7 methods of audience analysis you should know about

Before running ads, you need to analyze your audience and find out what they think about your product, where it can improve, and how it’ll benefit their lives.

But if you’re struggling with audience analysis or don’t know where to start, don’t worry; we’ve got you covered.

Below, we’ll talk about seven methods of audience analysis you can use to boost audience understanding and kickstart your marketing efforts.

1. Primary research

Primary research is any data you’ve obtained first-hand, and it’s one of the most effective ways of analyzing your audience. Although secondary research may seem appealing since you won’t have to do much of the hard work, it’s often outdated and irrelevant to your audience.

2. Qualitative research

Not everything that counts can be counted. This is where qualitative research comes in. Instead of looking at graphs, data points, and tables, qualitative research answers questions about why and how.

While primary research focuses on demographic data like age, gender, location, and income, qualitative research dives deeper and uncovers attitudes, opinions, and intentions. This gives you insight into how and why your audience is making buying decisions, and you can use this when running personalized marketing campaigns.

Here’s an audience analysis example: If you’re selling clothing locally and want to understand what will appeal to people in your neighborhood, you could ask participants questions like:

• What’s your favorite outfit and why?
• What style do you think is rising in popularity?
• What was your most recent purchase?

This gives you an understanding of what style is popular in your city and you can start selling these types of clothing.

3. Market research

Market research involves gathering information about target markets and customers. During market research, you’ll analyze competitor products and what triggers customers to buy them.

Many businesses skip this step because looking through graphs and charts can be tedious. But this risks more of your time and resources since your marketing efforts won’t target the right audience segments.

4. Interviews

Once you’ve conducted research and have a rough idea of audience behaviors, it’s time to dive deeper and conduct interviews.

Even though interviews are handy, you don’t want to rely on them for audience analysis as it has some flaws. For instance, setting up and conducting an interview takes a while, and to draw meaningful conclusions, you’ll have to interview hundreds of participants.

5. Surveys

If you have an online business and find it difficult to convince buyers to sit down with you for an interview, consider surveys. These audience analysis applications are just as helpful and take far less of your audience’s time.

In these surveys, ask open-ended yet specific questions that encourage participants to share their struggles, dreams, visions, and needs with you.

For example, if you’d like to learn more about your customer’s online shopping behavior, ask “How many times per month do you purchase something online?” And by using a customer data platform like Lytics, you could organize these data points and find which customers are easier to sell to based on online shopping frequency.

6. Social media analytics

Social media is a powerful tool for reaching millions of people with a single post, which was impossible a few decades ago.

An important part of your success on social media is how well you understand your audience. For example, with Facebook or Google Analytics, you can visualize what campaigns are working and what aren’t, and then tailor your content around this. This is called A/B split testing, and it helps you understand what appeals to your audience, enabling you to boost user engagement and conversion rates.

Using social media analytics to analyze your audience couldn’t be easier. Simply run two ads that target different needs, see which performs better and why, and create ads that complement this topic.

7. Focus groups

Another popular way of analyzing your audience is through focus groups, which are made up of volunteers who share their feelings and opinions.

But for focus groups to work, members should all have something in common, like age, gender, interests, or income. For example, if you’re launching a new product, you could have three groups of 10 people each.

The first group consists of people between the ages of 20 and 25. The second group could be split up in gender, while the third group considers themselves budget shoppers. This allows you to see how each group perceives your new product or service.

You might find that those in their 40s and 50s love your new product while younger individuals aren’t big fans. Use this information in your marketing campaigns to target anyone 40 years or older.

Audience analysis made easy with Lytics

Audience analysis in advertising may seem tedious, but it saves time and money because you know what appeals to customers and won’t waste your time on irrelevant ads. So if you’re looking to start analyzing your audience, try Lytics. It lets you gather, organize, and comprehend data within minutes, streamlining your ad campaigns.