Personalization Strategies Unveiled: How to Reach Your Ideal Audience at the Perfect Time

The era of generalization is long gone, only to be replaced by the powerful force of personalization. This tectonic shift is driving some businesses into oblivion while propelling others into great brands.

If done right, retailers can make a fortune out of brand loyalty. Studies say nearly half of the consumers are likely to repeat the same purchase after receiving a personalized experience. 

And to do so, nothing exceeds the power of advertisements. Creating ads that help users and pop at the right time. You ought to master both fronts and see the revenue flowing in. 

This brings us to Google Ads’ audiences. 

When it comes to Google Ads targeting, most people intuitively think of keywords. However, audiences play a crucial role that often goes unnoticed. Audience targeting shows ads that resonate with the interests, needs, behaviors, and goals of your audience – and not simply, what your audience is searching for ( Keywords). 

Audiences are highly-effective yet underutilized when building targeting strategies in Google Ads. Discover your target audiences in Search, Display, Discovery, Video, and Shopping campaigns. 

In this guide, we’ll learn three major aspects of Google Ads Targeting Audiences that marketers must leverage. 

1. Google’s Audience Segments

Marketers can access four pre-defined audience categories, available in Google Ads’ Audience Manager. Possibly one of the fastest and easiest ways to get closer to your target audience.

Let’s dig deeper into these four categories:

Detailed Demographic Targeting 

Targeting people beyond studying the demographics ( age, gender, etc.)? Go a step ahead and dig deeper into their life and different career stages. For instance, graduating or getting married. 

Affinity Segment Targeting 

This brings you closer to people with similar interests, hobbies, and habits. For instance, individuals who are into Beauty & Wellness or seen hanging out in Home & Garden shops.

In-Market Segment Targeting 

How about targeting people based on their online experience? Like buying similar products or booking services. The behavior may or may not remain the same. However, marketers can catch them at the middle stage of the sales funnel.

Life Event Targeting 

Get closer to individuals going through significant life changes, such as getting married, having a baby, moving, graduating, or welcoming a new pet.

2. Your Data Segments

Your data segments remain invaluable for marketers. 

As per Google, “Your data segments include collections of website visitors or app users gathered by snippets of code added to your site or app”. 

Leverage the insightful data extracted from website, app, youtube, and/ or customer match ( email, phone number, etc.).  Use it to your advantage and engineer remarketing strategies for your business. 

Ramp up targeting with Similar segment audiences. It creates a list of individuals with similar behavior to that of remarketing audiences. They are new to your business but have a high propensity to purchase your product or services. Catch them at the right time!

3. Custom Segments

All thanks to Google AI, marketers can now find audiences that are tailored to your campaign objectives.  This data is extracted and processed by Google only.
As per Google Ads custom audience targeting, you can discover audiences based on

• The relevant search queries of people:  For luxury cars ads campaign’, Google will fetch data of users searching for ’ luxury cars for destination weddings’ or ‘ luxury cars for intimate weddings’. 
• The types of websites people browse:  Fetch websites that are frequented by users with high-intent and not simply indulging in aimless meandering. 
• The types of apps people use:  Reach out to people who are using similar apps like ‘ Health & Fitness’, and   ‘Beauty & Skincare’.

This data works amazingly for audience targeting for Display, Discovery, and Video campaigns.

Personalization Shaping Brands Journey

Personalization has been a game-changer for brands. Big or small; online or offline, the end customers are looking for a personal experience at every stage of their experience. 

McKinsey’s study confirms more than three-fourths of customers expect a personalized experience from brands they interact with. In fact, 76% end up frustrated if they do not receive personalized service. 

Long story short, you can’t afford to be anything but personalized in everything you do. And mind you, it is more than just giving freebies.  From the first point of contact to subsequent interactions, companies have to drive meaningful results based on personalized ads.  This wins you market goodwill that converts into customer retention and loyalty with time. 

Discipline yourself or partner with a reputable advertising agency that drives sales with pay-per-click marketing solutions. Swim into the deep waters and mine the rich pool of customer data that delivers personalized experiences at scale.