Affiliate Marketing Target Audience: How to Make it Work

A clear understanding of the target audience will let you save time and money that you spend on tests, and the orientation at age, interests, and communication style allows creating effective selling ads that are going to attract users and transform them into leads. This applies to all the advertising formats like banners, e-mails, audio, video, and context advertising.  

Analysis of the offer and target audience. How do I know who to target with my ads?

Working with traffic begins with the selection of offers. Remember that you decide not only what to promote but also to whom. Analyzing the target audience is no less important than selecting an offer based on approval indicators and some other.

We've noticed a problem while talking with both beginners and experienced webmasters. The weak point of many webmasters is that they don't analyze the target audience and don't draw up a portrait of it. Why? Most often, the reason is that people just don't know how to do it correctly.

Selecting an offer based on the target audience

Choosing offers intuitively and making guesses about the target audience is the worst option. Fortunately, there is a fairly simple testing and analysis algorithm. We have created a short questionnaire, take any offer as an example and answer (Yes or No) the questions from this list:

• Does this offer have a wide audience? Does it include men and women of different ages?
• Is it possible to produce a WOW effect? Is there a way to clearly show the USP (unique selling point) of the offer?
• Does the market that the offer is targeted at have potential? Is the purchasing power of the country's residents high? Is there a high demand for a product or service?)
• Do you have high-quality and attractive promotional materials for the offer?
• Is it a new offer?
• Can the offer be called all-season?

If you answered "No" to three or more points or found it difficult to answer, we recommend taking a different offer. After selecting the vertical and offer, go to the analysis of the target audience.

What is the target audience and how to analyze it?

The target audience is defined as users who will be interested in a particular offer. One or more common attributes unify these users into an audience. It can be:

• age;
• interests;
• field of employment;
• geography of residence;
• problems and needs, etc.

The success of the advertising campaign depends on how accurately you determine the audience of the offer. Having a good understanding of potential buyers, you will be able:

• optimize ad campaigns;
• choose the most effective creatives;
• increase your conversion rate;
• get more profit.

The portrait of the target audience should include information on the following parameters:

• gender and age;
• level of affluence;
• reasons for buying the product (for yourself, as a gift, for work).

Let's take Apple iPhone XR as an example it costs more than 500 USD. This is a product for people with high and medium incomes. Customers can be both men and women. You can buy such a gadget both for yourself and as a gift.

This is a working hypothesis about your target audience. How can you check your assumptions? To do this, enter the product name in Google. Save links to sites in the top 3 search results. Analyze each of the sites using the Similarweb service. You will have to pay for its use but the investment will pay off. The service will provide accurate information about the key characteristics of the site audience:

• age;
• geography of residence;
• interests and so on.

In other words, you will get information about the audience that buys the product from your competitors on the offer, and you will be able to find this audience in social networks. You will also get information about the traffic sources your competitors use and dozens of other indicators that are important for marketing effectiveness.

Based on all these figures, you will be able to target ads correctly and choose the most effective tools for traffic arbitration.

Lifehack! Remember that 20% of the effort gives 80% of the result. Look for the most effective offers and the most effective marketing tools, focus on them to make the maximum profit

So, you've got a portrait of the target audience. What's next?

You can build a strategy for your arbitration campaign after selecting an offer and drawing up a portrait of the target audience. The main thing is to take the most accurate, verified data as a basis.

Our article is not a dogma and a magic formula. We just give some recommendations that can ease the webmaster's life. Remember, it's always important to analyze your work and try different options. Good luck!

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