How to plan reaching an audience
You know who the audience is. This guide gets you how to reach them and what to say: the channels where they are over-represented, the values that set them apart, the affinities they share and when they are available. It is one call to reach_audience, for 2 credits, and the output is shaped to paste into a brief.
Ask, with the audience you sized and a place
Use the same audience you sized, word for word. If you haven't sized it, do that first: a reach profile of an audience that turns out to be 4,000 people is not worth briefing on.
How do I reach people aged 30 to 45 in Germany with a high sustainability affinity: channels, subscriptions, messaging?
The place can be anything from a country to a single neighbourhood. The comparison is always with everyone else in that place, so the same audience can read differently in Berlin than across Germany.
Read the channels
Each paid channel comes with the audience's rate and its lift, which is how much more common it is than among everyone else in the place.
Rate and lift pull in different directions, and both matter. Video reaches the most of them. Music is where they are most over-represented, so it wastes least. Paid news is small but distinctive, which makes it a good place for a considered message.
Read the values
They come in words, strongest first, in both directions:
- Notably above average on environmentalism, open-mindedness, helping others, equality.
- Notably below average on wealth and status.
The first line is what to lead with. The second is what to avoid: a premium, status-led execution would miss this audience even though it can afford the product.
Read affinities and timing
Affinities show which dispositions over-index: here sustainability at 1.55×, tech and novelty at 1.22×, health and wellness at 1.20×, and premium flat at 0.98×. They are leanings, not named brands. Timing gives the dominant commute, the shape of the week and weekday daytime availability: mostly car commuters in full-time work, so about half are reachable on a weekday daytime.
Going further
By region. Run the same audience in two or three of the core markets from your sizing. Differences between them are where a national plan should flex.
Everyone in a place. Leave the audience out and give only a place. You get the reach profile of a neighbourhood or a town, which is what a local business needs.
Advertising reach in detail. The population also holds, per channel, who uses it and who can be reached with ads on it, split between ad-supported and premium tiers. Ask directly: "what share of this audience can be reached with ads on video streaming?"
Worth knowing
Lifts are against the place you named: 2.09× means twice as common as among everyone else in Germany, not in Europe. Values are measured attitudes from the European Social Survey, modelled onto every person. They describe groups well and individuals not at all, which is the right way round for a brief.
Next
You have the hooks. Test messaging on personas lets you try the message on the people it is meant for.