Selling an Audience of One

Posted by: Matt Shanahan

While intent brings display advertising closer to search advertising, it is firmographic and demographic data that makes targeting more accurate. In search advertising, the advertiser buys keywords but is unable to specify the audience. For example, when I entered “Cabo San Lucas” for a search, a whole bunch of travel ads popped up on the right hand side. Looking through them, the ads were irrelevant because they didn’t come close to my demographics. The ads made no distinction to whether I was a spring-break student, a retiree, or otherwise.

Demographic and firmographic data can take intent further by better matching advertisers and audience members. Rather than an advertiser buying all the intent regardless of the audience, the advertiser can buy a combination of audience and intent. In the extreme, this type of data allows for selling an ad to an audience of one.

For the advertiser, they can better target and gauge campaign performance. For publishers, they can further segment their inventory with premium pricing. For audience members, they receive a more relevant experience. Additionally, effective advertising increases audience loyalty making it virtuous cycle for more impressions in the future.