Facebook and Twitter behavioural targeting supercharge your content

For the digital marketer, Data is king: behavioural targeting, data analysis and collection should be all your paid social media team is thinking about.

The way we use data is changing and Facebook and Twitter have put major focus on data this year with the expansion of behavioural data targeting (BH).

For many this is old news, as behavioural targeting has been around in the US for a while. However, due to significant data partnerships with UK providers, Facebook and Twitter have expanded their reach.

As it's fairly new to the market in the UK, it's not widely known what the targeting options available now are. But, we're willing to bet you'd be surprised by just how granular the categories are. Want to target lovers of cheese and crackers? There's a category for that. No, actually, there is.

However, new partnered data stacks are all well and good but the question that needs to be answered is:

Does the data perform?

Those of you have trialled any sort of data-based marketing like email, SMS or even direct mail, you will know your campaigns stand and fall on quality. If the quality isn't there, you may as well pile all of your campaign spend in big piles of cash in the back garden, poor a little petrol on it, and set is ablaze.

So, what do we think about about the quality? After testing with a campaign in the region of £20,000 over the period of a month, we think it's fantastic. We saw great conversion rates and ultimately sales. Here are the stats to prove it.

The evidence

The campaign was aimed at customer acquisition (lead generation to be more precise) in the energy saving sector. The campaign was set up with a simple linear structure segmenting between BH data sets, Lookalike audiences built from the customers own data and device type.

After four weeks we saw that the Behavioural data brought in proportionally 1.5x more leads than the Lookalike data and 66% of overall volume. This pattern was more pronounced by device. On mobile BH data brought in 1.6x the volume and on Desktop 1.4x.

Alongside that the CPA on the behavioural targeting data was 56% lower than the Lookalike data.  Even with a large and sharp increase in budget the CPL did not increase significantly which suggests the data pool refreshed regularly, potentially reducing saturation.

Remember, these data sets are free. There's no additional costs to implement them in your campaign. After seeing how well this data performed we started to reconsider some basic assumptions about data marketing.

How much does good data cost? More than you need to pay...

If you want to get good data you need to source it, ensure its opted in and get enough volume to test correctly. Not to mention that the European Data industry is facing a major shakeup under EU law which will impact prices (and volumes) significantly and make you liable for 3rd party miss-use. All of this costs money and takes time, but really why bother?

With a great inbound strategy you can generate traffic and build your own customer lists. Adding in some biddable media ads a la Facebook and utilising the BH data your reach can be supplemented to boost any campaign.

Create engaging content, push it out on the behavioural targeting data to the right audience (think personas here) and when you have conversions under your belt you can start to build lookalike audiences which further expand your reach to similar targeted customers. Within a few weeks you have an audience of targeted converting traffic which means:

"You don't need to buy dodgy data from a cowboy broker."

Supercharge Your Content with Granular Behavioural Targeting

When we  say the data selections are granular we're not exaggerating - you can target a host of residential, financial and lifestyle behavioural options such as:

• Insurance renewal data
• Homeowner data
• People who buy expensive technology

How you use this data depends on what your offering is, but you can overlay various combinations to find an audience that works (but be careful to not over target). If you are writing great content aimed at a particular group the BH data sets mean you can reach people likely to be receptive to your message. You can even tailor your message to suit the description of the audience provided.

Do you have a money saving blog? Target first time buyers: "Just bought your first home? Pay off your mortgage quicker with our tailored money saving blog"

Run a food blog or new restaurant? Target people who spend above average amounts on eating out: "The Foodie's Dream! Best new Manchester restaurants you have to try."

Engage these new audience and you have them as fans or advocates who can really boost your message. Start creating great content and using the new tools available and you will boost engagement, drive sales and lower costs.