Demographic targeting allows marketers to reach the right audience. This marketing technique can save a company money by ensuring efficient spending of advertising funds. Demographic targeting is as much about determining who should be excluded as it is about who should be targeted. Spending hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of dollars on ads that never reach potential customers can result in a negative return on investment.
Northern Kentucky University’s online Master of Business Administration program covers a variety of contemporary marketing strategies, including demographic targeting. You’ll expand your understanding of demographics and learn how to apply those insights to marketing.
What Is a Target Demographic?
Demographics are a list of characteristics. Depending on what is being sold, businesses can benefit from targeting consumers who are more likely to purchase a product or service. Demographic traits can include:
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Annual income
- Marital status
- Parental status
One of the most important steps a new company can take is running a demographic report to identify prospects most likely to become customers. This is often done using voluntary polls. Zip code demographics are available through online purchasing information. Some companies hire outside agencies to conduct demographic polling. Other tools for identifying demographics include:
- Google Analytics
- Keyword research
- Facebook Insights
- Consumer Barometer (by Google)
- Statista
Broad demographics are often broken into smaller, more distinct segments. An example of this would be lifecycle segmentation, which consists of:
- Children, teenagers, adults and seniors
- Couples with and without children
- Single and married people
Marketing campaigns often include an estimate of the total target demographic population and a list of ways to reach those individuals.
How Does a Target Demographic Differ From a Target Market?
Target Demographic: Also known as a target audience, a target demographic refers to the audience that a company predicts would be interested in purchasing their product. The target demographic can be separated into groups based on a variety of characteristics, such as age and income. The target demographic for diapers, for example, would be parents of toddlers and babies.
Target Market: A target market is the group of people that marketing efforts will be aimed at. A market may be targeted based on market size, growth potential and company strengths. The aim of target marketing is to maximize the appeal of a product to that specific market.
A marketing professional who is selling books meant for children ages five to eight has a target market of children five to eight and a target demographic (i.e., the people who will actually purchase the product) of parents and grandparents.
Why Do Demographics Matter to Businesses?
Incorporating demographic targeting can have many benefits for a company, including:
- More efficient marketing
- Increased product sales
- Reduction in unnecessary online impressions
- Greater reach of the target audience
- Increased return on investment for marketing expenses
- Better use of company time
- Greater target market penetration
Explore Target Demographics and Other Marketing Techniques at NKU
Any effective marketing campaign begins with a thorough examination of the demographic that a company should target. Marketing professionals who understand how to identify likely consumers can improve the return on their advertising investment.
NKU’s online MBA offers multiple courses on marketing and demographic targeting. The fully online degree program is taught by the same NKU faculty you’ll find on campus, and can be completed in as few as 12 months. Through projects and studies of contemporary marketing issues, NKU MBA candidates learn how to distill and communicate the results of marketing campaigns.
Learn more about Northern Kentucky University’s online MBA program.
Sources:
Chron: The Differences Between a Target Market & a Demographic
Know Online Advertising: Demographic Targeting
