In the world of restaurant marketing, reaching the right audience with your advertising can make all the difference. By leveraging the right data sources and audience targeting strategies, you can increase the effectiveness of your campaigns and drive more revenue for your business.

Here at Liberty Interactive Marketing, we are continuously working with our clients and tech partners to shape and evaluate advertising audience targeting for maximum impact and return.

Overall, strategic audience targeting is a critical component of any restaurant marketing strategy. By leveraging a mix of first-party and third-party data sources and audience targeting strategies, you can reach the right people with the right message at the right time, driving more revenue for your restaurant units and brand. In this article, we’ll review a few popular and highly impactful third-party data sources and audience targeting strategies for your restaurant brand. But first, a quick note about first-party data. 

I’m sure you’ve heard that one of the most important sources of data for audience targeting is first-party data. This includes information collected directly from your own customers, such as demographics, purchase history, and loyalty program membership. By leveraging this data, you can create personalized marketing messages that resonate with your target audience.

And while first-party data is highly valuable and the crème de la crème of audience data, sometimes there isn’t always enough of it to run a successful advertising campaign on its own. That’s where third-party data sources come in. Here are seven examples of third-party data sources and targeting strategies that restaurant brands can use to drive relevant traffic with the goal of turning it into first-party data. Build that crème de la crème!

6 Advanced Audience Targeting Strategies for Restaurant Brands to Supplement First Party Data

1. Mail Targeting

By targeting people who receive emails from competitors or related brands, you can reach a highly relevant audience. For example, if someone receives an order confirmation email from Chipotle or third-party delivery (3PD) services like UberEats and DoorDash, you can target them with ads promoting your own Mexican food offerings.

2. Purchase Receipts Targeting

Credit card aggregators can match people who use their credit card to shop at competitors, allowing you to target a highly relevant audience based on their purchase behavior.

3. Affinity Audiences

Identified based on online behavior, such as the websites they visit, content they engage with, and searches they perform. They are ideal for reaching people with a demonstrated interest in a particular topic or industry. Examples in the restaurant industry include known QSR frequenters or people who eat out during specific dayparts.

4. Lookalike Audiences

While lookalike audiences have been a popular targeting strategy and are still relevant, their effectiveness may be declining within some platforms or going away altogether. Lookalike audiences are created based on similarities to your existing customer base, but they may miss out on potential customers who don’t fit neatly into a specific category.

5. Predictive Segments

By using machine learning algorithms, you can create highly targeted audience segments based on predictive behaviors, such as likelihood to order certain menu items or visit at specific times.

6. Mobile Device Targeting

This strategy involves targeting devices that have physically visited a relevant location, such as your restaurant or a competitor’s location. This can be a highly effective way to reach people who are in your local area and most likely to visit your restaurant. And may not be targetable through other means, such as the targeting types we’ve mentioned above.

At Liberty Interactive Marketing, we understand how critical strategic audience targeting is for successful advertising campaigns in the restaurant industry. That’s why we specialize in providing tailored digital strategies and campaign management to growing multi-unit restaurant brands and location-based businesses throughout America.

Our comprehensive location intelligence marketing services cover everything from media planning and buying to first-party data and audience segmentation strategy, social media advertising, programmatic advertising, and more. We use an omni-channel approach to target audiences based on where they are in their buying journey, showing you which ads drive customers through the door.

If you’re looking for a partner who can help you navigate the complex world of digital advertising, look no further than our team of experts. Get in touch with us today to learn how we team up together to help take your restaurant brand to the next level.