Understanding and effectively reaching target audiences is crucial for success in today's competitive environment. One powerful marketing strategy that has gained more popularity recently is look alike targeting. This strategy allows businesses to identify and engage with potential customers/users who share characteristics and behaviors similar to those of their existing customer base.
According to Jarrett Christian, Growth Manager at Radiant Digital, "Lookalike targeting is a valuable tool for businesses. It allows them to find new users based on characteristics and traits similar to those of their current users." Furthermore, "it can help businesses increase their market share."
What is Lookalike Targeting?
Lookalike targeting is a marketing strategy that utilizes data analysis and algorithms to identify individuals who resemble a business' existing users or customers.
By analyzing various data points, such as demographics, interests, online behavior, and purchase history, businesses can create a profile of their ideal customer. This profile serves as a guide to finding similar individuals who exhibit comparable characteristics and behaviors.
Lookalike targeting is commonly implemented through social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, which provide robust tools for audience segmentation and targeting.
Why use Lookalike Targeting?
For businesses desiring to appeal to the faith consumer, lookalike targeting offers distinct advantages that can help drive growth and build powerful connections.
Reach a relevant audience: By analyzing the characteristics and behaviors of their existing users, businesses can identify individuals who are likely to share similar characteristics. For example, faith-based businesses would look for users who share similar religious beliefs, values, and interests. This targeted approach makes sure that your marketing efforts appeal to individuals who are more likely to resonate with your business' messaging and offerings.
Build trust and connection: Appealing to the faith consumer often requires establishing trust and building a genuine connection. Lookalike targeting helps businesses reach individuals who already exhibit some sort of loyalty towards faith-based products or services. By engaging with this audience, businesses can create familiarity and trust, as these individuals are more likely to relate to the brand's mission, values, and messaging. This connection can lead to increased brand loyalty and advocacy among the faith consumer segments.
Maximize cost-effectiveness and efficiency: By focusing marketing efforts on individuals who closely resemble existing users, businesses can maximize their advertising budget and achieve a higher return on investment. Rather than targeting a broad audience, lookalike targeting allows businesses to concentrate resources on individuals who are more likely to convert into customers. This targeted approach minimizes wasteful spending and optimizes the impact of marketing campaigns.
"By pinpointing your marketing strategies on users who are more likely to convert, you'll not only optimize your ad budget but most importantly, you'll increase your ROI. It's a win-win!" says Christian.
Expand the customer base: By identifying individuals who share common characteristics with existing users or customers, businesses can reach new markets and attract potential customers who align with their product or service's core offering. This expansion of the customer base can lead to increased sales, revenue, and overall business growth.
Tailor personalized and relevant messaging: By understanding the characteristics and behaviors of their existing customers, businesses can tailor their marketing communications to resonate with the values and interests of the lookalike audience. This personalized approach enhances the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, as individuals are more likely to engage with messaging that aligns with their desires, beliefs, and values.
3 "Secret" Lookalike Tips From the Experts at Radiant Digital
If you're employing lookalike targeting, these exclusive tips can help focus your strategies while achieving your goals:
Focus on quality over volume. Instead of uploading your entire CRM, dig deeper. First, think through the campaign goals. Are you trying to grow your donor base? Do you want to download an ebook? Have a successful product launch? Based on these goals, create a seed list of your best users. This gives the platform better data to match against, so you are more likely to show your ads to a higher-quality audience.
Segment your lookalikes and compare results. Some businesses say they are "using lookalikes," but really, they are using one 10%lookalike list of their entire CRM for every campaign. Play around with the different percentages and then closely watch the data. Then, you can compare which lookalike model will best resonate with your business. A larger audience is not always the secret to success, but you won't know that until you test head-to-head.
Refine your lookalikes based on campaign data. Once you start running campaigns, your audience targeting options begin to expand. For example, if you are running a video creative, start learning from the people who watch a high percentage of your video and then model off of those users. Suppose your ads are getting a lot of engagement, and model off of the people who are engaging.
"With more signals to play with, you can greatly expand your reach to new users without hitting the point of diminishing returns or frequency issues," declares Christian.
No doubt, lookalike audiences can help businesses target users and customers that match their ideal customers and can drive better results. Keep in mind that this requires continuous testing and a deep understanding of the target audience, and the social media and other platforms used. If you need help building a marketing strategy using lookalike or other targeting marketing to grow your business, Radiant Digital can help expand your reach.
