Targeting tactics to activate your ideal audience

You’re at the helm of an ad campaign. Your bullseye is set on reaching 35-year-old moms in Dallas who proudly own a cat, adore vintage fashion, and jam out to 90s alternative rock.

The beauty of programmatic advertising lies in its precision, which allows you to target exactly the right audience. However, unless you unlock the full potential of your audience activation arsenal, you're bound to get lost in trial and error. There is no need to spend months looking for the perfect ad placement.

Programmatic success depends on data. In contrast to traditional site-direct media planning, programmatic media focuses on audience buying. By zeroing in on specific audiences, you can ensure your ad spend doesn't go to waste on disinterested folks. The key to success lies in data-driven strategies, where programmatic media allows you to tap into various data sources, such as location, online content preferences, offline activities, and mobile app usage, to understand and engage your audience better.

This approach lets you mix and match different targeting options to create a tailored approach that speaks directly to your target market. With programmatic precision, you can hit the bullseye and captivate your target audience. Take advantage of different campaign targeting tactics to boost the success of your campaign.

Here are six common targeting strategies in programmatic advertising:

Contextual Targeting: Serve ads based on the content of specific websites, pages, or channels. This allows you to get very specific with targeting different types of content, ensuring relevant placements for your ads. 

Behavioral Targeting: Target unique individuals across multiple devices based on their demographics, interests, intent, or actions. Utilize first-party data from your website to understand user behaviors and preferences.

Retargeting: Engage consumers who have shown interest in your product or service by bringing them back to your website with custom messaging.

Geotargeting: Target individuals within a specific geographic area, leveraging first-party or location-based data to personalize ads for key audiences.

Website Whitelists: Choose specific websites or apps where you want your ads to run, combining this with audience segments using behavioral targeting.

 Private Marketplace (PMP): Access prepackaged deals that offer high-quality ad inventory, providing visibility to qualified traffic in premium placements, albeit at a higher CPM.

As the industry transitions to a cookieless future, privacy-compliant targeting becomes paramount. Many of the discussed targeting strategies are privacy-friendly inherently or can be adapted using first-party data.

Advertisers need to test and adopt new strategies and technologies to ensure effective programmatic targeting. Building direct relationships with consumers and leveraging first-party data will be crucial for identifying and reaching relevant audiences while respecting their privacy.