Wouldn’t it be great if you could take your most valued customers, analyze and understand their behaviors, then find more consumers like them? Well, you can… and it’s not magic; it’s Look-alike Audience Modeling.

According to Lotame, a leading data management platform (DMP), Look-alike modeling is a process which locates groups of people (audiences) who look and act like any of your target audiences. Put simply, look-alike modeling analyzes your current customer, identifies the key characteristics, and finds similar people. “It is a way to reach new people who are likely to be interested in your business because they’re similar to your best existing customers- so it’s going to broaden the net”, says Randi Ungar, Associate Vice President of Digital Advertising at NJ Advance Media.

By finding audiences with behaviors similar to your target audience, you can improve your campaign’s overall reach, raise brand recognition and have a greater chance to convert new customers in the future.

A study by eXelate showed that 73% of US ad agencies and 64% of advertisers use Look-alike Modeling to enhance their targeting and marketing focus. Additionally, of the agencies using the strategy, nearly 50% saw between 2x and 3x better performance of campaigns. While Look-alike modeling is by no means a new tactic, the value it provides within a prospecting and performance basis warrants that it not be overlooked.

Onboarding data to an advertising campaign produces better results. A recent study conducted by Forrester Consulting found that “sales driven by new customers were 2.5x higher following data onboarding than in previous campaigns” due to look-alike modeling that enabled the organization to target advertising to prospects that resembled its best customers.

As an affiliate of Advance Local, NJ Advance Media has access to data from the world’s largest data providers to identify audiences across various marketing channels. In addition, “If we want to suppress an advertiser’s current customers, we can utilize the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) that was used to do the original look-alike analysis so that existing customers do not get a competing acquisition offer”, describes Stanton Fish, Senior Director Database Marketing at Advance Local.

The good news is that all businesses can benefit from lookalike audiences.

“Look-alike audiences should be created for any campaign, regardless of the vertical, so you can constantly expand upon your current audience and find more people ‘like’ them, adds Randi Ungar.

Not sure how to get started? We can help! The best place to start is with a Customer Relationship Management tool. With a CRM, you can store customer and prospect contact information, sales data and more in one central location. If you don’t have one in place, no need to despair, we can simply place a pixel on your website such as a Lotame pixel tag, which will allow Lotame to collect information on your customers.

Next, we’ll onboard your data to a DMP and enrich it with additional attributes from 3rd party data providers. By analyzing demographic plus behavioral similarities against a larger data set, we’ll be able to find people who “look like” your customers. This look alike segment can now be used across multiple marketing channels that will be used in the campaign, such as display, video and mobile. It’s important to note that look alike modeling isn’t a one- and-done type of analysis. It’s important to always update the modelling with fresh customer data.

In short, look-alike modeling takes your current customer segments and expands on them based on their behavioral and demographic characteristics. It is an approach that helps business owners reach new consumers. You’ve got great customers today- but there are so many more just like them out there, beyond your CRM. Let the experts at NJ Advance Media help you reach them with look-alike modeling. Contact us today to get started.

Written by: Monica Sandler, Marketing Research and Data Manager, NJ Advance Media