How to segment and target an online video audience

Ian Forrester

This article looks at how brands should identify the sales-driver segments of the target audience and then profile them in order to engage them via appropriate messages, if they are to grow sales.

Much has been made of the opportunity to use programmatic targeting and new data segments to optimise online campaigns, but how can advertisers move past demographic and behavioural segments to move the needle on the metric that matters most: sales?

I subscribe to the Ehrenberg-Bass view that to grow sales and market share it's necessary to grow brand penetration, and to grow penetration one must employ broad targeting. Classic marketing segmentation strategies focusing only on narrow targets have been consistently proven to be flawed. The ideal execution of an expansive strategy would be to ensure a campaign reaches everyone in...

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