Starting in the upper section of the purchase funnel, Yahoo! can help you drive awareness with the right audiences
Like the borough of Manhattan, the "purchase funnel" has upper, middle and lower sections. And while the denizens of each area of Manhattan are all New Yorkers, they tend to have different interests, lifestyles, attributes and demographics.
Similarly, in the upper funnel, Yahoo! groups audiences by distinct characteristics that match the dimensions of your target personas. By selecting audience targeting categories that align with the characteristics of your best prospects, your ads are more likely to resonate and perform better.
Room at the top (of the funnel)
Yahoo!'s upper-funnel audiences are segmented based on the following dimensions:
- Interests (example: an interest in running)
- Attributes (example: an audience of dog owners)
- Life Stage (example: a parent with children in the home)
- Lifestyle (example: Healthy Living)
- Demographics: (example: household income over $250,000)
- Location (example: lives within a two-mile radius of a Target retail store)
Upper Purchase Funnel
Many of the audience targeting capabilities we have in the upper funnel rest on data derived from Yahoo! users' online behaviors. But, in some cases, audience segmentation can't be determined based on online behaviors alone. "It's nearly impossible to determine consumers' household incomes, proximity to specific retail stores, or occupations based simply on online behavioral data," says Marc Bishop, Director for Yahoo! Advertiser Solutions. "Therefore, Yahoo! leverages strategic offline data partnerships to fill these gaps in our proprietary audience targeting portfolio."
Marketing to Moms
Say, for example, that you want to reach moms and an audience of people who share their same needs and concerns. Literally tens of millions of moms---and other women just like them---can be found on Yahoo! every month.
Yahoo! Audience Targeting offers multiple ways to reach them. For example, you could target:
- An audience that demonstrates online behaviors typical of moms via Yahoo! Interest Behavioral Targeting
- Women identified as having children in the home by Yahoo! Audience Match
- The exact same psychographic segmentation you use for your TV and magazine buys, built through Yahoo!'s Audience Match partnerships with Experian Simmons, Nielsen Claritas and MRI
Ready, aim, fire!
The following Yahoo! targeting solutions can help you drive awareness with your specific desired audiences:
Audience Match: Audience Match taps into a consumer base of more than 150 million addressable users on Yahoo!, and uses segmentation based on interests, attributes, lifestage, lifestyle and demographics.
Behavioral Targeting: Yahoo! Behavioral Targeting uses multiple online signal qualifiers, such as pageviews, ad views, ad clicks, searches and search clicks to group users into various segments. Our Interest BT offering is perfect for reaching consumers in the upper funnel, because it surfaces audiences that have demonstrated genuine interest in a given vertical, lifestage or topic through their online activities over time.
Location-Based Targeting:
- Geographic Targeting leverages multiple data sources, including IP address, registration data, and user-configured location data from our properties.
- Proximity Match is a location-based targeting display solution that reaches consumers who live within a particular radius of your business location(s)--amplifying the accuracy of location-based targeting to help you drive local traffic conversions. See how one national retailer used it to drive increased return-on-ad-spend.
Transparency and privacy, at all times
Of course, the extent of our data requires that we use it responsibly. Yahoo! strongly believes in empowering its users by offering transparency into our data collection and use practices, and providing tools that enable them to exercise control of their personal information.
To find out more about how to take advantage of Yahoo!'s vast audience targeting solutions to reach customers in the upper funnel, contact a Yahoo! representative and read our previous posts on audience targeting and "hyper-local" advertising. And come back to the blog in the coming weeks, as we continue this series by focusing on targeting solutions for the middle and lower sections of the purchase funnel.
--- Jeff Hecox
