Some companies take a similarly wasteful approach with their marketing campaigns. They rely on guesswork, using third-party data and look-a-like audiences in hopes of reaching the farmers or ranchers most likely to be interested in their products or services. The vendors they choose only have access to basic data, such as age, demographics and maybe some purchasing histories. When combined with other data sources, this data might be enough to target a broad B2C audience, but if you want to reach specific producers in the ag industry, it\u2019s just not precise enough.<\/p>\n
The companies that rely on this vendor learn a valuable, frustrating and expensive lesson: in the world of ag marketing, guesswork doesn\u2019t work<\/em>. It leads to waste and disappointment. Let\u2019s take a minute to look at why. Through our platforms at Farm Journal, we can access 100 million third-party, B2B ag-industry records that these other companies may use, but the 2023 USDA farm survey lists only 1.98 million farms in the US. Do the math. There are quite a few irrelevant third-party data segments. Do you want to pay to reach them?<\/p>\n Or do you want to boost the bang for your buck by trimming the waste? Here are a couple of ideas on how to boost the efficiency and effectiveness of your next campaign.<\/p>\n Use domain\/app inclusion lists <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Your data vendor can find ad space for you on all types of websites, including those where you don\u2019t want to be seen. Vendors can provide exclusion lists to minimize this risk, but those lists don\u2019t eliminate the possibility of appearing on unwanted sites. It\u2019s more prudent to create a list of domains and apps where you only <\/em>want to appear\u2014where you know the audience you want to reach is more likely to see your ad. When assessing your next data partner, find out if this type of list is offered.<\/p>\n