But what else do you know? Do you know other pieces of demographic information such as their age, gender and life stage? Do you know much about their type of dwelling, how long they’ve lived there and their propensity to move? Do you even know any of their financial attributes or habits?
All these pieces of information, and a lot more, help you build a detailed picture of your target audience so you can tailor your advertising to them (and look-alike groups). In this first article we explore the types of consumer insights available and how they can impact your marketing performance. In the next article we’ll dive into the Sell-side of Digital Audiences and Identity, specifically how we’re able to help organisations looking to enhance the data they sell to advertisers.
What are the main types of consumer insight data?
Before we discuss how greater consumer insight can improve your marketing performance, we’ve taken a look at the different types of data points available today:
Demographic data is the output from analysis of population-based insights such as life stage and gender. By understanding the socio-economic make-up of your “best” customers you can begin to identify where consumers with similar demographic traits exist and tailor your marketing strategy to them.
Geographic data, also known as geodata or geospatial data, refers to any consumer data point that is intrinsically linked to a physical location. For example, understanding where your current customers live may help you identify more customers in a similar region or location.
Property data such as an address, or information regarding a property type provides valuable information to organisations. Knowing the number of rooms, or whether a building is an apartment, or a house can help you understand your customers better.
Financial data is the combination of consumer insights that have a financial bearing, such as income & repayment indicators. Financial data can be used to target consumers with the right spend levels for your products.
Behavioural data consists of those data points that provide insights into what consumers like to do and how they purchase products. For example, hobbies and experiences they like to have and whether they have a higher propensity to shop online or via a physical location.
By combining all of the above data assets you can start to build a very insightful picture of both your current customer base and who else may be a good target for future marketing spend.
Get more value from your ad spend
Here at Experian, we use data and insights to activate your audience on digital platforms.
Our market-leading insight platforms comprise over 1200 segments of demographic, geographic, financial, property and market research variables, and we use this data to build audiences with impact and deliver higher returns on your marketing spend.
So you get:
- Powerful segmentation
- Preconfigured vs custom consumer builds (as in, we can tell you what types of segments should work or you can build your own)
- Integrations with over 60 digital marketing platforms
All of which combines to provide a holistic targeting solution for your digital audience.
Whether you’re looking to retarget your existing customers across digital channels, find more customers like them or explore new customer segments, Experian’s Digital Audiences can help.