Is a Small Audience Better Than a Targeted Audience?

Targeted audiences are a good starting point whereas small audiences work well when you have a well-defined target audience and region. The ideal funnel is to use targeted audiences to build up link clicks and page engagement/interactions; then create custom audiences of those page engagements to build really well defined smaller audiences.

Targeted Audience Advantages

1. Relevance: Targeted audiences are crafted based on specific demographics, interests, behaviours, and other criteria that align closely with your ideal customer profile. This increases the likelihood that your ads will resonate with the audience.
2. Efficiency: By focusing on users who are more likely to be interested in your product or service, you can achieve higher conversion rates..
3. Cost-Effective: Reducing waste by excluding users who are unlikely to convert can help manage advertising costs more effectively.

Best Use Cases:

• Brand Awareness Campaigns: When your goal is to reach new customers who might be interested in your product.
• Top-of-Funnel Marketing: To attract potential customers who have shown interest in similar products or services.

Small Audience Advantages

1. High Precision: Small audiences allow for highly targeted marketing efforts. These are usually custom audiences created from specific interactions such as website visits and social media engagements.
2. Personalisation: With a well-defined small audience, you can tailor your messages to be more personalised, which can enhance engagement and conversion rates.
3. Retargeting: Small audiences are particularly effective for retargeting campaigns where you target individuals who have already interacted with your brand, making them more likely to convert.

Best Use Cases:

• Retargeting Campaigns: Targeting users who have previously visited your website or engaged with your content.
• Bottom-of-Funnel Marketing: Encouraging conversions from users who are already familiar with your brand.
• Special Promotions: Offering exclusive deals or products to a select group of highly engaged users.

Ideal Funnel Strategy

1. Start with Broad Targeted Audiences: Use broader criteria to attract a large number of potential customers and drive initial engagement. This helps in building brand awareness and collecting data on user interactions.
2. Create Custom Audiences from Engagements: As users interact with your ads, create custom audiences based on these interactions. For instance, you can create audiences of users who have visited your website, watched your videos, or engaged with your posts.
3. Refine with Lookalike Audiences: Use the data from your custom audiences to create lookalike audiences, which target users similar to your existing customers or highly engaged users. This can help in scaling your campaigns while maintaining relevance.
4. Focus on Smaller, High-Value Audiences: As you gather more data and understand which segments of your audience are most valuable, narrow down your focus to these small, well-defined audiences.

Conclusion

Both small and targeted audiences have their place in a well-rounded advertising strategy. Targeted audiences are excellent for broad outreach and initial engagement, while small audiences excel in precision targeting and retargeting efforts. The ideal approach involves using targeted audiences to gather engagement data and then refining your strategy to focus on smaller, highly relevant audiences to drive conversions.

By following this strategy, you can optimise your campaigns to effectively reach and convert your target customers, making the most of your advertising budget and maximising your return on investment.