Advertisers who utilize audience profiles are more effective in engaging their potential customers. Audience profiling allows you to know exactly who will engage with your content and how to best reach them.

Traditional Advertising without Audience Profiles

Traditional advertising focuses on getting the word out about a product/service by any means including mass ad campaigns on billboards, televisions, newspapers, and radio stations.

Traditional forms of advertisements are not obsolete, but when it comes to advertising today, they can fall short. Mass advertisements don’t engage nearly as many consumers compared to advertisements directed to a specific target audience.

Although mass advertisements are attention grabbing in theory, individuals tend to skip or ignore them. According to research done by Advice Interactive Group, 90% of people skip TV ads when given the opportunity.

Put simply – traditional marketing doesn’t always cut it. Creating an audience profile based on various consumer characteristics to deliver relevant ads to the right people is more effective and increases consumer engagement.

Consumers would rather interact with an advertisement that is of interest or relevance to them.

Creating an Audience Profile

Segmenting to build your audience profile is essential to understanding who you want to reach. Identifying an audience based on their unique characteristics and behaviors ensures that you are accurately reaching the right people.

Two major types of segmentation that are beneficial in establishing your audience profile are psychographic and behavioral segmentation.

Psychographic Segmentation

Psychographic segmentation divides your market based on characteristics such as lifestyle, values, interests, and personality.

Psychographic segmentation can be complex because it’s not analyzing “what” or “where” people are, it is analyzing “who” people are.

To appeal to an audience, you need to think in like terms. Look at an advertisement from the consumers’ view and consider why they would want to engage with the content. What would they get out of the advertisement?

Let’s use “gamers” as an example of psychographic segmentation. Gamers are likely to engage with an advertisement for something they like: video games. Knowing this, target the ideal audience segment that would want to receive your ad for a new video game.

For example, a segment of gamers who enjoy playing intellectually stimulating puzzle and word games are more likely to engage with an advertisement for a new logic-driven puzzle game. Based on their interests, they wouldn’t want to engage with an advertisement for a new sci-fi game.

Behavioral Segmentation

Behavioral segmentation divides consumers into groups according to attributes such as app usage, loyalties, media preferences, and purchase patterns.

Behavioral segmentation focuses on what people do.

In order to appeal to an audience, you need understand how they act. Take a look at what the consumer has been doing recently. Why are they taking part in these actions? What would they like to see based on what they have been doing?

Another gamer example:

Let’s say you’re trying to advertise for a new zombie Xbox game. With behavioral segmentation, you can break down your market to consumers who own an Xbox and have a history of purchasing zombie games but haven’t bought a new game recently. These gamers might be in the market for a new game.

An advertisement mentioning how your new zombie game for Xbox is “a revolutionary game, unlike any other” could grab this audience’s attention. Because they might be in the market for a new zombie game, delivering the advertisement to this specific audience segment increases the likelihood of engagement and thus, a purchase.

After segmenting your market based on psychographic and behavioral information, you have the building blocks necessary for creating your audience profile.

Audience Profiling Allows for Personalized Ads

The combination of a target audience and buyer persona establishes an audience profile.

A target audience is a group you are trying to reach with your advertisements. Depending on your marketing goals, your target audience can be built around specific segments. If you want to appeal to a certain group of people, it’s wise to cater your advertisements directly to them.

A buyer persona is a fictional example of an ideal customer. A buyer persona includes a name, gender, age range, a profession, goals, personality, and more – building a full profile of your ideal customer.

Building a buyer persona will give you the chance to put a face and personality to your target audience, so you can view and understand them as real people with unique interests and behaviors.

With traditional advertising, mass campaigns delivered to random groups of uninterested consumers. Building audience profiles tailored to each unique individual’s interests, behaviors, and preferences, allows you to deliver personalized campaigns fit their needs.

Using Mobile Data to Build an Audience Profile

Mobile devices have become extensions of their respective users because the device goes everywhere with them.

We can better understand users by observing their mobile behaviors which consist of anything from app downloads, app usage, email opens and clicks, mobile web browsing, and more.

According to Deloitte, the average American looks at their phone 47 times per day. Utilizing mobile data to create audience profiles will ensure increased engagement with your advertisements.

Now that you know about this person’s mobile activity, you can find other mobile users that behave similarly.

The beauty of using mobile data to build your audience profile is that all advertisements based on this data will be delivered to real people on their mobile devices. No advertisements would be served to bots, inactive users, or uninterested individuals – only to users who fit your audience profile.

During a time where millions of marketing dollars are wasted on unengaged users, building an audience profile is an asset, connecting you with real, engaged consumers.