Targeting with Confidence: Historical Results Prove Contextual Targeting is 51% More Efficient for Reaching Psychographic Audiences
How a Bank Aligned Tactical Performance with Strategic Segmentation for a New Product Launch
A financial institution was preparing to launch a new type of chequing account with ambitious customer acquisition goals. This new account included free access to a variety of self-empowerment tools and programs. The marketing team initially assumed this offer would be attractive to the brand’s traditional audience of young suburban families.
The problem? While young suburban families had been a longstanding focus for the institution, it hadn’t yet been proven how they were responding to advertising efforts or how media investment was incentivizing sign-ups.
With this in mind, the client sought to identify the right audience for this new product and determine how best to engage and activate them.
The client hypothesized that a unique product like this would attract individuals interested in career growth, self-development, and continuous learning, identified as 'growth mindsetters.'
To find moments where this mindset was evident, the strategy involved connecting with individuals through psychological attributes that resonated with the product offering. This meant using contextual targeting to reach those actively engaging with educational, long-form, or informative content.
Given the company's significant investment and expectations, they needed to de-risk their launch in two ways: first, by validating that broader audiences beyond young suburban families were willing to convert, and second, confirming that contextual targeting to reach ‘growth mindsetters’ could drive acquisition success.
The client leveraged AIOS to test their hypotheses regarding both the target audience and the most effective activation approach.
On the first point, AIOS audience insights from 2023 revealed that the converting audience (those who signed up to open anaccount) were more likely to be single or divorced and less likely to be married. This confirmed a higher conversion rate among demographics different from the traditional young suburban families target. Additionally, this converting audience was often self-employed and entrepreneurial, aligning with the growth mindsetter' attributes.
Regarding the second point, AIOS showed that contextual targeting could be highly beneficial for the business: analyzing the spend-per-conversion for 2023 media tactics revealed that behavioral and contextual targeting were the top tactics for driving conversions. Contextual targeting, in particular, had the lowest cost-per-application submitted, proving it to be both an effective and efficient method for driving acquisition volume.
As validated by AIOS, contextual targeting implemented in 2023 proved to be both effective and efficient in driving account openings:
51%
more efficient cost per acquisition for contextual targeting vs. average acquisition cost
Based on the comprehensive audience and channel insights provided by AIOS, the client was able to create confidence in the ‘growth mindsetters’ audience strategy, validating its potential for both scale and conversion beyond just young suburban families.
Furthermore, it reinforced confidence in contextual targeting across both established and new channels, demonstrating that it could drive business results efficiently and effectively.
