Micro-Target or Target Everyone? Balancing Reach with Precision in Your Media Strategy

What is the best way to get the right amount of reach but also the right precision? Some marketers are seduced by the promise of micro-targeted precision through digital media spend. Others go broad and target everyone. What is the right balance for your brand? Frustrating though it may be – the answer is “it depends”. 

Marketers are under pressure. As the area of responsibility for CMOs changes and evolves, their average tenure is on the decline. So, it’s no surprise that, just like the social media-fuelled consumers they are targeting, marketers are subject to intense FOMO: Fear of Missing Out on “the next big thing”.  Fear that your competitors are making better use of “new big things” than you are. Fear, above all, of being seen as behind the curve.

This fear has led some marketers into decisions which, with hindsight, they might consider rash – hence the recent comments by what is the perhaps the most reliable bellwether of advertiser thinking.