Audience growth

Reaching new audiences

Why moving beyond known customers introduces new friction

Audience expansion is often where marketing confidence is first put to the test.

As organizations seek to acquire new customers and reach individuals they know less about, they enter environments with fewer signals, less certainty and greater dependence on their underlying data and technology foundations.

Marketers may feel capable reaching familiar customers. Expanding beyond known audiences introduces execution challenges that are not always immediately visible.

The growth imperative

Marketers need to perform across audiences they know and audiences they do not

Marketers say identifying prospects is nearly as important as identifying existing customers. That parity creates pressure to deliver across both familiar audiences and people with whom brands have fewer signals and less history.

The priority is nearly equal. The level of confidence is not.

Priority vs. Confidence

Audience growth puts pressure on marketing performance

Marketers place nearly equal priority on identifying existing customers and identifying prospects. But their confidence is lower when the audience is less familiar.

What marketers prioritize

Existing customers

94%

Of members say they are likely to renew

Prospects

93%

Would recommend a Costco membership to friends and family

Marketers are expected to perform across both audiences.

Where marketers feel effective

Existing customers

88%

Of members say they are likely to renew

Prospects

72%

Would recommend a Costco membership to friends and family

Confidence declines as audience knowledge decreases.

“We have a lot of insight and data on our own core consumer … our challenge is trying to identify growth audience.”

- Marketer interview

Known customers come with a history of signals and interactions. Growth audiences provide less information, making consistent identification and activation more difficult.

The difficulty is not the ambition to grow. It is creating enough understanding to act with confidence.

The identity difference

Identity matters most when marketers expand beyond their existing customers

For audiences marketers already know, identity resolution provides an advantage. As marketers move toward prospects, that advantage becomes substantially more pronounced.

Existing customers

+7 points

difference between identity users and non-users who rate themselves very or extremely effective at understanding and identifying existing customers.

Prospects

+23 points

difference between identity users and non-users who rate themselves very or extremely effective at understanding and identifying prospects.

At the top end

3X

Identity users are three times as likely to say they are extremely effective at understanding and identifying prospects.

As audience certainty decreases, identity resolution becomes a more significant differentiator.

From understanding to action

Identifying prospects is one thing. Reaching them is harder.

Marketers are more confident in their ability to identify prospects than in their ability to reach individual prospects. As uncertainty increases beyond known customers, limitations in execution become more visible.

51%

of marketers say they can very or extremely effectively reach individual prospects.

The ability to reach individual prospects depends heavily on identity resolution.

Identity users

64%

of marketers using identity resolution say they are very or extremely effective at reaching individual prospects.

Non-users

31%

of marketers not using identity resolution say the same.

Audience expansion breaks down when understanding cannot be translated into activation.

The audience-growth takeaway

Identity closes the distance between finding prospects and reaching them

Marketers place nearly the same priority on prospects as existing customers, but less audience knowledge creates greater uncertainty.

Identity resolution becomes increasingly valuable in that environment by helping marketers connect signals, understand individuals and support activation beyond the audiences they already know. The research shows the strongest identity-related performance differences emerging in prospect understanding and reach.

The identity gap widens where customer knowledge ends and growth must begin.

Next: OPERATIONAL SCALE