A Lookalike Audience refers to a group of Social Media users who share the characteristics of another group of members. This is an effective tool, in the Digital Marketing arena to identify a whole new customer base online that is similar to your existing customers. Facebook was the first social media platform to introduce this feature, back in 2013. Since then several other digital marketing platforms like Google, Ads, Linkedin Ads, Taboola have bought into it. 

Lookalike audiences are chosen from their social media profiles, grouped together by their shared interests, patterns, and demographics. This approach has saved E-Commerce website development companies, a lot of time, and advertising costs in identifying a potential group of new customers. 

Here are Look Alike audiences that most marketers use and their characteristics that have great potential for success. 

Lifetime value audience

To seek out lookalike audiences, businesses first identify the most viable customers from the existing pool. They are the Lifetime value customers, who engage with the business for a lifetime, with repeated purchases. 

The characteristics of these customers are then isolated, to compare them to profiles on social media. This comparison is made on their previous purchase history and only on an extended timeline.  This gives you a potential niche customer base with the highest conversion rate. 

Highest Cart Value customer

Another lookalike audience that is useful for companies with an extensive backlog is the Highest Cart value customer. They need not necessarily have a high number of purchases, but few high-value purchases. This sets the precedent for identifying other customers with the affordability for luxury products, or with sporadic binge shopping patterns. This rule is good for identifying the holiday or festive season shoppers. 

Past Purchaser audience

One of the best practices for businesses with high sales volume and niche products is Past Purchasers. This requires a lot of research into purchasing history much like the Lifetime value audience. If there are a lot of conflicting products that cater to different audiences within the same business, then the Past Purchase history helps sort them into the relevant groups. Then they are pulled into the customer journey with targeted ads and drip campaigns. 

Remarketing audiences

Most potential customers add products to their carts, which are abandoned due to various reasons. The products in the cart give us a sense of the customer’s intent and urgency. They are high-quality audiences for remarketing. They are a perfect alternative to past purchase audiences, especially for businesses that are Start-ups or developing a new product. They also require considerably less research than past purchase audiences.

Product Page views

Lookalike audiences based on visitors who viewed the page is a low-cost option for finding potential customers. Although it is a great idea, it requires a lot of finesse to differentiate the actual customer from the visitors who stumbled upon the site by accident, or those with no intent or affordability to make the purchase. It doesn’t require a lot of backdated data but does require extensive time spent on filtering. 

Website Engagement audience

Website Engagement is a great way to assess visitor intent, based on time spent on different web pages, scroll depth, interaction with surveys, etc. The metrics and data can be set up and obtained from Social media platforms and digital marketing tools. It allows E-Commerce website development companies to create specific campaigns targeting those visitors into becoming customers. 

Various engagement metrics will influence the lookalike audience. Google Analytics allows you to create filtered categories. Research each engagement metric and set the benchmark for the lookalike audience. Facebook also has a feature to isolate the top percentile of visitors based on different engagement metrics. 

E-Commerce website development companies have faced confusion in choosing the lookalike audience size and compatibility. It boils down to choosing small lookalike audiences with great potential as opposed to larger lookalike audiences that may unearth more number of customers with lesser profitable conversions. Open Designs is a Digital marketing agency from Chennai that has helped various businesses amass high-value lookalike audiences. With full-scale E-Commerce website design services, we are a holistic operation that drives online businesses to success.

FAQ

What is ROI?

Return on Investment is a measurement that is used to evaluate the efficiency or profitability of your investment. To put it in simpler words, it is used to directly measure the amount of return on a particular investment. It is one of the most popular metrics used by businesses worldwide to measure the performance of an investment. More people prefer Return on Investment as a reliable metric because of its simplicity and versatility. The calculation will not be complicated and it can also be an efficient rudimentary gauge of an investment’s profitability. It can be used to calculate returns from other investments, thereby allowing on to measure all types of investments involved in business and transactions involved in it.

Is Digital marketing the future?

Digital marketing is one of the ways in which you can boost the business sales like never before. Having said that, considering how reliant everyone has become on digital marketing, it is all set to rule the future. Here is why –

  • The extent to which people these days are using the internet throws light on how increased internet usage would be in the days to come.
  • Digital marketing is an excellent way of building brand awareness among people.
  • All the digital marketing strategies put forth by the companies can be monitored as well. The expectation vs. reality picture becomes way clearer now. This further helps in opening up doors for improvement, if any.

Is digital branding the same as digital marketing?

No. Digital Marketing and Digital Branding are different from each other. Digital Marketing focusses on promoting a particular product or service, highlighting its benefits and how useful it would be to the consumers. Digital branding on the other hand is much more subtle and highlights the personality of the company or brand as a whole. Products and services will come and go. Digital marketing strategies will change to suit the seasonal needs or are tailor made for the product in question. However Digital branding is like a long tern digital marketing strategy to bolster the reputation of the company. It communicates what are the core values of the company and what they do to upkeep those values to give the best customer experience.

What would be the E-Commerce future in India?

By the end of 2021 there will be over 600 million internet users in India. On account of the users, the E-Commerce sector is expected to hit a whopping 200 billion USD by 2026. There are several E-Commerce trends that are making their way online, including smart devices that use voice activated commands to do your shopping on. There has been increased personalization in ads and promotions that has significantly boosted conversions. Much of online marketing will soon be automated, freeing precious human resource from mundane marketing tasks. There is widespread use of AI and VR to enhance customer experience. In 10 years, India’s E-Commerce industry is expected to become the second largest E-Commerce market in the world.

What are the most important principles of web design?

By now a lot of businesses have realised the importance of good web design. However there are some important principles that need to be followed to ensure that your website turns out perfect.

  • Ensure the website loads fast, as this reduces website abandonment.
  • Show your intent on every page so customers landing on any page are aware of what your business does.
  • Keep it simple so you don’t distract visitors from their purpose, with too many elements.
  • Make the navigation as easy as possible, with any part of the website accessible in 3 clicks.
  • Maintain the hierarchy in the layout. You don’t want your customers to keep scrolling back up each time they want to refer something.
  • Use simple, attractive and value adding content that can convince visitors into becoming customers.
  • The site must be mobile friendly for customers to access it on the go.

What is the purpose of website design?

Your website is the first impression that an online customer gets of your business. It is important to make a positive impact on your clients. The website design has the potential to convert a random visitor to a customer and boost organic sales. A great web design will keep customers loyal to your brand as they find the platform comfortable and convenient to use. It provides a good UI/UX to your clients and nurtures your leads. Better the website design, more the engagement with it, bringing in more traffic. It improves the accessibility of your website to a wider audience. It has a significant influence on the brand image and it is important that you get professionals to design your website.

What are the benefits of having a website to your business?

It has come to a point that a business is only considered successful if they have a strong online presence. This is evidently done by creating a dedicated website to the brand. The benefits of owning a website for your business are,

  • A credible repository of information on your business
  • 24 x 7 customer access to your business
  • Boosts interaction with the brand
  • It helps expand your market reach
  • It improve brand awareness to a global scale
  • Provides you with valuable consumer insights
  • Helps you beat other competitors with online presence
  • Access to all digital modes of advertising
  • Makes information exchange easier

Why Digital marketing is important for marketing?

Digital Marketing has become an essential part of today’s business world. It has become so competitive that traditional marketing methods are no longer as effective as before. Digital marketing can improve your conversion rate, boost traffic to the site, keep your customers engaged, helps you understand the market and customers with valuable insights, increases your reputation, and is generally cost effective. Most of your online customers are using their mobile phones to access your site. Digital marketing helps make your business more accessible to mobile users, who make up nearly 60% of the clientele. It makes the entire customer journey more interactive and memorable, bringing you loyal customers, who come just for a good user experience. Digital marketing can also be automated, freeing you from the hassle of keeping track of the campaigns.

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