From Customer Segments to TV Audiences: Finding the People Who Matter

For brands today, audience targeting is becoming increasingly sophisticated.

Tools such as Shopify Audiences allow advertisers to think beyond a broad customer base, helping them identify groups of people based on characteristics such as purchasing behaviour, engagement and other customer insights. These groups are often described using terms such as audience segments, customer segments, lookalike audiences, target audiences and retargeting audiences.

But while digital platforms have made audience segmentation increasingly precise, the fundamental marketing question remains the same:

Who are you trying to reach?

For brands and agencies, the opportunity is to take that audience understanding beyond digital platforms and build it into a broader media strategy.

What is an audience segment?

An audience segment is a defined group of people who share particular characteristics, behaviours or interests.

For an ecommerce brand, for example, this could include existing customers, frequent purchasers, high-value customers or people who have demonstrated an interest in a particular product category.

A customer segment is essentially another way of describing a specific group within a wider customer base.

Segmentation helps marketers move from thinking about an audience as one large group to understanding the different types of people within it.

From customer data to media targeting

Once a brand understands its customer segments, the next challenge is turning that insight into effective advertising.

This is where media targeting becomes important.

A brand might know that its highest-value customers fall within a particular demographic, show certain purchasing behaviours or share particular interests. The opportunity is then to identify ways of reaching audiences that reflect those characteristics across the media landscape.

For agencies, this creates a more strategic approach to campaign planning.

Instead of asking simply, "Which channel should we buy?", the question becomes:

"Which audiences are most valuable to this brand, and how can we reach them?"

Lookalike audiences: finding more customers like your best customers

A lookalike audience takes audience targeting a step further.

Rather than focusing solely on people who already know a brand, advertisers can use existing customer characteristics to identify new potential customers who share similar traits.

This can be particularly valuable for brands looking to grow.

The objective is not simply to find more people. It is to find people who are more likely to have characteristics associated with the customers a brand already values.

For advertisers, this creates a useful bridge between customer insight and acquisition strategy.

Retargeting: reconnecting with existing interest

At the other end of the customer journey is the retargeting audience.

These are people who have previously interacted with a brand — perhaps by visiting a website, viewing a product or engaging with its digital presence.

Retargeting allows advertisers to reconnect with people who have already demonstrated some level of interest.

But the wider lesson is important: audiences are not static.

Someone can move from prospect to customer, from first-time purchaser to loyal customer, or from casual browser to high-intent shopper.

Effective media planning needs to recognise those different stages.

What does this mean for TV advertising?

The sophistication of digital audience segmentation has changed expectations across the entire advertising industry.

Brands increasingly want their TV campaigns to be as considered as their digital activity.

That does not mean treating television like another digital platform. Instead, it means using audience insight to inform where, when and how TV advertising can play a role within the wider media strategy.

This is where Sky Media's targeting solutions can help brands and agencies connect audience strategy with TV and cross-platform advertising opportunities.

Rather than starting with a channel and working backwards, advertisers can start with the audience and build the media plan around them.

From audience segments to real-world reach

For a Shopify brand, an audience segment might exist within its customer data.

For a digital advertiser, it might become a target or lookalike audience.

For a TV advertiser, the challenge is translating that understanding into meaningful reach at scale.

The strongest campaigns can connect these worlds.

Customer data can help inform the audience strategy. Audience targeting can help identify the people a brand wants to reach. And TV can provide the scale, impact and viewing environment needed to build awareness and consideration.

The result is a more connected approach to advertising — one where audience insight does not stop with digital performance marketing.

The audience should come first

Whether you call it a customer segment, audience segment, target audience, lookalike audience or retargeting audience, the principle is the same:

Know who matters to your brand.

From there, the media strategy can follow.

For brands and agencies, Sky Media offers a range of targeting opportunities designed to help advertisers move beyond broad demographic planning and build campaigns around the audiences that matter most.

Because the future of effective advertising isn't simply about reaching more people.

It's about understanding your audience — and finding smarter ways to reach them.

This version can also be made more Sky Media-specific and commercially persuasive, with named targeting products, Shopify Audiences references, examples of audience segments and a stronger lead-generation CTA.