People-Based Marketing: Precise Targeting for Personalized Communication

A significant advantage of programmatic advertising is its ability to leverage extensive data, ensuring ads reach audiences for whom they are most relevant. People-based marketing focuses on treating each customer as a unique individual, avoiding broad generalizations. Known as cross-device marketing, this strategy enables brands to connect with their target audience across multiple channels. Today’s digital shoppers exercise more control over their purchasing journeys, often researching products and comparing sellers across various devices.

While traditional marketing relies on cookies and tracking pixels to understand buyer behavior, people-based marketing uses individual-level data to identify potential customers and their habits. By combining online and offline data about spending patterns, this approach allows for highly personalized ad campaigns. According to a McKinsey study, over 70% of consumers expect personalized interactions, and nearly 80% are more likely to recommend a brand offering such communication.

How People-Based Marketing Works

One of the earliest examples of people-based marketing was Facebook Custom Audiences, which allowed advertisers to link CRM data to Facebook user IDs for better targeting. Since then, platforms like Google, Twitter, and Amazon have adopted similar strategies. By analyzing browsing history and social media engagement, people-based marketing links customer data to online identities, enabling cross-device and cross-platform tracking.

Methods for User Identification

1. Deterministic Matching
   Deterministic matching identifies users based on unique data points, such as email addresses or phone numbers. For example, a shopping platform might require users to log in, ensuring the individual can be identified across devices, whether they use a laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
2. Probabilistic Matching
   Probabilistic matching uses algorithms to correlate disparate data points and identify users. For instance, a user accessing a site from multiple devices within the same IP location can be accurately recognized, even without direct login information.

By identifying traffic from the same individual, advertisers can deliver personalized experiences across multiple sessions and devices.

People-Based Marketing for Cross-Device Personalization

People-based marketing empowers advertisers to craft tailored messages delivered at the right time and on the optimal platform. A study by Viant revealed that 93% of marketing companies use people-based strategies to address individual customer needs. Unlike traditional methods that rely on broad audience data, this approach facilitates meaningful interactions by targeting specific customer requirements.

Key Elements of People-Based Marketing

The success of people-based marketing hinges on several essential factors:

1. Identification
   Identifying customers is central to people-based marketing. This doesn’t mean linking activity to personal information but recognizing patterns in web traffic and user behavior. With consumers engaging across multiple digital channels, brands must pinpoint where to connect with potential customers effectively.
2. Data
   Reliable data is the backbone of people-based marketing. First-party data collected directly by a company is the most dependable, especially as third-party cookies are being phased out. Authentic data ensures campaigns are relevant and impactful.
3. Attribution Models
   Raw data must be processed using updated attribution models to yield actionable insights. These models help normalize data and maximize campaign outcomes.

Advantages of People-Based Marketing

1. Enhanced Understanding of Customers
People-based marketing provides deeper insights into customer behavior. By analyzing device usage, marketers can tailor campaigns accordingly—for example, focusing on mobile and tablet users for personal product purchases while targeting desktop users for business-related items.

2. Tailored Content
Rich customer profiles allow for highly personalized and meaningful communication, reducing the likelihood of ads being perceived as intrusive.

3. Avoiding Redundancy
Tracking the purchase cycle prevents targeting customers with ads for products they’ve already bought. This strategy avoids redundancy and improves ad relevance.

4. Preventing Bot Traffic
By targeting verified users, people-based marketing minimizes ad fraud caused by bots. This ensures that impressions translate into genuine conversion opportunities.

5. Efficient Remarketing
Personalized retargeting ensures ads resonate with customers without becoming repetitive or intrusive, enhancing the chances of engagement.

6. Lead Generation
Insights from people-based marketing enable precise market segmentation, facilitating effective lead-generation strategies and scaling B2B outreach.

Final Thoughts

To achieve the best results in digital marketing, tracking and analyzing campaign performance is essential. Understanding buyers’ preferences and behaviors enables marketers to craft campaigns and ads that resonate with their audience. By focusing on people-based marketing, businesses can improve targeting accuracy, foster meaningful interactions, and increase conversions.

At Peakovate, we specialize in crafting data-driven marketing strategies tailored to your unique audience. Contact us to learn how people-based marketing can transform your campaigns and drive measurable results.