You can’t be all things to all people.

Never was this statement more true than when creating an effective online marketing campaign.

We all know the numbers. Millions of people use search engines every day, for just about every kind of service, product or business imaginable. What we often forget, however, is that different people search for the same things, just differently. While it’s not possible to create a completely unique message for each and every person out there, it does make good business sense to segment your potential clients or customers, and create campaigns that speak to each segment.

Market segmentation, simply put, is the process of dividing a market into distinct subsets that behave in the same way or have similar needs. Once you identify these similar groups of potential customers, understand their behavior and why/how they need what you’re offering, you can then create a specific marketing message that speaks directly to them.

Taking the time to first segment your potential market greatly improves the efficiency and effectiveness of your online advertising. So, where do you begin?

1. Think about your business. Who are your customers? Do you sell to other industries as well as individuals (wholesale, retail, enterprise)? Does each industry you sell to have its own unique reason for needing your services or products? Do you sell to businesses that are different sizes, or in various phases of development (start-up, emerging, mature)? Or do you sell to individuals who are married, single, parents, or teenagers? Taking the time to segment your consumer allows you to create messages that speak to the psyche of each potential buyer.

2. Understand your customers’ needs. Once you’ve taken the time to understand the various market segments that need your service or product, you can then take it one step further. Think about what it is they are looking for when they conduct a search. A parent looking for a used car for their teenager may search for “cars with high safety ratings”, while a teenager looking for a used car may search for “inexpensive used cars”. If you’re an auto dealer, you want to make sure to create an ad for each of those searches, so the right ad appears in front of the right person and speaks directly to their query.

Once you’ve done these two things, you will have successfully segmented your market and created ads that speak to each. And, you’ll be amazed at how greatly that can improve your return on investment.