The Online Advertising Playbook: Proven Strategies and Tested Tactics from The Advertising Research Foundation

Demographic Targeting

Demographic targeting is, arguably, the longest-running, most widely used concept for targeting advertising. Defining audiences according to their age, gender, income, occupation, and household size is deeply ingrained in marketing. As Jeremy Helfand, a former senior vice president at Advertising.com, wrote for iMedia Connection, “Demographic targeting has its place. It tends to work best for advertisers in broader product categories where links to specific behaviors are less clear. For broad-interest advertisers, such as those selling travel services or consumer electronics, demographic targeting will perform nearly as well as behavioral—and cost less” (Helfand 2005).

Demographic targeting could do a better job when combined with other types of customer characteristics. For example, Microsoft AdCenter offers the ability to serve ads based on consumer demographics, location, or daypart. Google also recently added demographic targeting along with keyword selection to AdWorks, its paid search advertising program. Richer targeting criteria increase the potential for reaching consumers with better-aimed brand advertising.