Target is one of the most popular types of advertising on social networks. It allows you to show ads only to those users who are highly likely to be interested in your offer. Let’s figure out how targeted advertising works and who it is suitable for.
Introduction
Targeted advertising is a powerful tool for attracting clients from social networks. It helps to precisely influence the target audience and get more leads and sales with lower advertising costs. Targeting is an opportunity to show ads only to those who are really interested in them.
1. How does targeted advertising work?
How the target works
Targeting works based on user data collected by social networks. This is information from profiles – age, gender, place of residence, marital status, interests, education, etc. As well as data on user behavior – what sites they visit, what actions they take, what they react to.
The social network’s advertising platform analyzes this data and allows you to customize the display of ads only to specific groups of people – those who are potentially interested in your product. This way, you do not spend money on those who definitely do not need your offer.
Targeting options
Modern social media advertising systems offer a huge number of targeting settings. You can select an audience by:
- Demographics – gender, age, marital status.
- Geo – country, city, region or even a specific address.
- Interests – thematic communities to which the user is subscribed, his hobbies and interests.
- Behavior – what devices he uses, what sites he visits, what actions he takes.
- Education and positions.
- Retargeting – you can show ads to those who have already interacted with your site or community.
By combining different settings, you can get your “ideal” audience, the most inclined to buy. For example, to sell luxury Swiss watches in Moscow, you can choose men over 35 with a high income, interested in luxury goods and accessories.
2. Setting up a target
Studying the target audience
For targeting to be effective, you need to vietnam email list know your target audience well. Study your real and potential clients:
- Who they are by gender, age, income, place of residence.
- What are their interests, values, lifestyle, problems.
- Where do they “live” on the Internet – in which social networks, on which websites.
- What do people pay attention to and how do they make purchasing decisions?
Collect maximum information about the target audience – use CRM data, analytics services, customer surveys, open sources. Based on this information, create a portrait of your “ideal client”, for which you will select an audience in the target.
Selection of sites
Social networks differ in their audience and content format. Therefore, it is important to choose the right platforms where your target audience “lives”. For example:
- VKontakte – a diverse, but mostly young maldivian lads audience. Suitable for promoting inexpensive goods, online education, information products.
- Facebook* (recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation) – a more mature and solvent audience, popular with businesses.
- Instagram is a visual platform suitable for promoting lifestyle products, services, and visually attractive goods.
- Odnoklassniki is a social network with the oldest audience, good for advertising goods for the home, garden, and health.
- TikTok is a social network with the youngest audience, perfect for promoting everything that interests young people.
If your business is represented in several social networks, test the target everywhere and choose the platforms with the best results. Do not scatter on everything at once, it is better to concentrate on 1-2 social networks.
Creation of creatives
In targeting, as in any advertising, creatives play a huge role – how your ad looks and what it “says”. In social networks, people do not like straightforward advertising, so pack your commercial offer in interesting, entertaining or useful content.
There are a lot of creative formats – posts with we can trigger different and pictures and videos, short videos, stories, carousels. Choose a format based on the specifics of the platform and your product. But the general rules are as follows:
- Use attractive visuals – bright, lively, eye-catching pictures and videos.
- Write intriguing yet clear headlines that entice clicks.
- Add key triggers to your ad text – problem solving, great offer, social proof, scarcity, etc.
- Call to action – clearly indicate the required step (buy, subscribe, register).
- Test different creatives and turn off ineffective ones. Constantly look for new ideas.
3. Performance evaluation and optimization
Key targeting metrics
To understand how effective your targeting is, you need to track key metrics:
- Impressions – how many times your ads have been shown. The more, the wider the audience reach.
- Clicks – how many people clicked on the ad. The higher the click-through rate (CTR), the better the ad worked.
- Leads – how many people performed the required action on the site (filled out a form, called, wrote in the chat). Shows how many potential clients you received.
- Cost per lead or click – how much you pay for 1 target action. The lower, the better.
- Conversion – what percentage of users who came from ads became leads and clients. The higher, the more effective the target.
These metrics can be tracked through the social network’s advertising account. For end-to-end analytics, connect website statistics systems and call tracking services.
Campaign Optimization
Targeting is not a one-time activity, but an ongoing process. To get the most out of your advertising, you need to regularly analyze the results and make changes:
- Adjust audience segments – disable ineffective ones and add new ones based on data from the advertising account.
- Update creatives – test new formats and messages, look for insights and triggers that better engage your audience.
- Work with the price – gradually increase the rates for the highest quality ads, decrease them for the less effective ones.
- Scale what works well – increase budgets for top campaigns and “audience + creative” combinations.
- Try new features and formats, such as retargeting, dynamic ads, collecting a database for mailings, etc.
The main principle is to constantly experiment, measure and improve those areas that give the maximum return. This will allow you to squeeze the maximum out of the target.
4. Who is targeted advertising suitable for?
Target is a universal tool that can be useful for almost any business. This is especially relevant for:
- B2C companies that work for a mass audience. For example, online stores, manufacturers of goods, cafes, beauty salons, online schools, etc.
- Local business, the work of which is tied to a specific location. For example, delivery of rolls in Moscow or a flower shop in Yekaterinburg.
- Personal brands and infobusiness – bloggers, coaches, info producers who need fame and a personal brand.
- Companies promoting mobile applications and online services.
The main condition is that your audience must be present in social networks. If so, targeting will definitely have an effect. It is especially strong in highly competitive markets, where you need to clearly differentiate yourself from competitors and fight for every client.
Conclusion
Targeted advertising is one of the most accurate and effective ways to attract customers from social networks. Thanks to flexible audience settings and a variety of formats, targeting allows you to get the maximum number of targeted leads and sales with minimal advertising costs. But for it to work, you need to carefully approach the analysis of the target audience, the choice of platforms, the creation of creatives and constant analytics and optimization of campaigns.