A New Way To Think About Targeted Advertising

By Michelle Snell, Director Product Marketing, and Todd McClimans, Product Manager, Audiences

Think about the last product you bought. What triggered it?  Was it driven by necessity, like your oven broke and you needed to replace it? Or was it simply that you love anything OREO flavored and you wanted to try the newest OREO frozen dessert?

Market structures are frameworks to understand how consumers choose between different products and how companies can position themselves in the market. Our Innovation team estimates 90% of market structures have more important attributes for driving purchase and loyalty than brand. Yet over 75% of our audience clients still use brand-level purchase-based audiences for their targeted advertising strategies. 

In a diversified media strategy, attribute-level purchase-based targeting is a great tool to help your brand grow engagement and purchase.

What is attribute-level purchase-based targeting?

All products have a hierarchy of attributes describing their elements, a concept we’ve illustrated with a drink bottle. 

Through years of market structure studies, our Innovation team has found more than 50% of marketers aren’t using attributes to make a difference for driving purchase decisions. In other words, they aren’t emphasizing the attributes shoppers value. 

Attribute-level purchase-based audiences target prospective buyers based on their loyalty to attributes pivotal to in-store decision-making. For example, some buyers are more swayed to purchase products featuring gentle, fragrance-free, hypoallergenic skincare attributes than any other attribute, including brand. Targeting the right consumers with ads highlighting the right attributes can help marketers acquire brand buyers from within and beyond the category.  

Making attribute-level purchase-based targeting part of your media strategy

When you’re implementing an attribute-level purchase-based targeting strategy, there are two steps to consider. First, you need to understand where this new way of thinking fits into your current media strategy. Then, you need to identify the best proof-of-concept test for your brand. 

Purchase-based targeting is a critical part of a diversified audience segmentation strategy, and we recommend it when you have quantitative insights about past purchase behaviors and confident predictive behaviors. Attribute-level purchase-based targeting enables marketers to reach prospective buyers outside the brand’s traditional category. These are buyers purchasing products that aren’t intuitively substitutes, but they are products sharing a key attribute. As a result, targeted advertising using attributes allows marketers to achieve up to double the reach compared to brand-level targeting.

Three ways to use attribute-level purchase-based targeting 

We recommend identifying a proof-of-concept test for your brand and using in-flight measurement to optimize in-store sales. Here are three ways marketers can use attribute-level purchase-based targeting:  

• To target switchers in a new way. A recent study we participated in shows the highest return on ad spend comes from ad exposure to those who already buy the brand at least occasionally. Targeting these occasional buyers with attributes can help drive purchase decisions.
• To support a new product launch. Our annual New Products Pacesetters report reveals leveraging the power of known brands to meet emerging consumer needs and new occasion opportunities was a key element for success in 2023. This was the case with Pacesetters like OREO Frozen Desserts and Doritos/Cheetos/Sunchips minis. To gain efficient awareness and trial, marketers should use a combination strategy of targeting known brand buyers and product attributes that drive purchase.
• To broaden reach. Marketers often debate the topic of frequency versus reach, but regardless of which strategy you follow, broadening target audience reach enables household penetration. Targeting at the attribute level allows marketers to identify up to twice as many households versus targeting known brand buyers. 

Running an audience strategy workshop is a great quarterly practice to review and adjust targeted advertising strategies. Fill out the form to download our recommended audience strategy workshop exercises. They can help you identify attributes and behaviors beyond traditional audience segmentation and show you how to cascade these into media planning and buying.