Reach a qualified audience with quality data

No one knows Kiwis quite as well as we do. As they transition through different life stages; whether that’s buying their next car, their dream car, family home, or their next investment, Trade Me plays a massive part in their journey. Every day, 500,000¹ New Zealanders visit Trade Me to browse, research and plan their next purchases.

We qualify this audience of 2.5 million² opted-in New Zealanders as they are searching and watchlisting with propensity to buy. Rather than just viewing an article outside of the purchase funnel, they are in-market showing interest and intent.

How we qualify an audience

We have seen over 3 billion³ member interactions on Trade Me so far this year through our data management platform. This is people searching, viewing, watchlisting on site, and allows us to build a clear picture of what users are looking for and their level of awareness, interest or intent.

This wealth of first-party data has been segmented into over 200 data personas by using a qualifying criteria to curate audiences based on their particular behaviours on site. This provides a set of targeting options that are easy to understand, and more importantly, align with your advertisers’ messaging.

Our personas (listed here) and other custom data segments are transparent in what signals are taken into account during the creation process so you can understand who you’re serving your message to.

Data has naturally become an integral part of any media buy, as marketers and programmatic buyers move closer to the golden standard of reaching the right person, in the right place, at the right time. As a result, it’s becoming increasingly important to understand where these datasets come from and how accurately they can build a picture of an actual consumer. The old adage of “garbage in, garbage out” comes to mind when considering data segments and their inputs; if the signals of a consumer being in-market to purchase are weak, or not consistent across publishers where they’re drawn, the risk is that media investment ends up in the wrong place for your advertiser’s KPIs.

Starting at a low frequency smaller investment in the broader awareness layer to cast the net wide, and narrowing down to interest (viewing a particular set of products such as SUVs), down to intent (watchlisting property in a certain area).

Buyers should also be aware of the freshness (or staleness) of the data they’re using; someone in-market for a house may be in a much longer purchase cycle than a renter, or the next Tim Allen using Trade Me to buy supplies for their next renovation. To that end, it’s important to know the recency and frequency metrics that have qualified that audience. Depending on product category, awareness relevance might range from anywhere from six months to a 90 day max, whereas for interest, it’s often more important to ensure your target audience has been viewing within the category in a more recent time frame (eg last 30/60 days).

Intent, however, is when the user is showing the highest propensity to buy in their path to purchase. Higher engagement and attention signals such as watchlisting multiple items in the last 7 to 30 days can qualify a consumer that will be more interested in relevant creative messaging, and therefore more likely to change their behaviour. Recency metrics in your data usage ensure you can confidently put media spend behind this messaging without wasting it on people who may be already outside of the funnel.

Pair this with the contextual relevance of when people are actively searching, researching and planning their next purchase and you have all the elements to reach the right person, in the right place, at the right time. By spreading budget appropriately across each of the layers of the funnel, buyers can build a well balanced media plan that services the multitudes of their client’s needs while still influencing consumers who are each in very different stages in their road to conversion.

So get in touch with your Trade Me sales rep or programmatic contact today to understand how Trade Me’s reach and qualified audiences can help you and your advertisers reach their goals.

¹Google Ad Manager, daily reach June 2019

²Salesforce Audience Studio DMP - a Data Management Platform to manage our first party data. The data sets collected are in real time (in-market) and historic (previous in-market). We take Intent and Interest indicators (Viewed, Searched, Watchlisted, Bought, Listed, Sold) and overlay other targeting options such as Categories, Premium and ROS. Leveraging Intent and Interest data allows advertisers to reach our audience at all stages of the path to purchase.

³Salesforce Audience Studio April 2019