In face to face sales, and when we talk about Demographic Targeting, people skills and verbal ability are essential. For one thing, it’s necessary to communicate emotion and thereby influence emotion. How this translates to the online world is communication through imagery. However, there is only so much emotion you can get from a static image.
Therefore, in that case, to get even higher conversion rates, audio or video recordings can be very effective. With more personalized and targeted sales messages that convey emotion, imagination, and empathy. It is the emotions behind the purchasing decision that must be emphasized and influenced. In order to be successful in either lead generation or ecommerce conversion rate optimization.
For instance, considering that the motivation and emotion that leads to a buying decision between men and women are often different. Meaning, you need to consider both sides of the couple when trying to sell to either one. And this is why it’s necessary to survey both your Male and Female customers. In order to determine their motivations for buying a product.
Eventually, this information will enable you to better target other visitors to your website. As well as, to create a buyer journey that is emotionally convincing for every visitor segment.
What is Demographic Targeting?
Demographic Targeting is a parameter used in segmenting the general online audience into more specific groups. By utilizing these parameters, advertisers are able to save on budget through the right audience targeting. While at the same time, reducing the unnecessary impression otherwise would be of less use to the business.
For instance, with demographic targeting in Google Ads, you can reach a specific set of potential customers. Obviously, who are likely to be within a particular age range, gender, parental status, or household income. Let’s say, you run a fitness studio exclusively for women, demographic targeting could help you avoid showing your ads to men.
But, before you even begin, please keep in mind, that demographic targeting is an option to narrow your targeting. In other words, it helps prevent people outside of your chosen demographics from seeing your ads.
How does Demographic Targeting work?
In the first place, pinpointing your market starts with mapping where the customers you want to reach are located. If you sell on the Internet, your geographic segmentation might include forums and social networks where your customers gather.
Secondly, opening a physical site can require seeking the most centrally located space. In that case, if your business can afford to maximize vehicle and foot traffic. When targeting businesses, geographic data can show which regions your potential business clients cluster in. Geographic data can also help you determine the size of your primary market.
Preferably, potential buyers and customers mean that these are your primary demographic targeting audiences. Not to mention, determining your primary target audience is crucial when launching a business. Or even while launching a product or service from your existing business.
While initial research is essential for effective advertising and marketing, getting to know your individual customers empowers you. In order, to fine-tune your understanding of their buying decisions. As you anticipate their specific needs over time.
Who is an Audience?
In general, gender, age, marital status, and income level are among the audience demographics that further define and refine your primary targets.
Through demographic segmentation, you’ll survey for an array of data points from your target customers. Such as information on nationality and ethnicity, education levels, types of careers or numbers of children.
If businesses are your target, demographic segmentation can focus on other data points. Like the number of employees, market share and volume of sales.
Primary Demographics Include:
- Gender
- Age
- Geographic
- Psychographic
- Behavioral
In simple terms, segmentation is an incredibly important marketing exercise. And by tailoring content for specific groups, marketers are able to convert prospects into customers more cost-effectively.
Other demographic audiences include; race/nationality, income, parental status, marital status, etc.
How do I Influence a Target Audience?
Generally speaking, knowing what emotionally drives your target customers to buy the things that they do can greatly help you. Especially, to design marketing messages that speak directly to them.
For example, by using psychographic segmentation, it means that you’ll best interact with your audience. With an eye toward spotting their values, opinions, passions, and lifestyle priorities. This data can elicit insights into what motivates your current and potential customers. As well as, how your brand can be something they’ll believe in.
Your customers likely expect many options allowing them to communicate with — and purchase from — your company. Understanding your target audience’s purchasing behavior is crucial to generating sales and developing customer relationships.
Decisions regarding hours of operation, taking orders online, and interacting with customers through mobile and social media channels can be made based on behavioral data. As you gain customers, though, analyzing purchasing behavior reveals how different individuals use your product or service in different ways.
With that, behavioral data can show you where you can deliver greater value as your customers’ needs change. Below are examples of demographic targeting and the best audience approaches that influence each.
1. Gender Targeting
In recent times mainstream advertising has shied away from Gender Targeting and tended towards being unisex. Why? For the simple reason that by gender targeting, – excluding one gender entirely, you effectively reduce your potential audience by half. Typically there is no reason to do so and it might also be considered politically incorrect to do so.
Here, thoughts of sexist, or racist politically incorrect advertisements of the past spring to mind. That being said, Gender targeting can have a big effect, or at the very least cut costs. Consider that by being non-exclusive to gender, marketing campaigns are often less effective as they potentially could be.
Gender Marketing: The Differences Between Men and Women
In 2003 a fascinating literature review was carried out by Wolin, who analyzed the prior 30 years of advertising to assess the performance of gender-based advertising. It established some clear differences between men and women. Evidence that should be considered when creating your marketing campaigns in the future. Especially if you wish to appeal to one gender over another.
But, it is important to point out that there is very little evidence of any differences, just lots of observations and tendencies.
2. Age Targeting
Particularly, when it comes to Age Targeting, every sound business plan starts with one of the key principles of marketing – know your audience. In our ever-growing industry, this is more important than ever. Competition is fierce, and when you can almost hear the CPCs rising, focus on working smarter, not harder.
As an example, make sure to use Google Ads for Age and Gender Targeting options. More often, try to narrow your audience by adding bid adjustments. These raise or lower the amount you are willing to pay for ads served to a specific demographic.
“Everyone Is Not Your Customer”: Why Age & Gender Targeting Matter
While at the same time, the existing data makes it clear which demographics perform better than others. Truly, numbers don’t lie! Your data is already there. By guessing, you will only limit your ROI. Sooner than later, the bids are just waiting to be modified.
Age and gender targeting groups can also be combined. For example, if your analysis shows that men aged 18-24 convert at the highest rate, you may want to raise the bid modifier. Spending more money serving ads to that specific age group.
3. Geographic Targeting
By the same fashion, Geographic Targeting (otherwise known as Geo-targeting or Local PPC), refers to the practice of delivering different content or advertisements. In that case, to your general consumers based on their geographic locations. In paid search campaigns, geo-targeting is often used to advertise to local prospects.
Geo-targeting best practices
To enumerate, Google Ads (formerly known as Google AdWords) has a feature that allows search advertisers to specify a location, or a set of locations, as the only area(s) in which they want their ads to show. This is an essential tactic for businesses that depend on foot traffic and/or home deliveries, such as restaurants, brick-and-mortar stores, and ecommerce sites.
Why? Because showing ads to consumers outside of the relevant area(s) drives wasted impressions and clicks. Thus cutting into a business’ marketing budget without offering any kind of return. So, for a lot of advertisers, geo-targeting is key to the efficient use of marketing funds.
4. Psychographic Targeting
Psychographics are kind of like routine demographics. Psychographic information might be your buyer’s habits, hobbies, spending habits, and values. Demographics explain “who” your buyer is, while psychographics explains “why” they buy.
You can only effectively reach your target audience when you understand both their demographics and psychographics. The combination of both sets of data starts to form your buyer persona. A detailed picture of the people you work with now and would like to work with in the future.
How to Use Psychographics in Your Marketing: A Beginner’s Guide
Always remember, there are many different ways to segment a market along psychographic dimensions. But the most popular are personality traits, lifecycle stage, interests, attitudes or beliefs, and activities. Marketers could also differentiate between groups of consumers based on their buying priorities, social class, income, and more.
However, individuals who fall into the same demographic group don’t necessarily fall into the same psychographic group. Prospects might have different habits, interests, preferences, and values that make them unique in how marketers should target them.
5. Purchasing Behavioral Targeting
Highly personalized and timely marketing requires knowing who is in your audience and how they interact with your business. And in the noisy world of digital marketing, relevance is key to reaching your audience.
But it’s no longer enough to send targeted messages based solely on your contacts’ demographics or interests. Effective marketing also uses data about how their audience interacts with their business. And this is what is called behavioral targeting.
The basics of behavioral targeting
Behavioral targeting makes highly personalized and timely marketing possible. By pairing contact data with real-time information about the actions (and inactions) that those contacts take online. Like what they are (or aren’t) doing on your website, in your app, or with your multichannel marketing campaigns.
By developing marketing messages for the behaviors that are most important to your business, you can better target people in your audience. Creating a more personalized experience for higher engagement. And a greater return on your marketing investments.
Examples of effective Demographic Targeting
Ultimately, using age and gender targeting can help you achieve long-term success as you respond to changes in your data.
And by reviewing these changes regularly, even after your bid modifiers are in place, can help you fine-tune your strategy. Especially, by identifying new audiences and opportunities. Below are more simplified examples.
Age:
Whereby, jmexclusives are advertising for a financial institution. And we want to market different products to seniors versus college students. Meaning, we’ll use demographics to show different ads to each group of customers.
Also, adjusting our bids for demographic groups that may be more likely to spend more. In the end, we find that middle-aged customers tend to have the largest initial deposits, and increases his bid for people ages 35 to 54.
Household Income:
In a video marketing campaign, we can show ads to customers in a certain household income range.
For example, by setting our targeting to reach people in the top 30% of Kenyans household incomes. Or rather, by selecting the “Top 10%,” “11-20%,” and “21-30%” options for household income.
Age & Gender:
Alberta, for instance, runs a website whose audience is working mothers. On the Search Network, their demographic targeting is the “25–54” age range and “Female” gender.
On their Display campaigns, they specify “Parent” parental status as targeting criteria. A savvy advertiser, Alberta also adds a targeting method of “in-market audience” for baby & children’s products, etc.
Takeaway,
In conclusion, defining a good Demographic Target Audience is one of the first and most significant stages of building a successful business strategy. So, don’t waste time playing the guessing game. For such games are only left to your competitors.
All in all, as trends change over time, there may be a new demographic open for prospecting. Meaning, it’s hard to predict when you will have an upsurge in males aged 44-55 shopping for leather jackets. But, if you pay attention to the data, you can capture a whole new demographic of paying customers.
Equally important, finding opportunities for growth doesn’t have to be difficult. Above all, Get a free competitive analysis from Titan Growth to discover how you can unlock your business’s potential.
Resources;
Finally, if you’ll need more support and guidance on choosing your business, brand, product, or service demographics, Contact Us.
But, if you’ll have questions in regards to this or more of our blog topics, you can equally share them in the comments section.
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