- The specialist determines the advertising goals and user actions that will be considered the result.
- The target audience is divided into several segments with different characteristics or behavior.
- Advertisements, images, videos, and other creatives are prepared for the segments.
- Budgets, platforms, audiences, and campaign parameters are set in the advertising account.
- After launch, data is collected on impressions, clicks, requests, purchases, or other events.
- Results are compared across campaigns, audiences, and ads.
- The budget and settings are adjusted based on the statistics obtained.
After the initial tests, the structure may change significantly. Some hypotheses fail to produce the desired results, while some audiences demonstrate lower customer acquisition costs. This is why targeted advertising requires post-launch analysis, even if the initial setup is correct.
How does targeted advertising differ from contextual advertising?
The main difference lies in the audience definition method and the moment of contact with the ad. Contextual advertising often targets existing demand, when the user is already searching for a specific product or service. Targeted advertising can reach the audience earlier, based on available characteristics, interests, or previous interactions.
Both channels can operate simultaneously and address different objectives within the same funnel. For example, targeted promotion introduces the offer to the audience, while a search campaign reaches some users later, when they begin searching for the service themselves.
The choice of channel depends on the product, customer behavior, and current demand. For some projects, a combination of multiple advertising systems is optimal, as users can interact with the brand multiple times before submitting a request or making a purchase.
Where do we launch targeted advertising?
We select the platform after analyzing the audience and the project's objectives. The decision depends on where potential customers spend their time, what formats are suitable for the product, and what data can be collected after launch. The popularity of a social network alone doesn't make it suitable for a particular company.
When working with multiple platforms, campaigns aren't automatically copied. Ad formats, audience behavior, and available settings differ, so the promotion structure is adapted to each advertising system.
Targeted advertising on Facebook and Instagram
Facebook and Instagram use the Meta advertising infrastructure. The ads manager allows you to target various audience segments and run ads in the feed, Stories, Reels, and other available placements. Specific formats are selected based on the product and the advertising materials you've prepared.
Projects often utilize cold audiences, warm audiences, retargeting, and lookalike audiences. For online stores, product data and e-commerce events are additionally considered if the relevant infrastructure is already configured on the site.
Creatives for different placements are developed based on size and viewing scenario. A single horizontal banner rarely works equally well for both feed and vertical Stories, so when preparing a campaign, we determine the required formats in advance.
Targeted advertising on TikTok
TikTok is suitable for projects that can clearly present their product through short video content. The advertising material itself is of great importance here: the opening seconds of the video, the pace of delivery, the product demonstration, and compliance with the platform's established format.
When launching, it's a good idea to prepare several video versions, as audience reactions to creatives can vary significantly. Based on testing results, views, clicks, and target actions are compared, after which weaker ads are replaced with new versions.
The decision to launch on TikTok is made after assessing the niche and audience. If a business struggles to create suitable video content or the desired segment is underrepresented on the platform, it's better to invest in another advertising channel.
Targeted Advertising on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is most often considered for B2B promotions, professional services, SaaS products, recruiting, and companies with a clear corporate value proposition. When preparing a campaign, we consider job titles, industries, and other available professional characteristics of users.
For this type of promotion, the offer's content and landing page are particularly important. The audience expects specifics about the product, its use case, the company's benefits, and the terms of engagement, so overly general advertising messages usually provide little information for decision-making.
Before launching, we also assess the potential audience size and acceptable customer acquisition costs. B2B funnels are often longer than retail ones, so it's best to evaluate advertising effectiveness based on lead quality and subsequent sales team efforts.
Targeted advertising on YouTube and Google Ads
Google Ads offers audience settings for various types of advertising campaigns, including video and other formats. The term "targeted Google advertising" is often used in a broad sense, although the campaign structure and audience selection methods differ from those of Facebook or Instagram advertising.
When promoting on YouTube, the video content, the selected audience, and the campaign goal are of great importance. Other Google campaigns can use custom segments and data from users who have already interacted with the website or business.
The cost of targeted advertising on Google also depends on the chosen format, competition, and advertising budget. Therefore, it's best to estimate the cost of such a campaign after determining the specific advertising type and project goals.
What types of targeting do we use?
Segmentation helps divide potential customers into groups based on location, interests, behavior, or stage of familiarity with the company. The clearer the hypothesis for a specific segment, the easier it is to evaluate the advertising message and its results after launch.
Available parameters vary between platforms and may change over time. We use the settings available in the selected advertising system and appropriate for the project's objectives.
Geographical targeting
Geotargeting is essential for companies for whom a customer's location influences their ability to purchase or receive a service. A local business might target a specific city or district, while an online store might target the regions where they actually deliver.
Geography is selected based on the actual service area. If a clinic is located in a single city, displaying ads nationwide will increase the number of irrelevant clicks. Conversely, an international project may require separating campaigns by country, language, and market.
After launch, data is analyzed separately for key regions. If conversion costs vary significantly, the budget can be reallocated and testing can be continued in more promising areas.
Socio-demographic targeting
Sociodemographic characteristics help narrow or segment audiences when a product is truly relevant to specific user groups. Depending on the advertising platform, age ranges, gender, and other available parameters may be used.
Overly narrow settings can significantly reduce potential reach, so restrictions should be based on customer data. If actual information is still limited, it's best to test multiple segments and compare the results statistically.
When analyzing, we consider the final actions of users. A high click-through rate for a particular group doesn't necessarily mean they're more likely to submit requests or make purchases.
Interest and behavior targeting
Interests and behavioral indicators help formulate hypotheses about the potential audience. The advertising system uses the available data to distribute users into appropriate segments, after which the advertiser selects the appropriate options when setting up a campaign.
This type of targeting is well suited for initial testing when a business doesn't yet have a large in-house database. Several interest groups can be tested separately and the cost of clicks, leads, and sales can be compared.
Segments are regularly revised after statistics are accumulated. If one group consistently generates higher-quality leads, it can receive a larger share of the advertising budget.
Retargeting
Retargeting works with users who have already interacted with the company. These could be website visitors, visitors to specific pages, customers, people who have interacted with content, or other audiences that can be created with the correct data settings.
The advertising message for such an audience typically depends on their previous action. A user who has researched a specific service might be shown an offer related to that service, while an online store visitor might be shown an ad tailored to available e-commerce events.
For retargeting, we check event collection and audience creation rules in advance. Without proper data transfer, the desired segment may be too small or collected incorrectly.
Similar audiences
Similar audiences are used to find new users based on initial customer data or another selected group, if available on the advertising platform. The algorithm analyzes the characteristics of the original audience and selects users with similar characteristics.
The quality of the source data influences the usefulness of such a hypothesis. A list of random website visitors typically yields less information than an audience of real buyers or qualified leads, provided the data volume is sufficient for the system to function.
Lookalike audience results are tested separately from other segments. After launch, we compare the cost and quality of conversions, as the technical feasibility of creating a segment says nothing about its commercial value.
Setting up analytics for targeted advertising
Advertising without proper analytics shows costs and some actions within the advertising account, but doesn't provide a complete picture of user behavior after the click. Therefore, before actively scaling, we check event collection, UTM tags, and key conversion reporting.
Depending on the project, Meta Pixel, Conversions API, Google Analytics 4, CRM, and other available data sources may be used. An online store also requires proper e-commerce tracking, while lead generation requires events for form submissions, calls, or other inquiries.
UTM tags help differentiate sources, campaigns, and individual ads in analytics systems. This is especially useful when multiple channels lead users to the same landing pages.
What indicators do we analyze?
The set of KPIs is determined by the business's objectives. The metrics for an awareness campaign and an online store will differ, so there is no universal set of figures for all projects. Before launching, we define the primary and secondary metrics that will be used for evaluation.
For commercial campaigns, we strive to move from superficial advertising metrics to business results. Clicks and impressions help diagnose ad performance, while leads, sales, and revenue provide more insight into the true value of traffic.
A simplified analysis funnel looks like this:
Impressions → Clicks → Website Actions → Leads → Sales → Revenue
Each stage can present a distinct problem. A low CTR is related to ad response, a weak page conversion rate requires a website review, and a large number of non-targeted leads indicates the need to reconsider the audience or offer.
CTR and CPC
CTR measures the ratio of clicks to impressions and helps assess audience response to an ad. CPC measures the average cost per click. Together, these metrics provide insight into how well an ad attracts attention and how much the traffic costs.
However, a low CPC shouldn't automatically be considered a good result. Cheap clicks can attract users who don't submit requests or make purchases. Therefore, click metrics are always considered alongside conversions and the quality of subsequent actions.
When testing, CTR and CPC are useful for comparing ads within similar conditions. They help you quickly identify options worth exploring further using conversion data.
CPL and CPA
CPL measures the cost of a lead, while CPA can be used to estimate the cost of another specified target action. These metrics become especially useful after properly setting up events and using consistent conversion accounting rules.
The lowest cost per lead also requires additional verification. Two advertising segments may generate the same number of inquiries, but the quality of customers and the percentage of subsequent sales will differ.
If a company has a CRM, it's advisable to compare advertising data with qualified leads and actual sales. Then, optimization is based on the business value of each request, not the number of completed forms.
Conversion
Conversion shows what percentage of users complete the desired action after interacting with an ad or landing page. This metric helps evaluate traffic quality, offer content, and page performance.
If conversion rates noticeably drop, we check what has changed in the audience, advertising, and website. The cause could be a new traffic source, an incorrect form, a price change, or an inconsistency between the advertising message and the page content.
It's best to compare conversion rates between comparable segments and periods. Mixing different products, countries, or traffic types can produce average values that poorly reflect the actual situation.
ROAS
ROAS measures the ratio of advertising revenue to advertising costs. This metric is especially useful for projects where purchases and their value are accurately reported in analytics, such as some online stores.
ROAS can only be estimated with reliable revenue and expense data. If a purchase occurs after a phone call or extensive interaction with a sales representative, information from the advertising platform alone is not enough.
For businesses with repeat purchases, the long-term value of a customer is also important. Therefore, the target ROAS and acceptable acquisition cost are determined based on the economics of the specific project.
Who is targeted advertising suitable for?
Targeted advertising is suitable for businesses whose audience can be found on advertising platforms and driven to a measurable, targeted action. Campaigns are especially useful in environments where the product can be clearly presented through an image, video, or short advertising message.
Approaches will vary depending on the niche. An online store prioritizes purchases and ROAS, a clinic prioritizes patient appointments, an educational project prioritizes registrations, and a B2B company prioritizes qualified leads, which are then processed by the sales department.
Targeted promotion can be used in the following areas:
- Online stores promote products, categories, promotions, and repeat purchases among selected customer segments;
- Local businesses work with users within their service area and measure inquiries from the required region;
- Medical projects promote services permitted by advertising rules, taking into account the geography and characteristics of the platform;
- Educational companies attract registrations for programs, consultations, webinars, or other stages of their funnel;
- Real estate businesses work with audiences for individual properties, property types, and geographic areas;
- SaaS projects attract registrations, requests for demonstrations, and other actions from potential product users;
- B2B companies test audiences and offers taking into account the long transaction cycle and subsequent lead qualification;
- Mobile apps use advertising to drive installs and subsequent in-product actions.
Once a niche is selected, specific KPIs are determined. A universal cost-per-lead benchmark is not applicable here, as the economics of dentistry, online stores, and SaaS services differ.
What does a business gain from professional ad management?
Regular management allows businesses to systematically manage advertising data. A specialist monitors campaigns, tests new hypotheses, and adjusts the budget based on the available statistics, rather than relying on settings that have ceased to produce acceptable results.
The company receives a clear advertising account structure, configured analytics, and regular performance data. Reports show where budget is spent, which audiences are driving conversions, and which campaigns require adjustment.
The work also includes monitoring advertising creatives and searching for new options. Audiences gradually become accustomed to the same ads, so some projects require regular updates.
The main value of ongoing management is in the accumulated data. Over time, it becomes clearer which segments convert most often, which offers receive the best response, and which parts of the funnel require further refinement.
How to order targeted advertising?
To order targeted advertising, submit a request and briefly describe the project: business line, geography, key products or services, and current advertising activity. If the advertising has already been launched, it's helpful to provide access to existing statistics for preliminary analysis.
After familiarizing ourselves with the project, we determine suitable advertising platforms, the scope of setup, the required analytics, and the subsequent management format. We then agree on the scope of work and budget, after which campaign preparation begins.
If you need targeted social media advertising, including setup and management, submit a request to Seo-Gen. After a project assessment, you'll receive a clear list of services and a cost estimate, without unnecessary services attached.
