The importance of targeting in digital advertising cannot be overstated. By delivering ads to the right people at the right time, advertisers can achieve significantly higher results with the same budget. In particular, retail media platforms can maximize advertising efficiency by leveraging their own customer data for ad targeting. A2 has already offered audience targeting and is now introducing the all-new “Custom Audience Targeting” feature. This enhanced targeting option allows advertisers to run more precise retail media campaigns than ever before.
What Is Custom Audience Targeting?
Custom Audience Targeting is a feature that enables you to show ads only to users who meet specific conditions by integrating audience (customer) data owned by the retailer into A2. In other words, first-party customer data in retail media is securely transferred to the cloud for analysis, enabling advertisers to define audience segments with particular attributes and apply these segments to their ad campaigns.
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To make full use of this, it is important to understand audience attributes and audience segments:
- Audience Attributes: Characteristic information about each user (e.g., gender, age range, region, interests, etc.)
- Audience Segments: Specific customer groups defined by combining these attributes (e.g., “Women in their 30s,” “Customers in Seoul who are highly interested in sports,” etc.)
Within A2, a retailer’s customer data can be uploaded, and advertisers can easily create audience segments (e.g., age = 30s, gender = female) using these audience attributes. During campaign setup, you can select the appropriate segment to ensure your message reaches exactly the audience you want.
A2 also supports API integration, making it possible to automatically generate or update audience segments. For example, a retailer can sync VIP customer lists or recent purchase groups managed in its own CRM with A2 in real time, allowing advertisers to target the most up-to-date customer segments in their campaigns.
Differences Compared to Existing Automatic Targeting
A2 already offers Automatic Targeting, where a machine learning algorithm analyzes the advertiser’s campaign objectives and user data to automatically serve ads to potential customers who are predicted to drive high performance. This approach is especially useful when advertisers do not have to set specific targeting conditions and when maximizing performance through automated optimization is needed (e.g., launching a new product to a broad audience).
On the other hand, Custom Audience Targeting places direct control in the hands of the advertiser. If you already have a clear target profile or need to focus on a specific audience group, you can define these segments yourself to minimize unnecessary impressions and deliver highly relevant messages.
In short:
- Automatic Targeting is ideal when looking to reach a broad audience and leverage automated optimization.
- Custom Audience Targeting excels when you have a clear or strategically important group in mind.
You can combine the two approaches: run overall campaigns with automatic targeting while using custom targeting for critical audience groups.
Business Use Cases
- Local Market Promotions
- Target only customers near a specific offline store to promote a grand opening event.
- In A2, select the “Customers who live in or have visited the store’s vicinity” segment to execute highly targeted local marketing.
- Demographic-Focused Branding Campaigns
- A fashion brand wants to increase brand awareness exclusively among “women in their 20s and 30s.”
- Define an “20s/30s female” segment, and show ads only to this group to run focused and efficient campaigns.
- Retargeting Campaigns
- Create a “cart abandonment” segment and serve coupon ads to those customers.
- Drive return visits and repeat purchases, thereby increasing conversion rates.