Does Digital Ad Targeting Actually Work?

Isn’t it amazing how your phone seems to know exactly what you’re looking for? I didn’t know I needed a new smart toaster (or even that smart toasters existed—isn’t technology amazing?) but after seeing an ad on TikTok, I don’t know how I’ve lived this long without one. 

I didn’t really need new sandals for summer, but now that you mention it, Instagram, I could use a new pair and you’re right, I do love that brand. It’s like magic. 

Except instead of casting spells, we call it targeting. 

When advertisers put money behind a campaign on social media, they can set parameters for who is shown the ad. These parameters are likely to reflect the company’s ideal customer. The ad network takes those parameters and combines it with their own user data, runs it through some calculations, and shows the ad to users who are most likely to act on it. 

It’s a little art and a little science and most of the time pretty darn accurate. It’s not perfect, though, and advertisers are constantly working to refine that targeting to make their ad delivery as effective as possible, Well Done included. Part of better audience targeting is understanding the experience of that audience. And what better way to do that than to join the audience ourselves. 

Our Marketing Team asked five of our coworkers to do some research in their own feeds. In either TikTok or Instagram, we asked them to open the app and see how long it took them to get served an ad. They shared what the ad was for and how relevant they felt it was to them. 

We asked: 

Let’s see what they said. 

Senior Copywriter Evan was first up. He scrolled through his Instagram to find his ad. 

It took Evan 16 posts to find his first ad for a halloween-themed T-shirt. He rated it’s relevance as a 5/5 and we wouldn’t be surprised if he showed up to the office wearing it tomorrow. 

Watch Evan’s full experiment. 

Digital Strategist Rebecca took to TikTok for her research. 

After only 5 videos, she was served a paid partnership video for a summer dress available on TikTok Shop. Rebecca rated the ad a 3; she wasn’t necessarily in the market for the dress but would consider adding it to her wardrobe. 

See Rebecca’s results.  

We asked Senior Account Executive Amanda to check her Instagram feed for her ad. 

After 125 posts she had a sore thumb and a promoted giveaway to win one of two Amazon gift cards on Prime Day. She rated the ad a 3.5 as she clicked ‘Add to Cart.’ 

Watch Amanda scroll. 

Web Developer Eric checked Instagram to see what ads he might find. 

He saw 21 posts before being served an ad for a clothing store that he had purchased from before. He window shopped (get it?) and gave the ad a 4. 

Watch Eric’s full experiment. 

Finally, we asked Graphic Designer Macey to see what ads pop up on her TikTok feed. 

She saw 10 posts before seeing what we all go to social media for: dog videos. This ad was for pet insurance and Macey rated it a 4. 

See Macey’s results. 

Based on our very scientific data, we can confidently say that the results are…decent. On a scale of 1–5, our coworkers averaged a relevancy rating of 3.9. 

Audience targeting can be tricky, especially in today’s world of increased online privacy and the decline of third-party cookies. Social media is in the unique position of having robust first-party data on its users, meaning  platforms like Meta and TikTok are more likely to serve highly targeted ads. 

Digital strategist Rebecca Mckivitz explains, “Paid ads on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram target users based on their interests, accounts they follow, the content they engage with, and websites or profiles they have engaged with in the past. This is why if you click on a brand’s content once, it’s hard to escape further ads for their product or service. In the world of paid advertising you are now a highly targeted user because you are more likely to convert than someone who has never interacted with the product or service before.” 

We saw this in our experiment with Eric, as he was part of a remarketing campaign on TikTok as a previous buyer. That brand does not want to lose Eric from their sales funnel so they are spending ad dollars to stay top of mind.

Sometimes it seems like every other post on social media is an ad. Hence why we were a little surprised that between Instagram and TikTok, it took our five participants an average of 35 posts before they saw an ad. 

We credit part of that to the age range of our staff. Employees above the age of 40 were targeted with fewer ads, while users under the age of 35 are considered “prime candidates” for paid advertising due to their buying behavior. Studies have shown that the largest demographic of users across social media channels fall within the ages of 18–44.

Regardless of age, it’s important to remember that users don’t particularly like being advertised to on social media. Even if you have great ad assets, don’t flood platforms with them. No one likes love bombing. 

As organizations spend more and more of their marketing dollars on social media ads, the key to seeing a successful ROI is understanding your audience and effectively targeting them. 

“Social media platforms have a lot of data on you, and if a brand can set up the right recipe for targeting, it has a pretty strong likelihood of gaining your business,” summarized Mckivitz. 

Beyond our personal scrolling, we’ve spent a lot of years developing, iterating, and perfecting our marketing strategy when it comes to paid ad success. Let’s connect and talk about the people you want to reach.