How to Turbo Charge Ad Targeting Using Big and Small Data
Primary research has always been a fantastic way to discover audience segments by means of quantitative surveys. While this type of research is core to a brand marketer’s playbook (and MarketCast’s), the output of these studies is often disconnected from the people and systems responsible for planning and implementing media campaigns.
Times they are a changing. The bringing together of research insights and data science inside many big consumer brands and research companies like MarketCast is providing a powerful new way to combine “stated opinions,” culled from thousands of consumer surveys, with “actual outcomes,” derived from first and third-party behavioral datasets to turbo charge campaign targeting.
Here are a few ways we can activate marketing campaigns for clients using both primary research and first and third-party behavioral datasets – following all appropriate privacy guidelines:
1. Activating CRM Databases
With this approach, audience research can be fused with first and third-party behavioral data and overlayed on top of a brand’s existing CRM database. This allows the brand to develop more granular segmentations of existing customers and prospects and better target them with messaging and promotions that resonate and drive more conversions.
2. Third–Party Digital Activation
To activate digital campaigns using Google, Facebook or other digital properties, brands can match individuals who have responded to their audience research against larger datasets from providers such as Experian or LiveRamp. After matching to one of these third-party data providers, brands can then identify lookalike audiences across digital platforms to inform their digital media buys.
3. Data Driven TV Activation
A popular method that MarketCast uses aims to match research survey respondents to Vizio Inscape TV data to identify high-performing combinations of TV networks and dayparts (mornings, evenings, late-night). We can then implement TV activations by recommending which networks and dayparts for the brand to buy based on viewer behavior.
4. Digital Segment Activation
This approach allows brands to create granular audience segments they identified using primary research and match them to digital audience profiles. This way, brands can create a granular model to identify segments to target on digital platforms and TV.
5. Social Activation
Social media platforms are powerful for ad targeting. We can analyze the public profiles (on social media) of those surveyed in our research, match them with the results of the survey, and create lookalike audience segments to target advertising across relevant social media channels.
As media and audiences’ fragment, a combination of traditional research and data science will become increasingly important for understanding audiences to target. Primary research sheds light on the characteristics of an audience segment and data science confirms behaviors, creates lookalikes, and does the matching. By combining the two disciplines, we can not only target the right people, but we can also optimize the messaging and creative to different audience segments.
Of course, it’s important to note that privacy is a critical factor in pairing primary research with ad targeting. Brands should never target specific individuals who have responded to a primary research survey without their consent to be targeted.
To learn more about how MarketCast is integrating primary research and data science to improve campaign targeting, contact us here.