DigitalMarketing.org defines a target audience as “a group of people defined based on their common characteristics such as demographics and behaviors.” Understanding and marketing towards that target audience needs to be a strategic and well-thought-out process. At Digital to Dealer Direct, we are here to help you discover and build your target audience, serve them eye-catching ad creatives, and turn them into customers.

Audience Segments

The term target audience is all-encompassing and needs to be broken down to better understand. One audience segment is demographics, which includes categories like age, gender, and geographic location. The second segment is based on consumer behavior and life events, including marital status, income, and interest in purchasing a vehicle. Based on users’ activities online, we can serve informative and relevant ads to potential customers.

Audience targeting capabilities are dependent on the advertising platform and user experience. For example, LinkedIn segments its audience based on professional traits, including job title, company name, and years of experience. Facebook, on the other hand, focuses more on interests and life events. Both are quality platforms to run advertisements; however, understanding whom you are trying to serve your ads to will ultimately allow you to decide where to spend your advertising dollars.

First Party Data

In addition to customized target audiences, there are a variety of other ways to reach your ideal customer. Uploading an owned customer list of names and contact information can help you target your current customers online. By adding your current customers, and similar audiences to your current customers, you can target those who will be more likely to engage with the advertising content presented.

Retargeting is another option that can be fairly inexpensive. Retargeting involves using first-party data by serving ads to users who have already visited your site in a given period of time. Unlike customer lists, advertisers do not obtain names and contact information of repeat users to the website, as that information is managed in the back end of Google’s products. Rather, retargeting can provide additional incentives or a strong hook to entice these customers back to your website and could lead to additional sales. After a form submission, contact to a dealership, or sale, these customers can become part of your customer list and be targeted for future deals.

Campaign Goal

As an automotive digital marketing agency, we are dedicated to achieving our client’s goals. The goals of your campaign will directly influence the audience you choose to target. New and used car campaigns will target different groups of people in the market for their next vehicle. As a specific example, imagine you are a young adult or parent of a young adult getting their license. Affording a new vehicle may not be feasible, so creating a campaign with the goal of advertising inventory under a certain price point would be useful. In this situation, a target audience could include young adults, college-aged students, parents of young adults, specified incomes, and those in the market for a used vehicle.

Campaign success is ultimately led by a well-optimized target audience. Learning about which audience segments fit your goals and then retargeting to those customers who reach your site will lead you towards reaching your campaign goal. With assistance in better understanding your target audience, speak with one of our digital strategists by contacting us today!