← DictionaryAudience Targeting
also called targeting
Defining who a paid placement is shown to.
Choosing who sees the ad.
What It Is
You will find Audience Targeting in the Marketing layer, alongside the rest of Paid. What it actually refers to is defining who a paid placement is shown to.
It is an idea you reason with rather than a deliverable you hand over, so two teams can both hold it correctly and still apply it differently. Once it is defined that clearly, arguments about it usually stop.
How It's Used
Most of the time Audience Targeting is used in campaign planning, channel choices and the reporting that follows them. It normally appears alongside Custom Audience, Lookalike Audience and Segmentation. The practical test is whether a decision changes because of it.
Why It Matters
Ignoring Audience Targeting rarely fails loudly — it fails slowly. When it is unclear, spend keeps moving but nobody can say what it bought. Clarity here removes a surprising amount of downstream argument.
Think of it as a lens. Look through it and some choices get obvious. Choosing who sees the ad.
Termshift™
How the meaning shifts depending on who is using it, and where.
Professionally, Audience Targeting carries the narrow meaning: defining who a paid placement is shown to.
Explained to someone with no marketing background, Audience Targeting is choosing who sees the ad.
The Bottom Line
If you only keep one thing about Audience Targeting: choosing who sees the ad. Everything after that is detail.