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Targeting. It’s a funny thing.

Everyone calls targeting the "holy grail" of internet advertising. (I call it the next commodity of internet advertising).

Advertisers all want targeting, although few really understand it. The trick isn’t that you CAN target with the medium, but how WELL you can target with the medium. And it’s not that you ARE targeting your ad, but HOW you are targeting your ad. Follow me....

Targeting: What is it?

Targeting is nothing more than targeting the right message (or product) to the right person at the right time.

Take mass media for instance. Targeting here is, well, in my opinion,  hardly targeting at all. It's rather like aiming a hand-held shotgun. Day-parts, news sections, all based on very small samples. Bah, humbug!

On the internet, targeting is much more refined. If you’re not offering the most basic and simplest of targeting areas, get with the times. This type of targeting is the commodity targeting anyone can do.

Things like domain, browser type, time and day or week and operating system are all targeting criteria gleaned from your computer, browser and dial-in account -- stuff literally anyone can grab.

Cross-reference that data with a few simple databases and you can target by SIC code, geographic location, organization name, organization size or revenue, and service provider. The more sophisticated can add cookie technology to control frequency.

These are all basic targeting techniques. Only when you add proprietary data does targeting techniques not be a commodity.

Quality Is the Hallmark

So you have proprietary data. It may be gleaned from database cross-referencing, fuzzy-logic forecasting models or self-reported data, the latter of which is most valuable.

Of course, the quality of your data is what will set you apart. And quality is something you won’t be able to discern until you’ve leveraged the data for targeting -- did it work or not?

The more assumptions you make about your data, the less accurate it is, and hence the less valuable. Maybe add some good quality, self-reported demographics, lifestyle indicators, purchase behavior and intention data. Now that’s some targeting criteria few sites offer  -- and that's when a media plan becomes challenging and fun.

But the true sign of a good advertiser is harmonizing your targeted media plan with a targeted creative plan. Say hello to "microsegmenting."

From the bottom up

Mass media targets advertising from the top down -- looking at the whole pie then chopping it up into homogeneous slices. The problem is, you can only segment a mass market to a limited extent -- the lack of data prevents you from slicing it into smaller segments.

Enter the internet. Of course, the plethora of data allows for segmenting beyond anything ever conceivable by mass advertisers before. Even more, the internet offers advertisers the ability to not mass market, but mass personalize.

The readily available amount of data means you can start at the bottom -- with the individual -- then expand your targeting strategy outward to include more "niches" or "segments," or the entire mass market.

That is microsegmenting defined --  breaking up the market into individual units then adding similar units to create a segment. It's far different than taking the entire market and breaking it up into segments, right down to the individual.  

How to Microsegment

To leverage the power of targeting on the internet, you need to look up, not down. In other words, instead of defining a broad target first, then segmenting it down, define your precise prime target first, then expand on it, up and out.

So here's how to do that:

1. Define your prime, number one prospect -- the individual who accounts for 20% of your sales. Survey your current buyers or buying data to uncover that 20% and define their characteristics. Those are your prime buyers and targeting criteria.

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2. Assess market size. Is it too small? Add targeting criteria for your next most valuable individual prospect. Keep adding individuals until you have a sizable market.

3. Develop creative targeted to those specific people. That means for every "individual type" you’re profiled and targeted, create a different ad. That’s a challenge and frankly, it's where most creatives fail. Sure, it's difficult to do and manage -- subtle differences in execution can have big results in the end.

Bottom-up targeting is much more cost efficient. It allows for more personalized and targeted creative, yielding more effective results. So the next time you decide to advertise, consider you’re prime prospects -- and target your media and creative to each of those groups rather than one ad for all.

They’re people -- treat them like the unique individuals they are.