How Location and Behaviour Improve Audience Planning
Connect the dots between location, behaviour and your next campaign.
Location and behavioural signals can improve audience planning by helping marketers identify relevant audiences, refine who they reach and connect campaigns to a business goal.
The useful part is how we interpret those signals. A visit to a dealership, shopping centre or event gives us a clue. Understanding what that clue could mean takes a little more thought.
At 36 Presents, we start with a simple question: what are we trying to help this business achieve? That gives the data a job to do.
What can location tell us about an audience?
Location signals can suggest a connection between an audience and a relevant place.
For an automotive campaign, dealership visits could be a useful starting point. For a visitor attraction, observations around relevant destinations or events might help shape an audience for a new experience.
But people have all sorts of reasons for being somewhere. Someone at a dealership could be browsing, servicing their car or collecting a friend. A location observation alone does not establish purchase intent.
The planning question is whether that place gives us a useful clue for the brief, and what other evidence could help us interpret it.
How does behaviour add context?
Recency, repeated observations and relevant behavioural information can help refine an audience, where the available sources support those uses.
Think of it as adding detail to a sketch. One observation gives us an outline. A relevant pattern may help make the picture clearer.
For an automotive brief, we might explore whether available signals support an audience interested in a particular vehicle category. For an attraction, we might consider behaviours relevant to the experience being promoted.
These are interpretations of available evidence. We need to be clear about the limits, particularly when a signal could have several explanations.
Our guide to device IDs explains the identifier behind some of these signals. Our guide to building an audience from a business brief covers the next step, including the market, timeframe and exclusions.
How does the audience shape the media plan?
A relevant audience needs enough usable reach and suitable media options to support the campaign.
If an audience is too narrow, we may need to broaden the approach. Coverage, permissions, match rates and media access all affect what is practical.
Then comes the message. What product benefit will matter to this audience? What should they do next? Does the destination page make that step easy?
Even a carefully built audience cannot carry the whole campaign. The offer, creative and customer experience all need to pull their weight.
How should we measure progress?
Choose the measure before launch, so everyone knows what useful progress looks like.
An awareness campaign may prioritise reach and repetition. A lead campaign may focus on qualified enquiries or booked test drives.
Reported store visits need a clear definition. A visit does not establish a purchase, so the reporting should explain exactly what has been measured.
Our campaign measurement guide explains how to choose evidence that fits the goal.
Common questions about location and behavioural audiences
Does a location observation prove purchase intent?
No. It can help form an audience hypothesis, but it does not establish why someone visited or whether they intend to buy.
Can this approach reach every potential customer?
No. Coverage depends on available sources, permissions, match rates and media access. Those limits need to be assessed against the brief.
Bring us one campaign goal
You do not need to arrive with a fully formed audience plan. Bring us the business question.
We can explore which clues could help, where the gaps are and what a sensible pilot would measure.
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