Measuring the value of audience profiling

The power of audience profiling lies in the ability to target your ideal customers by understanding exactly what makes them tick. Without it, you’re reducing your chances of landing effective marketing campaigns.

But the problem is, attributing audience profiling directly to revenue results is a challenge all marketers face. How can you tell if it’s a worthwhile exercise? It’s important to set clear, specific objectives from the beginning to help you measure success.

Here are five signs audience profiling is delivering the value you deserve.

1. Ad effectiveness and ROI are improving

Wondering whether ad campaigns are really resonating with your target audience? Look beyond sales figures. Increased ad clicks, conversions, and customer engagement all indicate effective campaign performance.

For best results, fuel ad campaigns with deep audience insight – you’ll connect with the right leads at the right time, by appealing to their specific interests. Of course, you’ve already identified these in audience profiling. 

If you’re not seeing fruitful results at the end of the pipeline, you’ve lost people along the way.

Never assume anything about your consumers, as the market may have shifted overnight. It’s crucial to review your audience profiles regularly to see if consumer behavior or sentiment has changed. The more targeted your marketing is, the stronger your results will be.

Rule of thumb? Lead with insight, and the ROI will follow.

2. Personalized campaigns are performing

Once you know who your target profiles are, you can personalize campaign messaging to resonate with them – or even challenge their perceptions to drum up engagement.

Consider creating buyer personas to encapsulate the qualities, behaviors, perceptions, and attitudes of the segments you’re targeting. 

Having target personas at the ready will help guide future campaigns to success, as your whole marketing team can quickly get to grips with the needs and wants of different profile groups within your audience pool. 

You can then create more tailored campaigns with a convincing message and fluid user journey to better target them. It’s all about building trust and cementing a solid relationship with your audiences.

Rich consumer insights like this are a huge competitive advantage. If you’re getting customized comms right, you’ll see conversion rates rise, cost per lead fall, and more people engaging with your brand. 

And all of that gives your ROI a juicy boost too.

3. Audience engagement is up, up, up

If personalized campaigns are performing well, you can bet your bottom dollar customer engagement is up too. For example, you may notice a rise in people following you on social media, clicking through from emails, or commenting on your ads.

Understanding which platforms or marketing channels your customers use regularly, and when, where, and how they interact with them is key. That’s why profiling audiences is a cost-efficient way to focus your marketing efforts.

Audience profiling also reveals valuable insight into what consumers expect from your organization. 

Implement this knowledge into brand and product development to show audiences you’re listening to what they want. That’s a significant return on investment in itself; the ideal foundation to build positive brand sentiment and long-lasting, authentic relationships with your customers that keep them coming back. 

Here’s to gaining and retaining market share.

4. New and existing business is booming

However you reach them, attracting new customers is a pretty clear indicator your audience profiling is bang on the money. 

By putting specific profiles or personas at the center of everything you do and seeing results, you know you’re hitting the sweet spot and converting leads effectively. 

Increased brand interaction is also a good sign, as you’re demonstrating your value to new customers and building trust.

As for existing customers, it’s worth checking in with your revenue team. A rise in upselling is solid proof you’re offering the right solutions to the right people to help solve their problems and grow the business. And if those loyal people happen to fall under your audience profiles? Well, the proof’s in the pudding.

Where sales interactions are failing, it could be time to reassess your audience profiles. Who knows? Perhaps their needs have changed, and you’ll need to pivot your targeting (or even your business) to align with them. Or you just might find your niche.

Whatever the reason, audience profiling is a quick and easy way to investigate drops in performance and evaluate whether you’re still appealing to your ideal customers.

5. A new angle reveals itself

Audience profiling gets you close enough to consumers to see where the gaps are in your market. Things your competitors haven’t caught on to yet.  

This could stem from a single, surprising audience insight that turns your marketing on its head. 

For instance, did you know that since 2018, beauty and cosmetics have proven to be the fastest-growing interest among male consumers, climbing 21% in this timeframe? Or that among secondhand buyers, 63% buy luxury clothing items yearly, and invest in art, antiques, and gold?

These unique audience insights are game changers. By looking through a lens of rich demographic and psychographic data, you’ll shine a light on why consumers are behaving, thinking, feeling, or behaving a certain way.  Bringing you closer to the real people behind the numbers, you’ll uncover new opportunities to differentiate your brand from competitors. 

Undoubtedly, that’s a great way to measure audience profiling effectiveness, as it’s giving you the context and actionable insight you need to nail every single campaign.