Using Behavioral Targeting to Reach the Right Audience
As digital marketing evolves, more and more emphasis is placed on using behavioral targeting to tailor ads to specific audiences. Brands invest time, effort and resources on developing buyer personas and ideal customer profiles. But what about reseller partners — SMBs, agents, dealers, retailers, distributors, brokers, franchisees and employee end users — who are often constrained by time and resources? How can brands help their resellers build lists, improve customer experiences, and reach target audiences in local markets?
What is Behavioral Targeting?
Behavioral Targeting, also known as Addressable Targeting, is a digital marketing tactic that allows advertisers to collect online behavioral data from consumers. With this data, advertisers can serve their audiences personalized ads based on their interests and online interactions.
Using Online Behaviors to Build Audience Lists
Before Behavioral Targeting strategies like Paid Local Search, advertisers relied on running campaigns through media outlets with the audiences they wanted to reach.
“Once advertising began to shift online, digital marketing strategies consisted of geographic, keyword and content targeting. These strategies allowed advertisers to go back and analyze online patterns and develop buyer personas for their target audiences,” said Kevin Hill, Vice President of Digital Strategy at SproutLoud. “When social media platforms like Facebook came onto the scene, it paved the way for paid social media advertising. Because Facebook had so many behavioral triggers available within its platform, it allows advertisers to hone in on specific online behaviors to build their audience lists.”
Improving the Customer Experience
Behavioral Targeting not only allows channel partners to collect data regarding online behavior, it also allows them to precisely curate and segment audiences based on demographics, economic variables, ZIP codes, congressional districts, and other key data points. Behavioral Targeting can also:
- Improve the Customer Experience
By implementing behavioral targeting, channel partners can curate ads and messaging in a way that gives target audiences information on products, services, promos or discounts that they would be interested in, based on their online interactions and known behavioral patterns.
- Maximize Ad Spend
Ads targeted to consumer interests have an increased chance of converting. This helps to focus ad spend and improve ROI.
- Increase Brand Awareness and Sales
Personalized ads keep consumers informed about current and upcoming products that relate to their interests and increase brand awareness. Retargeting also allows channel partners to follow up with consumers who may have left an ad or landing page before converting or abandoned a virtual shopping cart before completing a purchase.
- Nurture Leads
Proactively nurturing leads has a real impact on sales. With Behavioral Targeting, brands and their resellers can build brand awareness and create highly targeted and retargeted ads with relevant time-sensitive messaging that can lead prospective customers through the consumer journey to purchase decisions.
Distributed Marketing Solutions for Behavioral Targeting
When brands provide their channel partners with a Distributed Marketing platform with integrated behavioral targeting capabilities, they’re giving their resellers the tools and support they need to curate hyper-targeted audience lists in real time.
“Most channel partners do not have the time or resources to do their own audience research. Distributed Marketing platforms have audience personas, created by their brands, and they can bring it to the local level at scale,” Hill said.
Brands can further leverage the advantage of behavioral targeting by dialing up dollar amounts or percentages on available Co-Op Marketing and Market Development Funds. This is an effective way to incentivize their channel partners to use brand-preferred targeted ad campaigns, so they can reach the right customers at the right time.