What is audience targeting?

Audience targeting is the process of identifying and presenting products, content, advertisements, or messages to a specific group of people based on characteristics, needs, interests, behavior, or other relevant data.

In CRO and ecommerce, audience targeting helps businesses provide more relevant experiences to different customer groups. Common targeting criteria include:

• Demographics: age, location, or business type.
• Behavior: browsing, purchasing, or search activity.
• Interests: product categories or topics customers engage with.
• Customer status: new, returning, or existing customers.
• Purchase history: products or categories previously purchased.
• Business characteristics: industry, company size, or purchasing volume in B2B ecommerce.
• Intent: actions indicating that a visitor may be considering a purchase or inquiry.

For example, a B2B ecommerce website could show bulk-pricing information and a “Request a Quote” option to business buyers while showing standard purchase options to other visitors.

Audience targeting can be used in advertising, email marketing, personalization, landing pages, product recommendations, and onsite experiences. Effective targeting should use relevant and appropriately obtained data and should avoid misleading or intrusive practices.