teams have been doing this for years. Granted, online marketing is still a relatively young channel and new systems of identifying and segmenting audiences are being developed every day; but I would have been surprised if the percentage of marketers using methods to target audiences online were any lower than 75%-80%. I would love to know who the 20%-25% of marketers are who are not yet doing this, so that I can give their supervisors the names of some good marketers I know who are looking for work.
The article goes on to state, "One thing both advertisers and publishers agreed upon? That there needs to be more transparency and measurability within targeting moving forward." On this I wholeheartedly agree.
We recently ran some ads on Facebook for a new retail store opening. They were very well targeted based on a comprehensive segmentation strategy. The metrics we viewed indicated a very high number of impressions, and a strong click through rate. However, the metrics neither indicated that those who actually viewed the ads matched the profile we had created, nor provided any verification on the accuracy of the figures. Traffic has been excellent, and empirical data indicates that the ads, at least in part, reached the right audience, but one can't rely solely on observed data to calculate ROI.
However, I will continue using digital marketing techniques, as I have become a true believer in their capabilities, even if measurement and transparency still need a little work. After all, digital media measurement is still far better than traditional media measurement.
