Today targeting is complex.  

Today advertisers select customers by their location, demography, the context of a placement or by sites previously visited. 

Today, you can add ‘mindset’ insights to this list by inferring behaviour based on day-part targeting.

We looked at data from four luxury brand campaigns that ran in Q1 2015 and found three significant pieces of guidance for brands looking to improve traction and reduce wastage.

Make decisions based on data

Don’t assume anything about your customers. Take a look at previous campaign data and draw real conclusions.

For example research shows that 9am is the best time for luxury brand engagement, a surprising conclusion given that you’d expect luxury brands to get the most success during the weekend when people have more free time.

But if 9am is the time when many people go online on a desktop for the first time each day, it’s not too much of a stretch to think that people’s interest is grabbed by engaging content that pops up in their morning browse.

Thoroughly analysing data, and learning what works for your customers will mean brands can pinpoint exact peaks in traffic so that ads can be built around real data, not just inferred stereotypes.

Match day-part data with demographic information

Creating clever, and well-placed display ads will grab a consumer’s attention.

One campaign for a global luxury fashion brand saw a total of more than 6m impressions and 8,000 clicks thanks to a combination of targeting people that had dropped their basket midway through the purchase, and matching the contents of the ad to the demographic of the viewer.

This meant a person who had been browsing for clothes was served adverts that matched the product that they had failed to buy, within content that spoke specifically to their demographic. Overlaying data in this way, and bearing in mind time of day, as well as the point in the week or year, is key.

Tailor content to match the time of day

Real-time insight should mean real time creative.

Copy should not only meet the specific needs of the target demographic but also match the time of day that it will appear. For example, one luxury brand campaign saw peaks at 9am, midday and 5pm.

Ensuring the creative that is appearing reflects the time of day will result in even greater engagement. This means building campaigns that incorporate the layers of insight (demographic, behaviour and likes) but are also adapted to meet when people are seeing the ad.

Ultimately, utilising multiple layers of insight together with a flexible advertising solution will mean that brands can take action on all of the data they’re compiling and crucially build campaigns that ultimately fit with where, when and who’s viewing the content.