Audience Targeting Techniques

Transcription

1 Audience Targeting Techniques FOR B2B MARKETERS Audience targeting is an essential feature in any B2B digital marketers tool kit. They need the ability to locate audiences and serve targeted communications no matter where they roam, or when. multiview.com

2 Share Now! Table of CONTENTS What is audience targeting? Getting Started: THREE Big Questions DETERMINE THE TARGET AUDIENCE B2B vs B2C Buyer PROFILEs Build a Target AUDIENCE Worksheet Match end goals to target techniques TARGETING TECHNIQUES SUMMARY

3 What is AUDIENCE TARGETING?

4 What is AUDIENCE TARGETING? As it pertains to digital marketing, audience targeting is the use of big data applied to identifying unique users online and serving targeted messages to create awareness, drive behavior or change perception. How it works: Audience targeting works by mining qualitative and quantitative data on users then serving targeted messaging to a highly select audience. Through displaying messages tailored to this particular audience, marketers can gradually influence them over time into to becoming customers. Behaviors B2B marketers encourage with online messaging include: capturing attention, visiting a site, downloading collateral, watching a webinar, engaging social media, viewing videos and completing a "Contact Us" form. LL CA ITE AD LO WN OKS O D -BO E UT LO FIL ORMS F IT S VIS Segmenting Users Online Serving Targeted messaging Drive a behavior/ change a perception User 3

5 Getting Started Three BIg Questions

6 Getting Started: THREE Big Questions Business Objectives It is important to determine the answers to these three questions before beginning any audience targeting efforts. Marketing Objective Business Objectives What are the business objectives? First and foremost, before beginning any audience targeting initiative, B2B marketers must ask themselves what their business objectives are. It is important to match all marketing efforts back to business objectives to ensure that they are aligned with the entire organization. Tactic Business objectives are not necessarily marketing objectives. Business objectives are overall goals for an institution. Marketing objectives are more tactical executions for achieving those goals. Marketing objectives and tactics can change, but still be aligned to business objectives. However, when business objectives change, marketing and all other organizational functions generally must re-align to support the business objective. A Trade Association Sponsorship Display Ads EXAMPLES Example business objectives include: Grow sales by X% in 1 year Improve customer retention Launch a new business segment Example marketing objectives: Increase site traffic Rebrand the organization Grow awareness in a new market segment An organization can use a variety of marketing objectives to achieve an overall business objective. Different audience targeting tactics can be used to achieve marketing objectives. Oftentimes, marketers use all of the audience targeting tactics at varying times over the life of a digital marketing campaign to meet a marketing objective. 5

7 End Goal What is the marketer seeking to accomplish? Target Audience What specific audience is being targeted??? By setting the business objective first, B2B marketers can determine the appropriate end goal and create parameters for determining their target audience. Examples: Grow sales If the business objective is to grow sales by x%, the marketing objective may be to increase the amount of online "Contact us" form completions amongst repeat site visitors. Therefore, broadly speaking, repeat site visitation would be a criteria used to determine an audience for targeting. Launch a new business segment What if the business objective is to launch a new office on the west coast? The marketing objective may be to announce the new location to all website visitors based in select states. Therefore, users who have IP addresses from businesses in the appropriate states would be served digital ads announcing the new office, online. 6?

8 Determine the Target AUDIENCES

9 Determine the TARGET AUDIENCEs First and foremost, who is the audience? In B2B marketing, the audience does not simply consist of the decision maker. Different types of individuals often guide the decision maker and weigh in on the purchase. One size doesn t fit all. The targeting techniques utilized depend on the size and behaviors of the audiences the B2B marketer is seeking to reach, their end goals and the stage of the buying journey. For instance, an influencer from another department could provide feedback on the product or service that the decision maker considers before he or she makes a purchase. Additionally, the end-user could be asked for their opinion or familiarity with the product before the decision maker purchases. Different industries and companies have different decision makers, influencers, leaders, knowledge experts and end users. Targeting techniques must vary, accordingly. Additionally, target audiences have varying levels of awareness of your products and services. How familiar are they with your company or a particular product or service? What is their readiness to buy? The pre-existing relationship between your company and the target audience is important. Targeting techniques must adapt to buyer readiness. Any conversation on audience targeting is pointless without first understanding that the buyer is not singular, but in fact plural. The B2B buyer is actually a decision making unit of several people. Take the time to understand the relationships between decision makers, influencers and users within the context of a B2B company. Within B2B marketing, there are a variety of individuals that impact company decisions. You are not necessarily just targeting the decision maker. You are targeting a group of people that influence them. m you People uy fro that b t buy a h t e l Peop from tors mpeti o c r u yo nce Influe ers rs, lead and k ers of d-us The en s expert e g d e nowl service oduct/ the pr

10 B2B vs B2C BUYER PROFILES

11 B2B vs B2C BUYER PROFILES Buyer profiles are crucial to audience targeting. However, B2B digital marketers have traditionally had a difficult time targeting their specific audiences due to the lack of B2B data available. For years only B2C marketers have had the luxury of utilizing big data insights to target their audiences, online. Today, things are different. B2B marketers have an arsenal of tools for gathering eye-opening audience targeting information. However, there are still important differences to note in how B2B marketers operate. Andrew Kretzschmer, MultiView s Head of Data Analytics 1 2 Business marketers are challenged with finding creative ways to gather, update and maintain prospect data as work-related roles and company information frequently changes. They must be highly resourceful in developing processes for gathering data that is not readily available. B2B marketers must gather particulars of their target s work-related life, rather than just looking at their activity as a whole making their approach to data collection and targeting much more nuanced. For instance, marketers must pay special attention to work-related keyword searches, current job functions and firmographics. 10

12 B2B vs B2C BUYER PROFILES A comparison between a B2B and B2C buyer profile. Stephanie" is both a VP of Marketing and soccer mom, however these elements of her identity carry different importance to B2C and B2B marketers. Details of Stephanie's personal life are highly relevant from a B2C point of view given demographic, consumption and lifestyle insights are commonly used to target her for consumer marketing, i.e. food/beverage, automotive, entertainment. While her lifestyle may be interesting, Stephanie's industry, company, title and other firmographic details are much more important for targeting her behavior as a B2B buyer, online. B2B Buyer Profile B2C Buyer Profile Name: Stephanie Industry: Transportation Company: Widget Manufacturing, Inc Title: VP of Marketing Education: MBA in Marketing Company Revenue: $10M / year Company Size: 400 employees Marketing Budget: $450,000 Region(s): Midwest, West HQ: Dallas, Texas Age: 32 Name: Stephanie HHI: $100,000 Education: MBA Marital status: Married Dining preferences: Casual family dining, Non-GMO preferred Political Orientation: Independent Lifestyle: Soccer Mom Hobbies: Travel, Yoga Children: Y, Age 5 City: Dallas, TX Age: 32 11

13 Build a target AUDIENCE WORKSHEET

14 Build a target AUDIENCE WORKSHEET All marketing is tied back to the audience. Gather the information you need before beginning any online targeting. In order to visualize your target audiences, start by completing the worksheet, below. Remember, audience targeting is not just about the decision maker, but targeting all the parties that influence their purchases as well. Complete the exercise as many times as necessary to identify all relevant audiences. STEP 1: DEMOGRAPHIC FIRMOGRAPHIC ONLINE BEHAVIOR Title: Industry: Publications frequented: Education: Company revenue: Level of brand familiarity: Employee Size: Prior purchases: Region(s): Budget: Keywords searched: Sites visited: 13

15 Keyword research is crucial: Let s say you are a Marketing Director at a baseball equipment company that sells to field managers at parks and recreation departments, schools and colleges. You have just launched a new line of rubber field plates and want to create awareness with prospective buyers. Through independent research you uncover that your buyer rarely searches for rubber softball field plates, but they do look for athletic field covers, infield rakes and field tarps on a regular basis. Given these industry-related terms are more commonly used by field managers in general, they are more useful for increasing brand awareness amongst your specific buyers. This information can then be added to the list of keywords searched by your target audience to inform online targeting strategies. STEP 2: It s time to think like your audience profiles. What words or phrases would your specific audience use on a regular basis? What words might they use to describe your your or your competitor's solutions? Take these terms and add them to the online behavior section of the prior chart. How can you gain more information about current/prospective buyers? Website Analytics - What can be gleaned about current site visitors from web analytics? What are referring sites for your web page? This can help you determine publications/journals frequented as well as keywords and phrases your audiences use. Turn to your CRM system - What information are you logging in your day-to-day customer transactions and online forms? Are you gathering any intel from online forms? If not, consider gathering information for marketing purposes. LinkedIn - Go through the client roster and start building a list of attributes that your audiences generally have in common. Populate with information readily available online, such as buyer titles and educational levels. Share This Worksheet! 14

16 Match end goals to TARGETING TECHNIQUES

17 Match end goals to TARGETING TECHNIQUES If you don t know where you re going, any road will get you there. Lewis Carroll Set (realistic) end goals What are you trying to achieve with your audience targeting campaign? Without a clearly defined end goal, you cannot set a path to success. Set realistic expectations for your online audience targeting initiatives. This chart shows a basic outline of the different goals marketers can achieve using audience targeting initiatives. # Impressions # New/unique site visitors Bounce rate % Return visitors # brand searches # direct site visits Click-through-rate (CTR) Time spent on page Lift in SEM CTR Form fills Video views Downloads Calls 16

18 Match end goals to TARGETING TECHNIQUES After developing buyer profiles and setting goals, set a compelling plan of action for audience targeting initiatives. Different targeting techniques affect varying segments of the marketing funnel. Keep in mind that ultimately, the targeting techniques utilized depend on business objectives, the end goals of the marketing campaign and the audience itself. A marketer could use just one, or many audience targeting initiatives during the life of a campaign depending on the results they are trying to achieve. The upcoming section of targeting techniques matched to the marketing funnel serves as a guide for understanding application, not a list of rules. B2B marketers might not always create campaigns that proceed in a specific order of upper to lower funnel. For instance, what if the audience is already highly familiar with the brand as well as its products/services? A marketer might decide to just focus on lower funnel audience targeting techniques. What if the goal is to just increase brand awareness? Then, an "upper funnel" technique in itself will suffice. 17

19 Targeting TECHNIQUES When used appropriately, audience targeting can support B2B marketing in the following ways: Audience Behavior Express interest in product/service Conduct keyword search, spend significant time on site, engage content/ads. Complete contact us forms or download lower-funnel site content, i.e. pricing sheets, product testimonials, case studies Audience Targeting Benefits Boost awareness with qualified audience via increasing new, unique and return site visitors UPPER FUNNEL Increase brand searches, SEM lift, direct site visits, time spent on site and content engagement. MIDDLE FUNNEL LOWER FUNNEL Increase lower-funnel site content engagement Increase renewals/repeat business with renewal oriented targeted messaging Share This Infographic! 18

20 Targeting TECHNIQUES UPPER FUNNEL Users inserted in the upper funnel of your marketing campaign are not showing interest in a company s products or services at this particular moment, however, they have a potential to develop interest in the future. The users might be in an industry or hold a position related to the audience demographic being targeted. Upper funnel campaigns generally focus on building brand awareness. CAMPAIGN METRICS Here are some common metrics attributed to persona targeting: New/unique visitors What percentage of the audience consists of brand new visitors? How many have visited this week, month, quarter, etc.? Return visitors What percentage of the site users actually return to the website? Bounce Rate This statistic measures the rate at which new visitors come to your site and then immediately click away. The lower the bounce rate, the more engaging the content. PERSONA TARGETING Have you ever heard anyone say that they are driving a persona targeting campaign? Persona targeting campaigns focus on identifying a target audience online through analyzing relevant site web traffic, CRM data and custom data segments. They are best utilized for growing brand awareness through increasing overall site traffic to a page or website. TRAFFIC SOURCES Sucess is measured through creating a website traffic goal and closely monitoring it. Over the course of a digital marketing campaign, a data analyst, webmaster, or digital marketer would measure the campaign activity against this benchmark to assess whether it is reaching the goal. Generally, with persona targeting campaigns, the more traffic the better. 19 Where are site visitors coming from? Understanding site traffic sources can help marketers better understand audiences and the direct results of persona targeting campaigns. Direct visitors Users directly locate the site via typing the URL in their browser. Search visitors Users locate the site through querying Google, Bing, or another search engine. Referral visitors A link in a blog or directory listing led the user to the site.

21 Targeting TECHNIQUES MIDDLE FUNNEL Users in the middle of the funnel have recently displayed a general interest in products and services through performing buying behaviors like searching certain keywords or reading content with specific terms and phrases. The definition of "buying behavior" and the measure of its timeliness varies by company and industry. B2B examples include searching for information that indicates interest in a firm's products or services, reading/downloading related content or searching competitor's products.? How do marketers determine buying behavior? Get an introduction to behavioral targeting. Hydraulic hoses (middle funnel) BEHAVIORAL TARGETING Search Retargeting Users that have entered specific key words and phrases in search engines whether a general Google query or a niche industry site are targeted with ads focused on making the user aware of the attributes of a company s specific products and services. Hydraulic hose fitting manufacturer (lower funnel) These users are then served ads on multiple publications and sites throughout the internet. Search retargeting can also be used as a lower funnel technique. Generally, the more specific the user s search terms, the more immediate their interest in purchasing. 20

22 For instance, "hydraulic hose" becomes a more lower funnel search retargeting term when changed to "hydraulic hose fitting manufacturer."? Baseball field home plates Tell me more about search retargeting. TWO TYPES OF CONTEXTUAL TARGETING Category Contextual Targeting Contextual campaigns are another middle funnel technique that can be adapted to lower funnel users as well. Contextual campaigns basically consist of targeting users that have viewed websites related to the problems the advertiser s products and services seek to resolve. Hollywood style removable home plate company CAMPAIGN METRICS For instance, visitors to a baseball field design and renovation blog could be contextually targeted with advertisements about batter s box chalkers or paint sprayers. Both search and contextual targeting become more lower funnel techniques based on the following: Keyword Contextual Targeting Contextual targeting campaigns can also work more specifically to identify users that read articles with a high prevalence of specific keywords and phrases. As with search retargeting, the more exclusive the keywords, the more interest in making an immediate purchase. For an example, a user that reads a series of articles containing a high count of words and phrases pertaining to baseball field home plates might be targeted with advertisements about a Hollywood style removable home plate company.? Recency - How recently an ad is served after an audience reads articles generally the sooner the advertisement is served, the more lower funnel the application. Specificity of keywords - Is the audience just viewing articles generally related to baseball? Or baseball field architecture, drainage and dirt specifications? The details make all the difference in the level of interest. Generally, targeting campaigns built around words that indicate more nuanced behavior indicate lower funnel marketing techniques. Common site conversion metrics include: Click-through-rate What percentage of the audience actually clicked on the ad? Length of time spent on page How long did the user spend reading page content? Learn more about contextual retargeting. 21

23 Targeting TECHNIQUES LOWER FUNNEL Individuals and organizations in this stage are currently demonstrating interest in your specific company. Users within this segment of the funnel have already visited the company site and/or utilized a combination of specific search terms that identify immediate desire. This audience would download product specific content from a site, watch a product/service testimonial video, or complete a Contact Us form. SITE retargeting Site retargeting techniques focus on keeping the company top of mind during the decision process and drive users back to a site to "convert" or complete a specific action, such as downloading a pricing sheet, signing up for a free trial, completing a form, or viewing a case study video. Site retargeting campaigns generally use strong call-to-action messaging to encourage conversion. They deliver ad messaging to the user soon after they visit the site. For example, let's say a prospective buyer visits a site, spends considerable time browsing through content, but fails to complete a "Contact us" form. With site retargeting, the prospective buyer receives display advertising encouraging them to return to the site and complete a specified action.? Learn more about site retargeting campaigns. 22 CAMPAIGN METRICS Common site conversion metrics include: Cost-per-conversion How much on average is spent to convert a site visitor? Lower-funnel content downloads How many users downloaded content? Video views How many users viewed the company s testimonial videos? Form fills How many users completed the company s online form for more information?

24 Summary

25 Summary Audience targeting utilizes a variety of methods to identify and communicate with buyers online. No one methodology is better than the other, as they all work together across the customer buying journey to accomplish goals and drive behavior. Ultimately, a marketer's audience targeting depends on the end result sought. Results also depend on how well the marketer understands their target audience. Determining the audience, their interests, search keywords, terms and phrases is essential. By thoroughly reviewing and applying this guide, marketers can better understand the various tools and techniques needed for creating digital campaigns that drive great results. 24

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