Starting a design studio is relatively easy. All that’s needed is a computer and a creative suite of software. Registering a business with a state can be done in a few minutes online. That’s it. What they don’t teach in design school is how to win new business. Turns out, that’s the tricky part. While anybody can be a graphic designer, clients need to pay for the services rendered in order to have a successful business. 

Like many entrepreneurs, I started a business during the pandemic. Map Agency is a branding and graphic design studio based in Sandy Hook, CT. We specialize in developing brand identity systems, websites, and print solutions. As a startup business-to-business (B2B) company, convincing other established organizations to hire my design studio is just part of the challenge. Competition is certainly stiff but no business, big or small, will hire Map Agency if they don’t know we exist. First, we have to find and reach potential clients. Paid social media offers the opportunity to harness the power of audience segmentation, so that we can target businesses that are more likely to engage with us.  

The irony, of course, is that while Map Agency guides other businesses build their brand, we also need to manage our own. This is an outline to define and segment Map Agency’s target audiences for paid ads in 2025. The goal is to ensure our ads reach the right people, improve engagement, and increase our return on investment (ROI).

Our Target Audiences

When Map Agency first launched, I had no idea what type of business professionals would hire us. I had to refine and narrow potential clients to business sectors that suited my work experience. Today, our ideal clients share a number of similar geographic, demographic, and psychographic characteristics:

• Marketing professionals or business owners based in Connecticut or the Tri-State area.
• Hold positions such as Director of Communications, Chief Marketing Officer, Brand Manager, and Creative Director.
• At larger organizations, marketing professionals tend to be more seasoned and share interests in advertising, marketing, and branding.
• At startups, we prefer to work directly with the Owner or Executive Director. The people in this group often wears many hats and are more involved with social media and new business development. 

Both Facebook and LinkedIn will enable us to target these specific demographics and interests once we’ve setup ad accounts in their respective online ad manager dashboards. We’ll be able to segment our audiences to run more targeted campaigns. (Thony, 2024, pg. 19) There’s a few important audience parameters to captures and consider, though, before we get to that point.

Developing a Lookalike Audience

After 4 years in business, Map Agency has accumulated a list of over 300 emails. Our contacts have either signed up for our e-newsletter, or we’ve developed a professional relationship and added their information to our database. They’re an easy target audience, and many of them are likely to work with us again. Unlike Consumer-Packaged Goods or Direct to Consumer businesses, however, targeting ads to current customers could potentially be irritating and perhaps unprofessional — the relationship with our clients is direct and personal. Plus, reaching out to current clients often results in projects with a smaller scope of work than initial collaborations. Those projects are important, but we’re always on the lookout for new branding and website projects with higher yield. (Blanchard, 2011, pg. 210) 

Using our current client list, we can instead develop a lookalike audience in Facebook Ads Manager. A lookalike audience is a way to target a group of new people that will share similar interests to our current clients. When it's time to run a paid campaign, Map Agency can target professionals that are more likely to engage with a branding and design company, like ours. The best part, Facebook lookalike audiences exclude anyone from our source list so that we can avoid uncomfortable conversations in the future. (Riserbato, 2021) Setting up a lookalike audience is easily accomplished by uploading our current email list, and will expand our reach exponentially. We’ll be able to target customers that are comparable to current clients and work in sectors we’re knowledgeable about, potentially improving the engagement and conversion rates of our paid ads.

MRC, an award-winning design studio based in Raleigh, North Carolina, is currently running a series of Facebook ads that likely take advantage of lookalike audiences. The ads focus on a current project for Lloyd’s Full Service, a local retro-themed diner. Given that many of their current clients are Raleigh-based restaurants, MRC is targeting other businesses looking for brand services in the hospitality sector. Their ads show off their bespoke illustration style and collaborative process. By segmenting and targeting an audience that is similar to their current client roster, MRC can present their portfolio to a broader audience outside of Raleigh. They are able to test different audiences, creative, and messaging to optimize future ad spend as well. Map Agency can take a similar approach for the business sectors we serve, including non-profit, municipality, and education. Instead of focusing on process, we would test highlighting successful results — event signups, increased brand awareness, or website visits.

Creating a New Custom Audience

In addition to targeting lookalike clients, Map Agency can create custom audience segments by tracking social media interactions or visitors to our website. Essentially, custom audiences retarget people that have previously interacted with your brand. For us, website visitors will act as a more reliable source, since most of our social media followers are designers and other creative studios. And, while Facebook has the capability to track website visitors by adding a pixel to our website, LinkedIn provides the same capability and perhaps a more unique opportunity for Map Agency. LinkedIn is a work-focused networking site for business professionals, which makes it a great platform to focus the marketing efforts of a B2B company. I simply need to create a Campaign Manager account, and install the Insight Tag — a small snippet of Javascript — into the code of Map Agency’s website through Google Tag Manager. (Bonderud, 2022)

Once we create a campaign in LinkedIn, the Insight Tag will track visitors to our website and capture contact information, demographic insights, and more. (Unfortunately, LinkedIn discontinued lookalike audiences on February 29, 2024.) The Insight Tag, often referred to as a LinkedIn Pixel, works by creating a cookie in the browser of any website visitor that clicks on a LinkedIn ad and visits the Map Agency website. The tag will track their actions and extract data from the visitor’s LinkedIn profile. This is powerful marketing information. It will allow us to understand what potential clients are looking for, so that we can optimize ad spend in the future. In terms of segmentation, the LinkedIn Insight Tag makes it possible for us to segment our website traffic and determine which website visitors are coming directly from LinkedIn. Digital marketing expert, Jamie Stenton, recommends further segmenting our audience into groups of website visitors from the past 180, 90, 30, and 7 days. (Stenton, 2024) That way, we can retarget engaged visitors specifically from our LinkedIn ads with more appropriate communications. The end goal is to increase conversion rates in the form of an email, call, or Request for Proposal.

Segmentation Refinement

In addition to local municipalities, non-profit organizations, and educational institutions, Map Agency works with retailers, financial technology companies, and deathcare services. Each sector has its own set of marketing and communication priorities. It wouldn’t make sense to speak to them in the same language. Non-profits, for example, are often interested in getting members to attend galas and fundraisers. Startup fintech companies, on the other hand, need to drive awareness of their new online applications. By segmenting potential clients into specific target audiences, we can hopefully create personalized content that connects with each audience more meaningfully, improving both ad engagement and conversion rates.

Moz, a leading SEO software suite, can help prioritize the language we use for each segment. It provides a powerful array of tools for audience segmentation by leveraging comprehensive data analysis. With Moz's keyword explorer, we can identify the search terms our audience is using, providing insights into their interests and needs. (Ben, 2025) Admittedly, I have quite a bit to learn about this topic. However, by understanding which keywords are most effective, we can tailor ad content to address the specific interests of different segments. 

Moz's comprehensive reporting features also allow for continuous monitoring and adjustment, ensuring that segmentation strategies remain effective over time. The rank tracking feature will allow us to see how our audience interacts with content, helping to identify which segments are most engaged. Ultimately, the tool will equip us with the information needed to segment our audience more accurately, leading to more personalized and effective marketing strategies.

Conclusion

Map Agency now has the start of a plan to segment our ideal audiences and target them through specific paid social media channels. The work is far from over, but we have a foundation from which to build our targeting approach. At the very least, we can begin to develop creative that will resonate with each audience. In time, we’ll be able to tell which audience is most engaged and can refocus our advertising efforts. Last, we are now better equipped to help our clients understand the importance of segmenting and targeting their own audiences, so that they can get their brands growing in 2025.

References

Blanchard, O. (2011). Social Media ROI. Pearson Education Inc.

Blog with Ben. (2025, January 10). Unlock the Power of SEO with MOZ Pro: Your All-in-One Tutorial. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q14TI7FtC80

Bonderud, D. (2022, February 3). What is the linkedin pixel - and how does it work?. HubSpot Blog. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/linkedin-pixel

Riserbato, R. (2021, March 3). Facebook lookalike audiences: What marketers need to know. HubSpot Blog. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/facebook-lookalike-audiences

Stenton, J. (2024, September 18). Complete Guide to Custom Audiences for Facebook Ads! Everything you need to know!. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8-P1FrQ6WA

Thony, S. L. (2024). The Marketing Campaign Playbook. STK MKT Entertainment.