Digital ad networks are more than just a channel for reaching a broad base of consumers. Because of the diversity of ad display possibilities, and the information gathered and shared across this network, targeting opportunities abound. In fact, digital ad display networks even enhance the quality of behavior targeting because they contribute so much data to marketing departments.

Targeting is critical to getting any value out of digital ad campaigns. When you’re working on a digital ad network, you have a massive potential audience you can reach. If you are content to simply display those ads to any regular Joe that stumbles onto an available ad space, you’re not marketing a brand so much as gambling wildly. There’s no way to know if Joe has any interest in your services.

In other words, you might be trying to sell feminine products to a 70-year-old male. Good luck making the sale.

Because digital ad networks offer such a large audience, marketers have the luxury of refining their campaigns and making sure ads are only presented to the most likely consumers of a brand. Even in terms of targeting, there are a lot of strategies you can take. Here are three of the best digital ad targeting strategies to increase your return-on-investment.

Demographics Build Off Market Research

Demographics is one of the oldest types of ad targeting, and it’s still applicable and useful on the digital front. Typically, demographic targeting is most valuable when you have market research on your typical consumer base. For example, your research might tell you that the vast majority of your consumer base is single women ages 18 to 30, predominantly middle and upper-class, and with at least some college experience.

All of these characteristics can be targeted online, cutting out Web traffic that wouldn’t really be relevant to your brand and its solutions. Consequently, you’re only paying to display your ad to the most likely buyers. This lets you stretch your budget and ultimately reach more prospects, and with higher conversion rates to boot.

Behavior Targeting Wields Data Feedback

Behavior targeting is enabled largely by the data accumulation of the Internet. Internet cookies, consumer profiles, Web histories and other data sets can be tracked and analyzed by digital ad networks, and then used to determine which ads are presented to what consumers. With behavior targeting, you can follow a past website visitor to other websites across that Internet, displaying ads that are highly relevant based on their past activity.

If you sell home tools, for example, and a consumer views a radial saw on your website before ultimately abandoning your site, this prospective purchase isn’t necessarily lost. You can retarget them through behavior targeting strategies, displaying ads for radial saws on other websites, or even an ad for the exact saw the consumer considered but didn’t purchase. Research has found that behavior targeting can be very effective when you target the most telling consumer behaviors.

Mobile Devices Enable Location Targeting

Local businesses finally have a great resource for driving in-store traffic from online venues. Thanks to smartphones and tables, which are outfitted with location services, brands can choose to display ads to consumers within a certain distance of a physical store. They can also craft custom local ads displayed in certain cities or regions to create the appearance of greater personalization. And other tools, such as click-to-call buttons in ads or buttons to call up directions to a store, are also possible through this technology.

How you target your consumers depends on the type of business you run, your consumer base, your marketing goals and other variables. Contact DBC Digital to learn more about how you can reach your consumer base better through digital ad networks.

Greg Sherwood is CEO of DBC Digital, a marketing agency based in Denver, Colorado.  With over 30 years of marketing experience with traditional and inbound (internet) marketing, Greg helps mid-sized businesses get a better return on their marketing dollars.  

You can reach Greg at (303) 357-5757 or at dbc@dbcdigital.com

This map is typically referred to as a marketing model, and it’s far from throwing darts: most mainstream marketing models have been developed by experts and refined by research, case studies and real-world evidence that the components of the model are likely to generate success. Granted, digital marketing models are much younger than traditional models, and for some time that meant the results weren’t as dependable — the industry was still working to figure out what worked.

But that’s no longer the case. Digital marketing has matured to a point where we can point at any widely held marketing model and be confident in its design. More often than not, digital marketing models fail businesses because those businesses didn’t choose the best model to address their needs at the time. Different models cater to different needs and goals, and businesses have a vested interest in making sure they are marketed the right way. Here’s a quick guide to the basic marketing models out there, and how to balance your needs to earn the desired goal.

The Four Basic Digital Models

Digital marketing models can be broken down into four schools of thought:

• Digital Branding. This type of marketing model is all about developing and selling the brand, and particularly the brand-consumer relationship. Customer engagement and the customer experience are the primary focal points for this strategy, and companies investing in this type of marketing model typically target strong brand loyalty as a means of generating repeat business.
• Demand Generation. This approach primarily focuses on driving traffic to a business through any and all digital means. Digital properties are well-developed and highly integrated with one another. Volume is more important than efficiency, but companies investing in this digital model are also built to become more efficient with their expenses as sales volume increases.
• Product Innovation. When companies invest in this marketing model, their goal is to leverage digital marketing information and feedback to shape future innovations. This means using customer feedback and insights gained through social and other platforms to enhance customer satisfaction by making continual enhancements to the product line in question. The ability to create new products effectively generates new streams of revenue that keep the company viable and successful.
• Customer Experience Design. This model is all about creating an optimal customer experience: Developing streamlined paths to purchase, easy lines of communication, improved customer interactions and sleek, appealing sales platforms. Customer data gathered through digital platforms plays a large part in guiding future strategy and building the ideal customer experience.

Balancing Insights and Activation

The digital marketing model you choose will ultimately influence the proportions of your various marketing campaigns and capabilities. The goal of these various campaigns can typically be distilled down to one of two primary motives: insights and activation. Insight-minded campaigns typically seek out data and information to guide future strategy and decision-making, while activation is all about using the campaigns to generate immediate results such as lead generation and customer sales.

In an ideal world, when working with an endless budget, companies can afford to pursue both insights and activation at the same time. Some major businesses are able to accomplish this, but most are forced to choose between the two — or at least to emphasize one another the other. While insights and activation are valuable to businesses at any level, insights are particularly beneficial to companies working in development phases, or those seeking answers to questions about their market success.

Activation efforts are most lucrative when companies believe in their current product and platform and are waiting for the sales volume to show up. Businesses can help identify their preferred digital marketing model by identifying their priorities between insight and activation, as well as the proportions they might like to see these two pursued by any one approach. Once this is determined, the ideal marketing model — and its ensuing strategy — will fall into place.

Whether you seek a specific digital marketing model or simply want to figure out which one is best for your present needs, don’t take on the risk of making these decisions on your own. Contact DBC Digital today and let our professionals help you pinpoint the right strategy to help your business thrive.