The Power of Lookalike Audiences: Expanding Your Reach Effectively

One of the most successful methods for brands striving to find ways to reach new customers is the use of lookalike audiences: new audiences who look like your existing audiences. By basing lookalike audiences off your most loyal/repeat customers, in your already existing audiences, you’re able to target highly-qualified customers you may not have reached otherwise. Not to mention that when you’re targeting prospects who are more likely to convert, you optimize your spending.

 A Lookalike audience is essentially just a group (or groups) of individuals who resemble your current customers based on various attributes such as demographics, behaviors, and preferences. By using data-driven approaches like identity resolution and identity graph technology, brands can identify these new prospects and optimize their marketing efforts. For example, a company that has already successfully engaged with a specific customer segment can leverage identity graph companies to understand the common characteristics among those customers. With this data, you can create a more accurate lookalike audience. This process involves matching data from multiple sources, using data enhancement and data appending techniques to fill in gaps and ensure that the customer profiles are as rich and accurate as possible.

The key benefit of lookalike modeling is its ability to expand your reach to a highly targeted audience without having to rely solely on guesswork. By focusing on individuals who already exhibit behaviors or traits similar to your best customers, you can significantly increase the likelihood of converting them into actual customers.

The process of building and activating lookalike audiences is powered by a range of data-driven strategies. One such strategy is data onboarding, where offline data (for example, customer transaction history or CRM data) is matched with online identifiers to create a comprehensive customer profile. This enables marketers to activate highly targeted campaigns across various channels, including CTV and OTT advertising.

But that’s not all! The use of data-driven attribution ensures that every marketing touchpoint is evaluated based on its impact on customer acquisition, helping brands allocate resources efficiently. By incorporating insights from identity resolution vendors and identity resolution technologies, businesses can ensure that their data is clean, accurate, and actionable, ultimately improving the effectiveness of their audience activation efforts. For businesses operating in niche industries like CTV advertising or OTT targeting, leveraging lookalike audiences is even more critical. The ability to refine and segment these audiences allows for more personalized and effective advertising, improving both engagement and ROI.

Stirista created its own all-inclusive solution (which includes CTV) to help brands and agencies launch effective multichannel campaigns using a multitude of tools (which also includes lookalike audiences). We’re the only data company that owns our own DSP and an ESP, which means we don’t just identify the right audience—we can quickly onboard that data and launch your campaigns. Whether you’re running email, social, display, CTV, or all of the above, we’ve got you covered. Plus, by leveraging deterministic data, we ensure your message reaches the right people with confidence.