What is a Target Audience and How to Determine Yours in 2023

  • JANUARY 13, 2023
  • Author: Lizaveta Zhuk

One of the main goals of marketing is to increase the profits of brands. There are many ways to achieve this, but they are all based on communicating with a target audience. The better brands understand their target customers, the better they will be able to launch ad campaigns and reach the high-intent users to generate revenue and not lose ad budgets. But…What is a target audience? Let’s learn more about it in our article.

What is the target audience?

Target audience is a specific group of users who are most likely to be interested in and purchase brand services and products. It can include users of different genders and ages, interests and behaviors, but they all share some common characteristics, such as:

  • age;
  • gender;
  • income;
  • location;
  • interests;
  • patterns of online behavior;
  • subcultures and so on.

When brands know their target audience, it makes for easier advertising communication- brands can choose the right message for the right users to peak their interest and attract them to a website, resulting in higher conversion rates and sales.

Why is knowing the target audience so important?

First thing’s first, every ad campaign is communication with users. To really be successful, brands need to know who they are speaking to in order to find and offer relevant messages. It’s difficult to target a 45-year-old mother of two children, it’s much easier to communicate with Ann, who has two children under five, works as a fitness trainer, and is always looking for quick but healthy dinners and ways to spend more time with children and less time on housework.

So, identifying a brand’s target audience can help improve ad strategy — instead of spending budgets trying to catch the attention of the wide audience, defining brand target audience and core customers allow more precise targeting and communication with users who are most likely to convert. It helps in spending ad budgets efficiently and get strong results as well as:

  • Develop exciting and engaging customer journeys. With defining a target audience and understanding its behavior, brands can choose the right channels to interact with their audience. Programmatic technology can help display bright ad creative at the right moment to efficiently communicate with users at each point of their buyer journeys. (learn more about programmatic advertising here)
  • Create offers, CTAs, and triggers that work. With a clearly defined audience, every detail of a product or service as well as a correct call to action, offer and trigger in advertisements can be perfectly tailored to users’ needs and desires.
  • Expand audience segments. For many marketers, audience research can be a bit of a box-ticking task but in reality it helps remove the guesswork around a brand’s target audience, find crucial insights about how users make a purchase decision or purchase behavior, or even find unexpected users that may be interested in products and services. For instance, home repair tools are bought as a present by women for men as well as men buy it for themselves. In this case, brands can include women in their ad campaigns.
  • Provide personalized experience. When brands know their target users, they can offer them what they need and in the way they need it to help them make the right decision — from choosing ad formats, ad copies and channels to choosing better time for displaying ads. Such personalized outreach based on preferences of target audiences help brands turn users into customers faster.
  • Form an efficient media mix. As well as knowing with whom you interact, it’s important to know where it is better to communicate. Some users watch videos before buying items directly from the brands store, some of them prefer to search goods in Google to buy, and other users like scrolling social networks and purchasing in offline stores. With clearly understanding an audience, brands will be able to choose the right ad channels to grab users attention at the right place.

Source: Marketing Evolution

How to determine target audience?

We’ve talked about what a target audience is, and why it’s essential, but how can brands define it?

1. Analyze existing customers from the CRM-system. It’s a good first step to find out who is already purchasing brands’ products or services to find a new one. In this case, you can define common characteristics of existing customers that can be the determining parameters of a brand’s target audience.

2. Check out competitors. It’s a good chance to know more about them — which channels they use to communicate with the audience, maybe they reach users you hadn’t thought to consider, etc. It doesn’t provide detailed information about competitors’ audience but it helps learn more about their marketing strategy and its efficiency as well as help you pinpoint your blind spots.

3. Track Google Analytics. It provides detailed information about the gender and age of users who are interested in the brand’s products or services, their location, preferred device, when they are most likely to convert and interact with brands. Also, it offers insight on users behavior on site — their favorite type of content,products categories, and journey on the website etc. 

4. Use social media analytics. Among the 4.9 billion social media users there can be brands’ target audience. So social network analytics is a great resource to fill out an audience profile. It provides information about users who interact with a brand social media account even if they aren’t customers yet. Also, it helps identify potential audience segments brands may not have considered before.

5. Use market reports and research. Marketing research for brand industry helps show more about the common patterns and characteristics of audiences, users behavior and habits, needs and concerns of users to see where is better to focus marketing efforts for brands.

What’s next? Audience segmentation

When the target audience is defined, brands can divide them into segments. Breaking users up into audience segments based on specific characteristics allows marketers to focus marketing efforts on high-intent users with a high likelihood of conversions. As a result, brands might get not only profit but also expand their customer base with a loyal engaged audience.

Some points to consider for brands in a process of audience segmentation are:

  • Age: millennials, zoomers and boomers have different purchase behavior and preferences that is important to look at audience segments for ad campaigns.
  • Location: understanding geographic area to target, helps brands figure out what hours are better for ads for best activity, features of religion or culture to consider, strong market for brands’ products and services, where users tend to spend more and so on.
  • Language: if the target audience speaks in different foreign languages, it’s better to divide them into different segments and develop ad copies in their native language.
  • Interest: one of the efficient ways to segment customers is by grouping them together based on their interests and preferences. In this case, brands will be able to increase efficiency of marketing efforts due personalized outreach to fit users’ tastes. 
  • Behavior: being able to identify and consider online users’ behavior in ad campaigns to serve relevant ads is one of the most important points in marketing. It allows brands to not only choose the right channels for better communicating with the audience but also show relevant ads to customers just as they’re most interested in purchasing products and services.
  • Pain points: each user has different preferences, needs and challenges. With understanding these points of every segment and how brands’ products help address those challenges, brands can develop an efficient CTA and advertisement for every audience segment.

But how can audience segmentation enhance your inbound marketing efforts?In general, it helps communicate only with users who are most interested in products and services of certain brands, and develop a marketing strategy that is tailored to customers needs and preferences. As a result, brands can grow faster and get profit in a faster way.

Conclusion

Creating detailed, realistic audiences from data brands trust takes ad campaigns from getting ordinary results, to high efficient ad campaigns with strong results that matters to your business. Access the real people around the world and reach your business outcomes with data, innovative AdTech solutions and NT Technology.

programmatic advertising in pakistan, advertising market in pakistan
Blog
Here are the main features and peculiarities of digital advertising market and future prospects for programmatic buying in Pakistan.
Read more
Blog
Programmatic is one of the most useful ad technologies. Here are the main programmatic trends and market peculiarities of Nordic region.
Read more
digital advertising market in nigeria, programmatic advertising market in nigeria
Blog
Nigeria is one of the largest advertising markets in Africa with its features and peculiarities. Let’s learn more about it in our article.
Read more
digital advertising market in armenia, programmatic advertising in armenia
Blog
Armenian digital ad market is moving towards programmatic advertising. So let’s learn about potential and market peculiarities in our article.
Read more
Blog
How should retailers adapt their ad strategies to efficiently interact with users and drive sales? Let's look at five point in our new article.
Read more
Blog
As a marketer, the best way to maximize the return on investment of media spending is to truly understand consumer behavior. Let’s break down the African online consumer behavior in our article and how to apply these trends in ad strategies to outperform KPIs.
Read more
digital advertising in saudi arabia, programmatic advertising in saudi arabia
Blog
Saudi Arabia has huge potential for programmatic ads. However, there are some peculiarities of the ad market. Let's learn more in our article.
Read more
digital advertising market in iran, programmatic advertising market in iran
Blog
Advertising market is quite different in Iran, especially when it comes to digital ads. Let’s learn more about digital ads market peculiarities in our article.
Read more
Blog
Google will block third-party cookies by 2022. Here we prepared useful tips on how marketers can adapt to perform in a cookieless future.
Read more
what is people-based marketing, people-based marketing efficiency
Blog
People-based marketing helps brands provide personalized experiences for users, improve communication with users and so on. Learn more in our article.
Read more
effectiveness of tiktok advertising, how much profit tiktok ads can get for brands
Blog
Marketers are interested in how many effective ads and benefits there are on TikTok. We tell about this and take for example ad campaign NYX.
Read more
Blog
Here are the main features and peculiarities of digital advertising market and future prospects for programmatic buying in Switzerland.
Read more
what is native advertising
Blog
Native ads that are programmatically bought and placed offer brands the ability to capitalize on increased relevance and personalization.
Read more
advertising on connected devices, what is it ctv advertising, what is ctv ads
Blog
It's high time to say goodbye to cable TV. Lets talk about what connected TV and OTT are, and why marketers should pay attention to them?
Read more
digital advertising market in spain, digital advertising market in portugal, programmatic advertising in spain and portugal
Blog
Here are the main features and peculiarities of digital ads market and future prospects for programmatic buying in Spain and Portugal.
Read more
Blog
Meta-DSPs help marketers achieve the best results in a cost-efficient way while unifying the strengths of the strongest different platforms.
Read more
what is target audience, how to define target audience
Blog
Target audience, what is it? How can you determine it? Our article reveals all you need to know about it to enhance marketing strategy.
Read more
Blog
The main features and peculiarities of digital advertising market and future prospects for programmatic buying in The United Arab Emirates.
Read more
audience targeting in digital advertising, how does audience targeting work
Blog
Targeting allows getting across to motivated consumers without having to deal with irrelevant audiences who won’t purchase your product.
Read more
digital advertising market in poland, programmatic advertising in poland, programmatic market in poland
Blog
Poland is one of the fastest growing markets for programmatic advertising. Let’s learn deeper about outlooks and market peculiarities in our article.
Read more
digital advertising market in egypt, programmatic advertising egypt
Blog
Egypt is one of the largest digital markets in the MENA region with a wide audience and opportunities for brands. Let’s learn more about that in our article.
Read more
digital advertising market in australia, programmatic advertising market in australia
Blog
Stay on top with the main features and peculiarities of digital advertising market and future prospects for programmatic in Australia.
Read more
social media platforms for advertising, audience of social networks
Blog
Social media rules the world: let’s see the most popular platforms and how they can help advertisers reach their target audience correctly.
Read more
Blog
Look-alike helps to reach new people who are likely to be interested in your business because they're similar to your best existing customers.
Read more
Blog
First-price auction is a new reality of the ad world. So let's go back to the basics and learn about the second and first-price auction: what it is, how it works, etc.
Read more
Blog
Marketing business during a crisis can be tricky if brands launch ads blindly, so here are some tips to aid efficient advertising in times of crisis.
Read more
how brands can prepare for holidays, how to prepare advertising strategy for holidays, holiday marketing advices
Blog
Holiday marketing can be tricky: there’re a lot of doubts and competitors. So NT talks about how to prepare an ad campaign for the holiday in 2022.
Read more
Blog
Let’s see the main features and market peculiarities of programmatic advertising market in Indonesia, and prospects for its development.
Read more
Blog
India has one of the most steadily-growing advertising markets in the world. Here are the main features for programmatic buying in India.
Read more
Blog
In-game advertising can help brands drive engagement, outreach and conversions. Let’s learn more about in-game ads in our new article.
Read more
Blog
Traveling among APAC customers on the rise so it's time to upgrade your ad strategy considering new behavior tendencies and peculiarities.
Read more
Blog
Programmatic buying dominates in the Canadian digital advertising market. Here are the main features and programmatic peculiarities of Canada.
Read more
DOOH ads what is it, how does dooh work, the efficiency of digital out of home advertising
Blog
DOOH ads are the best choice for brands who want to reach their audience wherever they are. Let's learn more about DOOH advertising in our article.
Read more
digital advertising market in austria, programmatic advertising market in austria
Blog
The potential of programmatic ads in Austria is clear: it’s an incredibly growing industry. Let’s learn more about market features and forecast in our article.
Read more
e-commerce trends 2023
Blog
The E-commerce world is a big one with constantly changing trends and users behavior. We look at it for 2023, and talk about the most actual in our article.
Read more
digital advertising market in philippines, programmatic advertising market in philippines
Blog
Here are the main features and market peculiarities for programmatic media buying in the Philippines, and its outlook for future growth.
Read more
Blog
Let’s take a look at the main features, market peculiarities and future prospects for programmatic ads in Singapore, Vietnam and Myanmar.
Read more
digital advertising market in mena region
Blog
Programmatic is one of the most popular advertising technologies. Let’s see the main programmatic market peculiarities of MENA region.
Read more
Blog
Games are conquering the world in different ways: video games, interactive serials with a possibility to control actions of the main hero, and, of course, gamification in advertising. So let’s find out why games are so popular and effective and how marketers can use them.
Read more
digital advertising market in cyprus, programmatic advertising market in cyprus
Blog
Cyprus' digital advertising market has seen significant growth. Let’s learn more about peculiarities and statistics in our article.
Read more
digital advertising market in south africa, programmatic advertising market in south africa
Blog
The South African digital market shows considerable growth. Here are the main features and programmatic peculiarities of those countries.
Read more
Blog
Users’ behavior is changeable. So brands should find a way to adapt to it. Customer journey analytics can help. Learn more in our article.
Read more
Blog
Programmatic is one of the most useful and dynamic ad technologies. Here are the main programmatic market peculiarities of APAC region.
Read more
telegram marketing, advertising on telegram messenger for brands
Blog
Telegram is a promising ever-growing platform for brands with engaging audiences and efficient ads. Let’s learn more about it in our article.
Read more

DOOH ads what is it, how does dooh work, the efficiency of digital out of home advertising
Blog
DOOH: What is it and why is it so effective?
digital advertising market in cyprus, programmatic advertising market in cyprus
Blog
Programmatic in Cyprus
digital advertising market in nigeria, programmatic advertising market in nigeria
Blog
Programmatic in Nigeria
Blog
Programmatic in APAC region
programmatic advertising in pakistan, advertising market in pakistan
Blog
Programmatic in Pakistan
audience targeting in digital advertising, how does audience targeting work
Blog
Audience targeting in programmatic
Blog
A cookieless era is coming: how advertisers can adapt
e-commerce trends 2023
Blog
5 e-commerce trends to follow in 2023
digital advertising market in austria, programmatic advertising market in austria
Blog
Programmatic in Austria
Blog
Programmatic in Canada
digital advertising market in spain, digital advertising market in portugal, programmatic advertising in spain and portugal
Blog
Programmatic in Spain & Portugal
Blog
Advertising in Tough Times: How to Communicate Efficiently with Users
digital advertising market in australia, programmatic advertising market in australia
Blog
Programmatic in Australia
digital advertising market in mena region
Blog
Programmatic in MENA region
Blog
What is Meta-DSP and what are its advantages
telegram marketing, advertising on telegram messenger for brands
Blog
Telegram Marketing: What Are Ads On Telegram and Why Brands Should Use It
Blog
Customer journey analytics & customer journey map: what brands should know about them
Blog
Advertising for retail businesses: how to improve ad strategy
Blog
Programmatic in Nordic region
Blog
Programmatic in India
Blog
Programmatic in Indonesia
what is target audience, how to define target audience
Blog
What is a Target Audience and How to Determine Yours in 2023
Blog
Africa goes digital: how brands may reach their target audience in this region
what is people-based marketing, people-based marketing efficiency
Blog
What brands should know about people-based marketing: what is it and how works
Blog
Everything you need to know about look-alike targeting
advertising on connected devices, what is it ctv advertising, what is ctv ads
Blog
New-era TV: let’s talk about what is CTV and its advantages
digital advertising market in armenia, programmatic advertising in armenia
Blog
Programmatic in Armenia
social media platforms for advertising, audience of social networks
Blog
Choosing the right social media to reach your target audience
Blog
The Role of Gamification in Modern Advertising
Blog
Programmatic in Switzerland
digital advertising market in philippines, programmatic advertising market in philippines
Blog
Programmatic in the Philippines
Blog
Make brand marketing strategy stand out with in-game advertising
digital advertising market in egypt, programmatic advertising egypt
Blog
Programmatic in Egypt
Blog
Programmatic in the United Arab Emirates
digital advertising market in south africa, programmatic advertising market in south africa
Blog
Programmatic in South Africa
how brands can prepare for holidays, how to prepare advertising strategy for holidays, holiday marketing advices
Blog
How brands become the most powerful Jedi with ad campaign for 2022 holiday season
what is native advertising
Blog
Why is native advertising so popular?
Blog
First-price vs second-price auction: what is it and what are the differences
Blog
Ads for travel business: what’s new in the APAC region and how to reach its travelers
digital advertising market in iran, programmatic advertising market in iran
Blog
Programmatic in Iran
effectiveness of tiktok advertising, how much profit tiktok ads can get for brands
Blog
Effectiveness of advertising on TikTok
digital advertising market in poland, programmatic advertising in poland, programmatic market in poland
Blog
Programmatic in Poland
Blog
Programmatic in Singapore, Vietnam & Myanmar
digital advertising in saudi arabia, programmatic advertising in saudi arabia
Blog
Programmatic in Saudi Arabia
CONTACT US
Ready to make your next campaign a success?
We are!

    First name*

    Last name*

    Company or Website URL*

    Phone number*

    Your message

    This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google 
    Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.