D I S P L AY I N T R O D U C T I O N

AUDIENCE ANALYSIS

SEO Dos and Don’ts.

Why should we care about audiences?

Why are we only doing half a job?

What can we do about it?

Early SEO

On site

Keyword Keyword Keyword Keyword Keyword Keyword Keyword

Off site

website

Audiences? Who needs

them.

2015

Website Social Publishers

search queries

desires behavioursintents demographicspreferences

Keyword Keyword Keyword

Progress. We’re now considering audiences but mainly other people’s.

• Link building is dead/dying• Algorithmic SEO is dead/dying• Content strategy is a single entity, not

onsite/offsite or site content/link building• SEO skills and team structures are adapting• Integrated campaigns are becoming possible

2015

Website Social

Off siteOn site

Publishers

search queries

desires behavioursintents demographicspreferences

Keyword Keyword Keyword

2015

Website Social

Strategy

Publishers

search queries

desires behavioursintents demographicspreferences

ContentKeyword Keyword Keyword

What is audience analysis?

• Marketing has long relied on trying to understand consumers.

• Techniques such as segmenting the market allow us to provide better targeted messages to our customers.

• In these days of multi channel marketing it can help provide a strategic starting point to build integrated campaigns.

Marketing segments

• Traditional demographics (gender, age, income etc.)

• Psychographic segmenting (beliefs, attitudes, opinions etc.)

• Behavioural demographics (actual behaviours)• Combinations of the above

Display

This was the first ever display ad:

It had a CTR of 44%

These days, the average banner ad has a 0.1% clickthrough rate (CTR), and the standard 468x60 banner has a 0.04% CTR.(https://www.doubleclickbygoogle.com/insights/)

Doesn’t seem smart to use display, right?

With Display you can target customers using traditional demographics, psychographics or even straightforward behavioural demographics (e.g. retargeting).

SEO

In SEO, the ways in which we tend to use demographics is limited.

We use personas to help us with content creation or to identify influential authors and publishers but unlike advertising channels, SEO rarely uses demographics to target specific users.

PPC: I want to target men between the ages of 24 and 35 who search for “car insurance”

Display: I want to target women over 55 who are interested in gardening.

SEO: I want to target men over 55 who search for “gold watch”

…maybe

business goals > customer segmentation > keyword research > content

why who whoop!

Define/ understand business goals.

Use available data to create customer segments.

what how

Research what people are searching for and how they are searching.

Target the people you want by providing the content they need and want via natural search.Keyword research generally

doesn’t take demographics into account.

75% men on an online dating site.

Business objective:

Get more women to sign up.

Who knew strategy could be this easy?

• Keyword demographic data helped us shape a content strategy which increased the number of women signing up to the site.

• This increased the level of dating (especially for the men) and improved retention.

1. Don’t use a photo containing your girlfriend2. Don’t shout about your previous failed

relationships3. Don’t say you love “banter”4. Don’t use the words “Very interested”

randomly at the end of your bio5. Don’t use a photo with your tongue sticking

out6. Do put something in your bio.

http://www.pof.com/

This is fun, not SEO

Where to find demographic data which can inform SEO content:

1. Bing Ads Intelligence2. Google Adwords3. Google Analytics

Bing Ads Intelligence

Straightforward interface (Excel plug-in)

Google Adwords

Adwords InterfaceRun a campaign to get data

Google Analytics

Quality of data goodEase of access goodNo keyword level data

keyword researc

h

content strategy

measure &

analyse

market segmentation

Audience Research

Top Tips:

• Don’t do this work from scratch• Someone already did it, do use that as a starting point• Do get hold of or create personas• Do speak to other channels for their insight and data

Keyword Research

What we should be answering:What is my target audience searching for and how?

What we’re actually answering:What are people searching for?

Keyword Research

Top Tips:

• Do create a good process for keyword research• Don’t just think about volume• Do think about intent, difficulty, trends, seasonality and more• Do add demographic data• Do match those demographics to your segments• Do watch Jono Alderton’s Webinar for ideas on how to improve:

http://www.semrush.com/webinars/going-deep-on-keyword-research-in-a-sea-of-data/

An insurance company, “SeniorCar” specialises in car insurance for pensioners

Content Strategy

• Keyword research feeds into content strategy• Content can be created to talk to a demographic• Demographics in keyword research help targeting• Similarly your snippet can be tailored to attract

clicks from your target segment

Creating content for older people

• Accessibility and user experience is important• Older people are not mad on cell phones but love tablets• Don’t make assumptions about prior knowledge• Keep the audience front of mind• Consider themes which will resonate; security and credibility• Content from experts may have more sway• Older people have a better attention span, persistence and

thoroughness. Long form content might not cause problems• Video, on the other hand, will require subtitles

Improving CTR from your target audience.

Measure and Analyse

• Set up audience segments matched to your target segments

• Define KPIs and supporting metrics• Benchmark• Analyse users interaction with

content using these segments• How are different segments

reacting to your content? Are they engaging / converting?

http://bit.ly/1NIgqZf Guide to segments

Metrics

• CTR • Engagement (bounce rates, time on site etc.)• Traffic, conversions etc.