marketingskills/skills/paid-ads/references/audience-targeting.md

# Audience Targeting Reference

Detailed targeting strategies for each major ad platform.

## Google Ads Audiences

### Search Campaign Targeting

**Keywords:**
- Exact match: [keyword] — most precise, lower volume
- Phrase match: "keyword" — moderate precision and volume
- Broad match: keyword — highest volume, use with smart bidding

**Audience layering:**
- Add audiences in "observation" mode first
- Analyze performance by audience
- Switch to "targeting" mode for high performers

**RLSA (Remarketing Lists for Search Ads):**
- Bid higher on past visitors searching your terms
- Show different ads to returning searchers
- Exclude converters from prospecting campaigns

### Display/YouTube Targeting

**Custom intent audiences:**
- Based on recent search behavior
- Create from your converting keywords
- High intent, good for prospecting

**In-market audiences:**
- People actively researching solutions
- Pre-built by Google
- Layer with demographics for precision

**Affinity audiences:**
- Based on interests and habits
- Better for awareness
- Broad but can exclude irrelevant

**Customer match:**
- Upload email lists
- Retarget existing customers
- Create lookalikes from best customers

**Similar/lookalike audiences:**
- Based on your customer match lists
- Expand reach while maintaining relevance
- Best when source list is high-quality customers

---

## Meta Audiences

### Core Audiences (Interest/Demographic)

**Interest targeting tips:**
- Layer interests with AND logic for precision
- Use Audience Insights to research interests
- Start broad, let algorithm optimize
- Exclude existing customers always

**Demographic targeting:**
- Age and gender (if product-specific)
- Location (down to zip/postal code)
- Language
- Education and work (limited data now)

**Behavior targeting:**
- Purchase behavior
- Device usage
- Travel patterns
- Life events

### Custom Audiences

**Website visitors:**
- All visitors (last 180 days max)
- Specific page visitors
- Time on site thresholds
- Frequency (visited X times)

**Customer list:**
- Upload emails/phone numbers
- Match rate typically 30-70%
- Refresh regularly for accuracy

**Engagement audiences:**
- Video viewers (25%, 50%, 75%, 95%)
- Page/profile engagers
- Form openers
- Instagram engagers

**App activity:**
- App installers
- In-app events
- Purchase events

### Lookalike Audiences

**Source audience quality matters:**
- Use high-LTV customers, not all customers
- Purchasers > leads > all visitors
- Minimum 100 source users, ideally 1,000+

**Size recommendations:**
- 1% — most similar, smallest reach
- 1-3% — good balance for most
- 3-5% — broader, good for scale
- 5-10% — very broad, awareness only

**Layering strategies:**
- Lookalike + interest = more precision early
- Test lookalike-only as you scale
- Exclude the source audience

---

## LinkedIn Audiences

### Job-Based Targeting

**Job titles:**
- Be specific (CMO vs. "Marketing")
- LinkedIn normalizes titles, but verify
- Stack related titles
- Exclude irrelevant titles

**Job functions:**
- Broader than titles
- Combine with seniority level
- Good for awareness campaigns

**Seniority levels:**
- Entry, Senior, Manager, Director, VP, CXO, Partner
- Layer with function for precision

**Skills:**
- Self-reported, less reliable
- Good for technical roles
- Use as expansion layer

### Company-Based Targeting

**Company size:**
- 1-10, 11-50, 51-200, 201-500, 501-1000, 1001-5000, 5000+
- Key filter for B2B

**Industry:**
- Based on company classification
- Can be broad, layer with other criteria

**Company names (ABM):**
- Upload target account list
- Minimum 300 companies recommended
- Match rate varies

**Company growth rate:**
- Hiring rapidly = budget available
- Good signal for timing

### High-Performing Combinations

| Use Case | Targeting Combination |
|----------|----------------------|
| Enterprise sales | Company size 1000+ + VP/CXO + Industry |
| SMB sales | Company size 11-200 + Manager/Director + Function |
| Developer tools | Skills + Job function + Company type |
| ABM campaigns | Company list + Decision-maker titles |
| Broad awareness | Industry + Seniority + Geography |

---

## Twitter/X Audiences

### Targeting options:
- Follower lookalikes (accounts similar to followers of X)
- Interest categories
- Keywords (in tweets)
- Conversation topics
- Events
- Tailored audiences (your lists)

### Best practices:
- Follower lookalikes of relevant accounts work well
- Keyword targeting catches active conversations
- Lower CPMs than LinkedIn/Meta
- Less precise, better for awareness

---

## TikTok Audiences

### Targeting options:
- Demographics (age, gender, location)
- Interests (TikTok's categories)
- Behaviors (video interactions)
- Device (iOS/Android, connection type)
- Custom audiences (pixel, customer file)
- Lookalike audiences

### Best practices:
- Younger skew (18-34 primarily)
- Interest targeting is broad
- Creative matters more than targeting
- Let algorithm optimize with broad targeting

---

## Audience Size Guidelines

| Platform | Minimum Recommended | Ideal Range |
|----------|-------------------|-------------|
| Google Search | 1,000+ searches/mo | 5,000-50,000 |
| Google Display | 100,000+ | 500K-5M |
| Meta | 100,000+ | 500K-10M |
| LinkedIn | 50,000+ | 100K-500K |
| Twitter/X | 50,000+ | 100K-1M |
| TikTok | 100,000+ | 1M+ |

Too narrow = expensive, slow learning
Too broad = wasted spend, poor relevance

---

## Exclusion Strategy

Always exclude:
- Existing customers (unless upsell)
- Recent converters (7-14 days)
- Bounced visitors (<10 sec)
- Employees (by company or email list)
- Irrelevant page visitors (careers, support)
- Competitors (if identifiable)