Prospecting: gaining new customers through a targeted approach

If you only ever address your advertisements to users who have already bought something in your shop, you will not experience long-term success. Retargeting as an advertising strategy alone will not get you very far. Instead, the goal of any campaign should be not only to re-engage existing customers, but also to acquire new customers at the same time. So, you have to look for users who are highly likely to be interested in a certain product. But what is the best way to find them?

Prerequisite for successful prospecting – a clearly defined target group

In order not to address Internet users at random, the most important prerequisite for successful prospecting is a clearly defined target group profile. The goal of a high conversion rate can only be achieved if qualified traffic is led to the corresponding landing page.

The best way to find potential new customers is to use defining characteristics. We obtain suitable data for this from users who have already bought from an advertiser. If you know the behaviour and characteristics of active customers, you can match them with potential users. This approach is based on the simple reasoning that matching characteristics increase the likelihood of a purchase being completed through a targeted approach. The more similarities that exist in the interests of the users, the higher the probability that they will also buy a certain product.

You could also compare the principle of prospecting with a recommendation among friends, for example: ‘Are you interested in designer furniture too? Then take a look at shop “xy”. I recently bought a great armchair there. There might be something there for you too!’

How does prospecting work?

The data of active users are matched with the general user profiles of several demand-side platforms (DSP) in order to find new users with similar characteristics. The determined target group profiles are divided into ‘intent’ and ‘interest’ and form the basis for effective ‘real-time bidding’. Using programmatic advertising, advertisements are then placed in all relevant topic channels, based precisely on these characteristics of the target group. The advertising impact on the audience, environment and advertising media is constantly assessed and appropriate adjustments are made so as to always achieve the best result.

Since prospecting is about gaining new customers, user data are automatically distinguished from existing customer data. If a user has already visited the advertiser's website once, he drops out of the prospecting group and can be addressed again via retargeting.

Prospecting with advanced store

Acquiring new customers is one of our strengths for our advertisers. ‘Prospecting allows us to not only display ads in appropriate website environments, but also to use our data-driven approach to reach exactly the right audience with the customised ad message’, explains advanced store CEO Marc Majewski. Our efficient media buying combined with in-house and third-party e-commerce data and our innovative prediction engine (supported by the EU innovation fund EFRE) are what makes the difference for our advertisers. We focus on CPA for the advertisements.

Start prospecting with advanced store and get in touch with us!

Prospecting and retargeting – hand in hand to success

Prospecting can only really lead to success when combined with retargeting. Prospecting is used to target users interested in a product and thus potential new customers. But that does not mean that they convert straight away. The chance that they will actually buy a product is increased by the secondary approach of retargeting. Prospecting makes them aware of an offer for the first time, but they may not buy immediately. Through retargeting, they come into contact with the corresponding shop or product again and are then more likely to decide to make a purchase.

Learn more about perfect retargeting strategy here with our Retargeting Guide!