In programmatic advertising, the details can make or break your campaign. That’s where illumin’s Audience Out feature comes in clutch. This Journey Canvas tool helps you create audience segments based on how users behave during your campaign. No need for website pixels. Think about it: Audience Out automatically groups people who, say, watched a video or saw an ad twice. From there, you can hit them with follow-up messages that are laser-targeted. Let’s see how it works.
Use case example: car dealership
Imagine running a campaign for a car dealership. Here's how the Audience Out feature can take your strategy to the next level.
Let’s say a user watches a display video about a new car model. On Journey Canvas, you can easily create an Audience Out segment for anyone who watched the video. In a different campaign, you could retarget that segment with an enticing limited-time offer. A targeted follow-up approach ensures you're speaking to users who might be interested but need a nudge.
With Audience Out segments, you're not running a generic campaign. You're crafting a sophisticated, multi-step journey that guides users through the funnel. Each touchpoint is personalized and designed to increase the likelihood of conversion.
How does it work?
The Audience Out tool runs on two types of triggers: Creatives or Conditions. If you set up an Audience Out for a creative, users don’t have to do anything. The tool collects and exports a list of people who saw that creative. Handy? Sure. Game-changing? Not so much.
For better results, we suggest using Audience Out with a Condition. Why? Because it’s all about behavior, like someone clicking an ad. This approach helps marketers build a list of more engaged users who are more likely to convert.
Here’s how to get started.
- Go to Journey Canvas and choose where to create an Audience Out segment. Let’s say you decide to target users based on a Condition tied to a video in the Awareness stage. Click the condition. A side panel displays.
- In the side panel, check the Audience-Out box. The field displays a suggested segment name, but feel free to edit it to match your campaign needs. Once you're happy with the name, click Update.
- When the campaign goes live, the Audience Out tool automatically collects every user who meets that condition.
So, you might be wondering, what counts as a video view? Well, that depends on how you set up your Video Impression Point. On the Journey Settings page, use the slider to set a rate that defines video event completion. In this case, the completion rate is 50%. If a user watches 50% or more of the video, they’ve met the condition.
Heads up
- Audience Out doesn’t remove users from the campaign flow or block them from moving through the funnel. It just creates a separate pool of users who meet certain conditions.
- The Audience Out pool is dynamic. It grows as more users flow through the funnel and meet the Audience Out condition.
Locating and using a segment
Once you've set things up, illumin adds the segment to the Audiences page. In the table, you'll see the Audience Type listed as Audience-Out. If the table is a bit crowded, click the filter icon and uncheck all audience types except Audience-Out.
- FYI, if you're a marketing rockstar juggling multiple advertisers in your illumin account, make sure you've selected the right advertiser in the top menu bar. Each Audience Out segment can only be used for journeys with the same advertiser.
Adding a segment
You can add the Audience Out segment to a new journey, but you can’t reuse it in the campaign where it was first created. To check if it's available, open the canvas and go to the Audiences tab. If you don’t see the Audience Out segment there, it’s not available for that advertiser’s campaign.
When is Audience Out not useful?
Audience Out is a great tool, but it’s not always the right fit for every campaign. Here are a few situations where it might not be the best option:
- Broad awareness campaigns: If you’re aiming for massive reach, getting too detailed with Audience Out could hold you back. In these cases, it’s better to keep the targeting broad and open to everyone.
- Simple campaigns with no clear next steps: If you don’t have a plan for what happens after someone views your ad, creating an Audience Out segment might not bring much value.
- External website actions: Audience Out only works within illumin’s Journey Canvas. So, if you’re tracking things like cart abandonments or other actions on your website, you need pixel-based tracking, not Audience Out.
FAQs
What makes Audience Out valuable for multi-step strategies?
Audience Out builds segments based on real engagement inside the funnel, so marketers can plan tailored follow-ups for each stage. This supports sequential messaging without extra tracking tools.
How does Audience Out support video strategies?
Audience Out can segment users based on a defined video completion rate. This helps marketers identify viewers who showed interest and move them into a more targeted step of the journey.
Does Audience Out help diagnose campaign performance issues?
Marketers can compare Audience Out segment growth with overall campaign exposure. Slow growth may signal creative fatigue, low engagement, or a need to adjust conditions in early funnel stages.
What should marketers consider before relying on Audience Out?
Marketers need a clear next step in the journey, since Audience Out works best when the segment feeds a later tactic. It offers limited value for single-stage or broad reach campaigns.