Audience penetration is not really something we talk very much about, is it?
But let me tell you, that’s a huge mistake.
Audience penetration can tell you so many things, for instance whether or not your beautifully and well-crafted content is even being consumed by your target audience (because if not, it’s not really going to make any impact, is it?), if your budgets are too low or your audiences are too big and if you need to change your campaign optimizations so you’re either increasing your reach or lowering your frequency.
Anyway, If you’re not hooked by now, I hope I’ll be able to enlighten you during this blog post.
Let’s get to it 🙌
Audience penetration refers to the percentage of your target audience that your marketing campaign reaches over a defined period. It tells you how much of your intended audience has been exposed to your marketing efforts, whether through ads, emails, social media, or other channels.
Think of it as a way to measure the impact and reach of your campaigns. If you have a 50% audience penetration, you’ve successfully reached half of your target audience.
Knowing this helps you adjust your tactics to ensure more people within your target audience are exposed to your content and communication.
But how do you measure it, and more importantly, how can you improve it?
Calculating your audience penetration is simple - do like this:
Audience Penetration = (Unique Users Reached / Total Target Audience) x 100
So, for example, if your ad campaign reaches 20,000 people out of a total target audience of 100,000, your audience penetration is: (20,000 / 100,000) x 100 = 20%.
This calculation helps you quickly gauge how effectively your campaign is reaching your intended audience. If your audience penetration is low, it might be time to adjust your strategies.
If you’re doing a lot of LinkedIn campaigns like myself, you might also have noticed they’ve now very conveniently added the option to get your audience penetration shown directly in your columns (thank you LinkedIn) - that way you don’t even have to calculate anything on your own.
Audience penetration is more than just a metric, it’s a direct reflection of how well you’re reaching your desired market and this is why you should care;
Measuring campaign effectiveness: Audience penetration gives a snapshot of how well your campaign is performing in terms of reach. A high penetration rate means your message is reaching a good portion of your target audience.
Identifying campaign gaps: If your audience penetration is low, it might indicate that your audience size is too broad or your budget is too small to reach enough people (which is a very common mistake I see when auditing ad accounts).
Optimizing spend: By understanding how much of your audience you’re reaching, you can optimize your ad spend more effectively. For example, if you're achieving high click-through rates but low audience penetration, increasing your budget could help you expand your reach.
Supporting sales and brand growth: Particularly in B2B marketing, audience penetration can support your sales teams by ensuring that targeted, high-value accounts are seeing your ads and content - and the benefits you get from this is most definitely worthwhile.
I’ve previously written another blog post about sales & marketing alignment from a LinkedIn ads perspective and what benefits you get from investing in it - you can find it here (completely unbiased, I think you should give it a read as it’s absolutely great).
Way too few companies manage to have a decent alignment between sales & marketing, so it’s an easy way to gain a competitive advantage.
Now that you know why audience penetration matters, let’s dive into how you can improve it.
Below are several strategies that can help increase your penetration rates and ensure your message reaches more of your target audience.
Targeting the right audience is obviously a very good place to start. Using platforms like LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager or Google Ads, you can focus your efforts on specific demographics, industries, or behaviors. Refine your targeting to make sure that your message is reaching the people who are most likely to be interested in your product or service.
For B2B campaigns, it's recommended to focus on audience sizes between 5,000 to 500,000 (depending on your geographics and budget) to optimize audience penetration. If your audience is too large, you risk diluting your efforts. Conversely, a too-small audience may lead to limited reach or over-saturation, making frequent changes to content a limiting factor.
A good rule-of-thumb, though, is to think; “It’s better to be everything for the most important audience I have, than to be nothing for a lot of companies.”
For LinkedIn Ads, I’ve always used an average frequency of 9-11 per quarter as a good benchmark (statistics from LinkedIn). If I manage to have an average frequency of about 9-11 over a 90-day period, I know I’m reaching my audience enough for them to (hopefully) remember me, while also not spamming them too much with my content.
And talking about LinkedIn Ads, you can actually ask LinkedIn to pull custom reports for you (where penetration, frequency etc. are highlighted), given that you have a rep. connected to your account (or know someone like Profound North).
To increase your audience penetration, consider using multiple marketing channels. Relying on a single channel might not give you the reach you need. Instead, use a combination of social media advertising, email campaigns, search ads, and even influencer marketing to ensure you reach more of your audience across different touchpoints.
A multi-channel approach can help you tap into different segments of your audience, some of whom may not engage on certain platforms but are active on others.
This one is a bit tricky, and highly debated, but hear me out.
One effective way to expand your audience penetration is to utilize LinkedIn’s Audience Network (LAN), especially if you know how to control LAN through strict budget control and campaign structures. This feature extends the reach of your ads beyond LinkedIn itself to a network of partner websites and apps. By doing this, you can significantly increase the number of people who see your ads while still maintaining precise targeting.
For example, if you're running an Account Based Marketing (ABM) campaign, and you have a narrow but very important audience, it’s so crucial you’re getting in front of them, and LAN can be a super good companion during that.
However, be very attentive when you’re using LAN, that it’s not taking over your budget and impressions, and that you account for LAN placements in your reporting.
There’s some good news here, however - LinkedIn is soon introducing LAN-only campaigns, so I guess we’ll have a chance to use it even more going forward.
As much as reach is important, it must be balanced with frequency (the number of times your target audience sees your ads on average). Showing your ad too frequently to the same people can lead to ad fatigue, while too little exposure might make your message forgettable.
Finding the right balance between Reach and Frequency can help you improve brand recall without overwhelming your audience. This ensures your audience is not only exposed to your ad but sees it often enough to remember and take action.
If your audience penetration is low, increasing your ad spend can help (surprise!!). Boosting your media budget ensures your ads are shown to more people within your target audience. This is especially important if you're seeing high engagement metrics (such as click-through rates) but a low reach.
Retargeting ads allow you to follow up with users who have previously interacted with your website or ads. By targeting these already-warm leads, you’re increasing your chances of reaching a broader portion of your target audience and driving conversions.
Retargeting campaigns ensure potential customers who may not have converted the first time are reminded of your offer, increasing both your penetration and engagement rates.
I’m explaining this in a bit more detail in my blog post about the importance of a content strategy here.
I hope I managed to convince you why audience penetration is something you should care about going forward (and if you already did care, good job!).
Audience penetration is important in understanding how far your campaign is reaching and how effective your advertising is. By continuously monitoring and optimizing your audience penetration, you can maximize the impact of your campaigns, improve your ad spend efficiency, and boost brand awareness.
Because, without the right audience penetration, combined with a good frequency, your great content is just great content - it’s never going to get you anywhere if it’s not being seen and consumed.
So, regardless of whether you're focusing on LinkedIn ads, multi-channel campaigns, or ABM strategies, improving audience penetration ensures your message is seen by the right people, driving both brand recognition and business growth.
Then reach out to me on email, kh@profoundnorth.com, or by phone, +45 28 88 12 62.
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