As any marketer or salesman can tell you, targeting is the first key step in gaining clients or making sales. If you don’t know who you’re selling to, or how to get their attention, you’re at a major disadvantage.

This may not end up making sales impossible. But, it will mean you end up spending far more than you have to on ads and marketing campaigns to capture the audience you’re looking for and strengthen your brand image. Realistically, good targeting can make your advertising more cost-efficient and ensure your advertising is both sustainable and far more profitable.

Many already know this. What is difficult for most people is the specifics on how to target their audience for maximum efficiency. Then, putting together the right content to turn their audience into buyers. So, we put together a simple guide on how you can make your advertising more efficient in 2019.

Make your audience specific (and then more specific)

One of the biggest problems for entrepreneurs, especially new entrepreneurs, is specificity. Their criteria including a certain demographic into their marketing are whether this market will buy from them.

This is a rookie mistake and one that will cost you money in the long run.

Instead, exclude the market least likely to give you the largest returns. This might cost you some money in the short-term. But, it will allow you to gain a valuable foothold in a market that will give you bigger returns later on.

Target according to your advertising platform and method

Depending on your advertising platform, you’ll need to adapt your targeting strategy. This is particularly true if you’re trying to target more than one audience.

Platforms like Facebook and Instagram will be better suited for younger individuals, whereas radio and TV have greater viewers in the over 40 demographic. This will mean that more work will be required to reach elderly demographics in the former and younger viewers in the latter.

So, both choosing the right platform, and the right strategy to use therein, will be a big step in making your advertising more efficient. Be sure to research the predominant demographic on your chosen platform, and what they’re usually on the platform for.

Re-target based on feedback (and results)

A key technique for targeting in advertising, particularly on Facebook, is retargeting based on your initial campaign’s results.

This can include remarketing to those who gave your ads the most views or those who engaged with your content the most via replies, messages, shares, or inquiries.

This can help turn an audience into buyers without having to spend huge money on another full campaign. It also emphasizes the importance of getting contact information from as much of your audience as possible.

Create content specific to your target audience

Research has shown again and again, that people respond to advertising that they feel best represents them. This means ads that target single women, should contain single women.

It might seem obvious to some. But, most new marketers fall in this aspect when creating content. This simple rule when creating content can improve your targeting by gaining more engagement and organic attention to your business, helping build your brand.

Outsource your targeting or advertising

Sometimes the best thing you can do is outsource. Bringing in an advertising firm to help you target a tough or new demographic can save you time and make your advertising more effective and efficient. This means it will also save you money in the long run, particularly as it allows you more time to focus on other aspects of your business.

So, if you find time or knowledge to be the biggest obstacles in making your campaign effective, consider outsourcing to a freelance marketer or firm.

Gradually branch out into related audiences for growth

Another mistake commonly made by inexperienced marketers is trying to branch into a new marketplace too aggressively. This can end up making your former audience or demographic feel alienated or as the product will no longer suit them.

So, make sure you market gradually to a new audience and constantly maintain the foothold in the market you’ve got. You can do this by making sure you target related audiences and keep your ads or content tightly regulated to only where your new audience will see it. Remember, it’s not growing of you’re losing buyers as quick as you’re gaining them.