Defining Your Digital Ad Audience

Lately, the He’s a 10, but… trend has been taking over my Tik Tok ForYouPage. Here’s how it works: you start by giving someone a rating between 1-10, and then you add a piece of information that will either boost or drop their score. My favorite way to play has been with friends and family, calling out funny personality traits or characteristics about each other – all in good fun, of course. 😉   

“She’s a 10, but you have to tell her the event starts an hour earlier for her to show up on time.” 

Now she’s a 7.

“He’s an 8, but his go-to dance move is the sprinkler.” 

Oh no, now he’s a 5.

“He’s a 10, but leaves his stuff everywhere and demands dinner at 5:00.”

Still a 10. (For context, this one is about my dogs.) 

This trend got me thinking about what goes into creating an effective digital ad strategy. You can have everything you need to be a 10, but there could still be that one thing that’s taking away from your potential success.  

You’re a 10, but you don’t know who your digital ad audience is…  

If you would describe your target audience as everyone, then you’re missing out on the opportunity to connect with individuals whose characteristics best complement your brand. 

You can have a substantial ad budget and killer creative assets, but none of it matters if you don’t understand who you’re targeting. After all, what kind of results can you expect if you aren’t intentional about who is receiving your message or which channels you’re meeting them on? 

Defining your digital ad audience is key to strategizing and running your digital ad campaigns. When you know who you’re targeting inside and out, you can be sure that you’re creating content that will resonate with them and encourage them to take action. 

Here are a few steps to identify your audience and get to know them deeper.   

Get comfortable with the numbers 

If you’ve already done some research on your current or ideal customers, take a deep dive into the data and analytics you’ve collected. Look for trends and commonalities that reveal new insights – what’s worked and what hasn’t? 

If you can identify their pain points and needs, you can determine the best way to pitch your product or service to overcome their challenges. 

Fill in the gaps 

If you’re missing information that would be valuable to your campaign, conduct a follow-up survey or study to collect more specific insights from the right audience. You can also experiment with your content to test and measure how different messaging performs on various platforms. 

This research helps to eliminate the guesswork and reveals actual evidence, like when and where they’re active or what content they engage with the most.