The very first episode of Demand Gen U was on this same topic: how to nail your targeting.

59 episodes (and much smaller marketing budgets) later, it’s still just as relevant as before.

On DGU this week, get an inside look at how we’ve refined our targeting, the types of data sources we’re using, and how we’re building laser-focused audiences.

PS give the very first episode of Demand Gen U a listen (How To Nail Your Campaign Audience Targeting) if you missed it last year.

Three top takeaways: 

Takeaway 1:  Bad targeting leads to wasted ad spend

This time last year, the audiences we used in our paid campaigns were much larger.

We tried surrounding entire B2B marketing teams to get them excited at the thought of using Metadata. We could afford to target marketers who wouldn’t‌ use our platform in their day-to-day. 

Demand gen marketers are working with tighter budgets in 2023, us included. You can’t go broad with your targeting because you can’t afford to waste anything right now.

You should be targeting three types of roles with your paid campaigns: decision makers, influencers, and end users.

Depending on what you’re selling, decision makers and end users might be the same person too. Now is the time to make sure your targeting isn’t draining your budget.

Takeaway 2: Create audiences that look like your best-fit customers

And when we say “best-fit customers”, we don’t mean your dream accounts.

Your best-fit customers close the fastest, have the highest average deal size, and renew early (and often).

The best way to do this is to create a Salesforce report with closed-won deals from the last six months (new business and renewals). Add in the account field you use to measure customer health index if you have one.

Compare the profile of these accounts to what you think is your ideal customer profile. Look at the specific industries, market segments, and contact roles for your best-fit customers.

See who attended meetings before the contract was signed. See who actually signed the contract. Sometimes you’ll find things that surprise you too.

Takeaway 3: Use more than demographic and firmographic criteria

Before I started at Metadata, I was lazy about building audiences for my paid campaigns.

I used demographic criteria like job titles and firmographic criteria like # of employees and industries.

I asked my Sales team for an account list if we were trying to target specific accounts. And we all know how well that goes.

Get creative and find unique attributes to layer onto your audiences. See which companies are hiring for specific roles that would benefit from your product/service. See which companies have raised money recently and have huge growth targets to hit.

These are just two examples, but you can go nuts here. Using unique data points will help you get laser-focused on the right companies and people.