Data-driven customer segments allow brands to personalize their marketing campaigns, improving engagement and conversions.
Yet first-party data remains an underutilized marketing asset for e-commerce businesses. Most focus their promotional efforts on email, SMS, and even direct mail, missing the opportunity to use their data for advertising purposes.
My company manages paid media for large and small businesses. We see performance increases of 25% or more from targeted segments compared to a broader audience.
Here are 10 segments to boost your ecommerce ad performance.
![Photo of a man and a woman in front of a computer going shopping Photo of a man and a woman in front of a computer going shopping](https://www.practicalecommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/African-American-shoppers-in-front-of-a-computer-570x356.jpg)
Advertising campaigns are most productive when they target customer segments.
Ecommerce Ad Segments
The longer the customer list, the more complex the segmentation. The number of segments depends on the business, budget and creative messages available.
All the clients
Start with the largest audience: all buyers. Remarket to them with product launches or sales, and exclude this segment from customer acquisition campaigns.
Best customers
Repeat customers make or break most ecommerce businesses. Creating a preferred customer segment (e.g. purchase frequency, time between purchases, total value) helps focus on these essential buyers.
Selling and non-selling buyers
Sale shoppers are prospects for flash promotions and discount campaigns. Excluding non-sale buyers helps maintain their purchasing behavior at full price.
Gift Buyers
A checkout flow should include the ability to mark the purchase as a “gift” or add a gift message. It improves customer experience and facilitates a gift buyer segment. This audience becomes valuable during gift-giving holidays such as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and the fourth quarter season.
Category Buyers
Category segments enable new product campaigns and cross-selling. A customer shopping in category A is likely interested in these new or related products. Create messages and campaigns to capitalize on this preference.
Uncommitted buyers
Another interesting segment is inactive or unengaged customers. Use paid media to re-engage these buyers and reach them through a channel other than your own email solicitations.
High season buyers
Brands with peak sales seasons beyond the fourth quarter should create segments of customers who purchased during those periods. Timely targeting of these buyers often produces high ROAS.
Fourth Quarter Customers
Most consumer brands depend on fourth-quarter sales. Create a dedicated segment for these customers and send appropriate messaging to maximize your impact.
Probably bought in x days
Predictive platforms like Klaviyo, Bloomreach and others can identify “likely to buy” buyers. Create this segment and test different time periods to avoid advertising to customers who would have purchased anyway.
Likely to have a high AOV
Predictive platforms can also anticipate “high average order value” buyers. These segments can be lucrative and worth testing.
To start
To get started, download customer segment lists from your ecommerce platform and upload them to Meta, Google, or other advertising channels. Email addresses are required and first name, last name, country and zip code are helpful. Some platforms sync directly with advertising channels. Klaviyo, for example, integrates with Meta and Google.
Then, activate campaigns that target these customers. In my experience, brands with long customer lists don’t need similar campaigns. With enough data, advertising platforms can also, or even better, target a wider audience.
Personalize ad creative and messaging based on segment. If you’re trying to reach gift buyers, for example, consider ads featuring common gift products with dynamic gift prices.