By now, we all know that our activities on the web leave a trail of data behind; information about who we are, what we are interested in, sites we visit, etc. (If you did not know this, quietly scoop your jaw off the floor and go google “cookies”.) While yes, sometimes when that Darth Vader Snuggie you looked at around 3 am last night shows up in a banner ad while you sip your moring cup of coffee, it can feel a bit creepy. But for marketers it’s simply fantastic.
The Basics
All this information about the billions of consumers online has completely changed the marketing game. Now instead of simply picking the facts about a consumer - a location, an age, a gender, etc. - and crossing your fingers, you can hypertarget. This term refers to finding consumers based on interests. Meaning you can narrow beyond just the demographic, and specify a psychographic - a consumer’s interests, hobbies, habits, etc. -the meaty stuff that makes us, us. We move beyond “tall, dark, and handsome” and into “likes sailing, knows how to cook, wants a dog” type stuff. That is where marketing gets personal and personal is powerful.
At Visibl we have advanced methods of collecting audience data via social media channels, as well as partnerships with the most sophisticated third-party data providers that allow us to hypertarget like a boss. Thing is, that is not our secret sauce. Gives us swagger, yes, but there are other really big media agencies and even places like Facebook that tap into similar type of data for their targeting.
Secret Sauce
In the wild world of hyper targeting, the thing that makes us stand out is based on the fact that media agencies are incentivised to get as many impressions as quickly as possible...so they can get more money from you. This means that while they will certainly aim for your target of Tall, Dark, Handsome, Likes Sailing, Knows How to Cook, Wants a Dog; they might also target Tallish-With a Face-Has a Cat.
Has a cat!
What?! Yep, that’s the sad truth of it; most targets get a lot softer as the media agency simply wants to speed the spending up. And, at the same time, Facebook makes it incredibly difficult on their platform to constrain your target to truly just the audience you have selected.
At Visibl, we believe you should get what you pay for. This means the target you select is the ONLY target we will serve your ad to. You get Tall, Dark, Handsome, Likes Sailing, Knows How to Cook, Wants a Dog, and no B team, and that means no media waste.
Key Considerations
Now that you can be so truly hypertargeted with Visibl’s audience selection, there are a few things to keep in mind. Know that if you are very, very selective about your target, your ad might take a while to spend (aka. use up the budget you allocated). If you make a really small group, we will certainly find them, but it might take longer than you would like (remember we are in it for the long haul and will never give you “sort of your target”). As an example, if you target men in their 30's who live in yurts in New Hampshire, shop for women's hair products, work in a flower shop and enjoy putting crazy things in their beards, we will find them. It just might take us 3 years to spend your $200. (We might be wrong here, but we are thinking this is still a small population. But hell, we thought graphic designers in LA dressing like a lumberjack was possibly a passing trend too. Five years later, hello lumbersexuals).
We like to suggest that if you are going to be super specific in targeting their interests and attributes, be a bit more open with their geographic areas. If you want to narrow down to just a zip code, be a bit more flexible with attributes and interests. Just like finding that dog-loving stud muffin, never lower your standards - just pick and choose where you can be flexible.
At the end of the day, targeting is an incredibly powerful tool that allows you to reach your core audience better than ever before. And with Visibl’s transparent and truly hypertargeted approach, your video will be seen only by those you have selected as most interested in watching.
Now, that’s hot.
