We helps businesses use digital strategies to increase sales. But it’s worth remembering — Google ads don’t buy products. People buy products. You can’t maximize your sales unless you know who exactly is doing the buying.

Why? Because knowing your ideal target audience — the audience most likely to become loyal, repeat customers and brand ambassadors — allows you to target your marketing messages to them specifically.

That’s where a buyer’s persona comes in. A buyer persona is a kind of “thought experiment” where brand stakeholders conceptualize their ideal customer or client. They often make a kind of “avatar,” with a name and maybe even a stock image of a person’s face. That way, they aren’t trying to decide what some nebulous audience might respond well to; they’re considering what “Stacy” or “Javier” would respond to.

Buyer’s personas can get very detailed. “Stacy” and “Javier” might have a list of hypothetical traits that make them ideal customers for a brand, including:

• Age
• Sex/gender
• Income
• Employment status (blue collar, white collar, self-employed, etc.)
• Marital status (single, married, partnered, etc.)
• Parental status (have small children, grown children, no children, etc.)
• Pet ownership (cats, dogs, etc.)
• Hobbies and interests
• Passions and core values
• … and anything else that might be relevant.

Companies can even create negative buyer personas — people who are definitely not ideal customers. Maybe they can’t afford the product, or their values and lifestyle don’t align with the brand. As a use case example we always design Google ads with the intention of getting people to not click on the ad … if they’re the wrong people. After all, you pay for the click either way, so do what you can to weed out the less-than-ideal prospects.

Ready to create some buyer personas? Here’s how to do it, in three easy steps …

1. Collect Data

The easiest way to start building your buyer personas is to look at your current leads, customers, and traffic. Google Analytics can help you obtain demographic information on your current web traffic. Other tools can take the contact information of your lead list and customer list, then give you a wealth of actionable data about what they have in common.

2. Identify Motivations and Pain Points

People buy things for reasons — to make more money, to save money, to seek pleasure or avoid pain, to achieve better health, more love, higher status, etc.

Once you know what your buyers have in common, consider what they most want out of life. What are the core motivating desires — the emotional motivators — that cause them to pull out their credit card?

3. Match Your Offer With Step #2

Once you have brainstormed your buyers’ key motivations and pain points, it’s time to decide where you fit in. Which of these motivations can your offer satisfy, and how? Once you match your offerings with the buying motivations of your buyer personas, you can start to refine your marketing messages with them in mind.

If you’re stuck at the stage of creating buyer personas, we can help. Honing in on your ideal customers is a necessary part of the process — and we have the tools and the experience to get it done quickly and painlessly. Need help? Contact us today!