“Getting the right message to the right audience at the right time and on the right channel” has been a goal for marketers for years. Thanks to today’s data and technology environment, along with how people use media, this type of brand interaction is no longer just a cliché.
Hyper-precision targeting is a strong, high-impact, and low-waste way to sell to an audience first. It increases engagement, conversion rates, and lifetime value. Here is a guide for marketers who are ready to make their advertising plan very clear.
How does hyper-precision aiming work?
I wrote about seven useful niche marketing strategies earlier this year, mainly talking about the pros and cons of niche division. By adding behavioral, contextual, and inventory-based data to a demographic group, hyper-precision marketing narrows the field even more.
Using information like time, location, channel, and device, you can send a very specific message to groups of people at the time and place where they are most likely to convert.
The data is what hyper-targeting is all about.
For a micro-targeting plan to work, data must be used to guide the strategy from choosing the target to making it better.
- Focus on the audience
You need to define the target before you can hyper-target them. This is true whether your product already has a niche market or your brand has a wide appeal and you want to connect with a subsegment.
Advertisers can target groups of people who are very valuable to them based on demographic and behavioral factors like age, income, hobbies, and location. However, first-party data can also be used to help make lookalike groups. You could also use contextual and behavioral targeting as other data points to narrow down your population.
For example, think about a brand of feminine care that also makes sports products. They find a group of women in cities between the ages of 25 and 34 who are interested in running and taking care of the earth.
- Planning for media
The audience is the base from which the media can be chosen to reach the audience at the right place and time. Channels like web video, connected TV, and displays are judged by how often their viewers use them.
For example, people aged 50 and up are more likely to shop on a desktop computer than on a mobile device, compared to people aged 20 to 49. Placement in context, time of day, day of the week, and device can all be used to make the marketing contact even more relevant.
The feminine hygiene brand wants to reach its niche audience across multiple platforms. They will use voice ads on mobile devices at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., which are peak running times, and digital video ads during “high-scroll” times.
- Creative
Plan your media and know who you want to reach. Now is the time to make the most of it. Make customized ads that reflect your community and use language that speaks to their needs or way of life. These very specific interactions give you a chance to show that you’re relevant and make real links.
For example, a brand of feminine care comes up with messages for the mean, clean, green running machine.
- Try, learn, and try again
Digital efforts should always be iterative, and hyper-precision targeting makes it easy to do tests without spending a lot of money. Look more closely at performance data to find out what’s working in terms of placement, message, and creative. Then make changes and keep testing.
When a feminine hygiene brand finds out that the audio assets are doing especially well in New York, they time a new version of their campaign to run during the NYC marathon and include special messages about crossing the finish line.
Who should put money into aiming with extreme accuracy?
High conversion rates and return on ad spend (ROAS) are benefits of hyper-precise campaigns, especially for direct-to-consumer brands that know their target audience well (age, region, family income, etc.). Down-funnel success is also good for B2B brands that want to get more leads.
Like our made-up case example, hyper-targeting can help CPG brands when they want to measure brand lift or ad memory. Remember that a lot of platforms offer lift and recall tests. But you have to make a big effort to meet the spend and impression thresholds.
Getting better at hyper-precise aim.
People who work in marketing may have tried hyper-targeting with connected TV in the past but gave up because it was too expensive. CPMs have gone down as the number and types of streaming outlets have grown, and they will continue to do so as the market grows.
Since there are more inventory choices now, CPMs for targeted connected TV ads are around $17, down from $40 five years ago. This makes it a cheaper strategy for people who want to try it out.
Also, Goliath platforms like Amazon and Google offer a wide audience with precise targeting at very low cost per click (CPMs), which allows for an omnichannel approach.
How is AI making micro-precision tactics more flexible?
Predictive analytics and machine learning algorithms have been used by Google, Meta, and automated platforms for years. However, AI is changing to help marketing teams in new ways. The ability to make customized ad versions on a large scale may be the most useful feature for teams that want to test very specific marketing campaigns.
With a strong framework and a set of prompts, small changes to messages, like switching regions, can be made without putting too much pressure on creative teams. This frees up your creative leaders to do more important, strategic work.
Will micromarketing take the place of big media?
There are many cases of people walking through a mall being targeted on their phones with a sneaker sale or a Starbucks coupon for a store that is only a few steps away. Direct-response door-buster ads, on the other hand, are easy to ignore if you don’t already trust the company.
Mass media like radio and TV feed upper-funnel strategies like making people aware of your business and building trust. Hyper-precision targeting can be used by itself, but mass and micro will continue to work together as the customer moves through the buying process.
Get specific with your next media plan that puts the target first.
Using a mix of data attributes, you can connect with niche groups in meaningful ways that make your brand more relevant and bring in more money.