The reality of demographics

“Our ad delivery system works best when your audience size is between 2 to 10 million people. With a bigger audience, the auction will have greater opportunities to deliver ads, observe outcomes and optimise. Consider the location, age and gender of the customers that you want to see your ads.”

• Facebook Ads Help section, March 2023

I used to work with big advertisers like BMW, L’Oreal, and even Lynx Body Spray.

These companies care about one thing: reach.

The cheaper, broader, and more eyeballs they can hit the better.

A brand would go after segments like:

• High-income earners aged 40-55,
• Females 25-54,
• Young male adults aged 16-25

These categories are demographics.

Yet as a new marketer they don’t really tell you anything.

The reason big brands run marketing campaigns focused on demographics is because they have the biggest budgets in the world and can afford to.

We don’t have that luxury.

Yet I often see educators suggest you look at demographics.

Age, gender, education, geography, and any other identifier that puts your customer into an easy to label category.

These identifiers are surface-level.

How many mothers 25-54 do you know that are alike?

Demographics make it easy to sell advertising but they won’t help you become a more effective marketer.

Demographic targeting is table-stakes. It’s not going to make or break your future campaigns.

Once you notice what works, you can test it but for now we’re going to dig deeper.

It was a cold day in Sydney, and I was a young account manager…