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Generative AI is everywhere now. You see it in content, campaigns, customer experiences, and even internal workflows. It promises speed, scale, and efficiency, but there’s a harder question sitting underneath all that progress; Do your audiences actually trust it?

Trust in the Age of AI: What Consumers Really Think About AI Generated Content

Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

What Is Data Analytics? [Beginner’s Guide 2023]
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

Advertising on TikTok can be a great way to grow your TikTok account, promote your products, and generate sales. Here’s how to create your first TikTok ad.

TikTok, the hottest video entertainment platform, has quickly become one of the top hotspots for social media marketing. With more than one billion monthly active users, TikTok ads are a great way to showcase your brand to countless potential customers. And with the average adult spending 58 minutes on the platform per day, you’ll be talking to a highly engaged audience.

Advertising on TikTok takes a slightly different approach than other social media platforms. It’s all video content here, and TikTok has tons of features not found on other sites. Knowing your TikTok ad options will help to drive your campaign forward, so let’s dive into the specifics!

How to Advertise on TikTok: Getting Started

TikTok advertising comes in many shapes and sizes. Here’s a rundown of the types of TikTok ads you can leverage.

Despite video being TikTok’s schtick, you can run image-only ads that appear in TikTok’s news feed apps, such as BuzzVideo or TopBuzz. Image ads consist of your brand name, the image, and ad text.

Video ads can be shown in the TikTok app or its family of news feed apps. Videos can be anywhere between 5 and 60 seconds long and include an ad display image, your brand name, and ad copy.

These multi-day campaigns are designed to encourage user engagement. Along with the challenge advertisement, any user-generated content that comes as a result of the campaign will also appear alongside the hashtag challenge page.

Spark Ads is a native ad format where you can use your own TikTok posts or posts from other users’ accounts. This is a great way to leverage user-generated content as part of your ad campaigns.

Pangle is the ad network of TikTok for Business. It enables ad developers to maximize earnings and reach more users via TikTok for Business.

Another option just for TikTok’s news feed apps, carousel ads are a collection of images. Each image features its own caption. Users can scroll through the carousel to experience the full ad campaign.

Managed brands can take advantage of TopView Ads on TikTok. These ads are video ads that take over the user’s whole screen for the duration of the ad. Videos can range between five and sixty seconds and appear when the user launches TikTok.

TikTok is well known for its branded stickers and video effects. Brands can leverage these branded effects as part of their TikTok advertising strategy to encourage users to interact with your brand.

TIP: Is your brand's TikTok account struggling to grow in followers? Check out our blog with 37 tips to get more followers this year!

TikTok ads specs ensure your images and videos fit within the screen and that your video doesn’t cut off mid-roll due to file size. Best practices for TikTok ads specs include:

Ideal resolution is 720px (minimum resolution of 540 x 960 px or 640 x 640 px is required)

Ad description max characters 100 (no emojis)

Acceptable file types include mp4, .mov, .mpeg, .3gp, or .avi

Video duration of 5-60 seconds (recommended 21-34 seconds)

Spark Ads offer more lenient TikTok ad specs. There are no limitations or recommendations on aspect ratio, minimum resolution, video duration, or file size. You can also use emojis in the ad description.

How much do TikTok ads cost? It’s a fair question whose answer will vary depending on your campaign goals and budget. However, TikTok advertising has minimum budget requirements to get started. 

At the Ad Group level, plan on setting aside at least $20 per day. 

At the Campaign level, ad cost is at least $50 per day. 

Advertising on TikTok follows a bidding model, meaning your ad costs may vary depending on the type of ad format you’re using and your bid limits.

TikTok recommends choosing the daily budget option instead of the lifetime budget. It also suggests leaving the budget open so that you have a better chance of winning your bid.

If using Bid Cap or Cost Cap bidding, Tiktok suggests setting your initial budget to 20x your target CPA.

For an App Installs campaign, TikTok recommends a budget of no less than $100 per day and 20x your target CPA. The same goes for Conversions campaigns.

TIP: Don't miss our article about TikTok hashtags to get more views for your account, complete with an AI chatbot that can generate campaign-ready hashtags instantly!

To set up a TikTok ad campaign, log into the TikTok Ads Manager and click Campaign. From there, follow these steps to launch your ad:

Like other social media marketing opportunities, TikTok ads can cater to each stage of your sales funnel. TikTok offers seven options for your campaigns, including:

Lead generation using a pre-populated form

Conversions for specific actions on your website

Catalog sales (only available to those with a managed ad account)

You’ll choose a budget for your overall campaign. Later, you’ll divide your budget between various ad groups, so think about the scope of your whole campaign when setting budgets. You also have the option to choose No Limit and set specific ad group budgets later. 

You’ll also name your campaign in this step. The campaign name can contain up to 512 characters.

Each campaign can be broken down into separate ad groups (up to 999). From there, you can assign a unique name to each ad group.

For each ad group, you can choose where the ads will appear, including:

News feed app placement (ads within TikTok’s other apps)

Automatic placement (TikTok optimizes ad placement)

4. Activate automated creative optimization (optional)

TikTok can automatically generate different combinations of your images, videos, and text. The ad system will automatically show the best-performing ads. For now, just choose whether you want to activate this feature or handle it on your own.

You can choose audience characteristics to target your audience (and maximize your ad spend). Characteristics include:

Interests (e.g., technology, automotive, baby, kids, and maternity)

Next, you’ll set individual ad budgets for your various groups along with the schedule for each group. You can assign a daily or lifetime budget for each group. The Dayparting feature also lets you choose to run your ads at certain times in specific time zones.

TikTok advertisers can choose between three bidding strategies:

Bid Cap: Set a maximum bid per click (CPC), per view, or per 1,000 impressions (CPM).

Cost Cap: Average cost per 1,000 impressions (CPM), which may fluctuate above or below the cost cap amount but will average out to the predetermined cost.

Lowest Cost: Automatically optimize the campaign ad spend to achieve the maximum results possible at the lowest cost.

You’ll also choose how to divide your budget. Standard delivery will split your ad spend evenly throughout the campaign. Accelerated will spend your ad budget as quickly as possible. 

You can include up to 20 ads within each ad group. Choose your ad format, then add your own photos or videos OR create a video within the ads manager using TikTok’s templates and tools. 

Choose a default thumbnail or create your own, then add your text and link. You can preview your ad on the screen as you develop it. Once you’ve added all elements, click Submit.

TikTok reviews all ads before they go live.

As an alternative to the above process, you can boost existing posts on TikTok for a small fee. Similar to Facebook Boost, you can promote an existing video in a few short steps:

Go to your creator profile, then tap Creator Tools. 

TikTok Advertising Guide: 9 Steps To Creating TikTok Ads

Have you ever seen an ad or received an offer that felt like it was made just for you? That’s not by accident — that’s what happens when a company gets customer segmentation right.

Understanding your customer journey is essential for your success. It’s how you anticipate their needs, know their unique preferences, and meet them where they are. These are the things that make a brand memorable and give customers a reason to choose you over a competitor.

Let’s explore the power of customer segmentation and how to create a customer segmentation strategy that gets results.

What Is Customer Segmentation? (Customer Segmentation Definition)

What Are the Different Types of Customer Segmentation?

How to Do a Customer Segmentation Analysis

How to Create a Customer Segmentation Strategy

Supporting Your Customer Segmentation Strategy with Data

Customer Segmentation Definition: The act of dividing customers into distinct groups based on shared characteristics, such as demographics, buying behaviors, and communication preferences.

Customer segmentation allows businesses to tailor their marketing efforts to better meet the needs of each segment. By doing so, companies ultimately improve customer satisfaction and retention.

This strategic approach comes with multiple benefits:

From a marketing perspective, customer segmentation trades the one-size-fits-all approach in favor of personalization. Understanding your audience on a deeper level allows brands to create highly targeted messaging, new products and services, and effective campaigns. It creates opportunities to reflect their needs, wants, and values and align with their lifestyles and preferences.

When businesses get customer segmentation right, they have an easier time breaking through the noise and attracting the right people at the right time.

Brands can segment customers in different ways. Let’s review three options:

<ol class=”medium”>
	<li>Demographic Segmentation</li>
	<ul>
		<li>Age</li>
		<li>Gender</li>
		<li>Geographic location</li>
		<li>Job title</li>
		<li>Income</li>
		<li>Household size</li>
	</ul>
	<li>Psychographic Segmentation</li>
	<ul>
		<li>Interests</li>
		<li>Personalities</li>
		<li>Values</li>
		<li>Attitudes</li>
	</ul>
	<li>Behavioral Segmentation</li>
	<ul>
		<li>Tendencies</li>
		<li>Habits</li>
		<li>Product usage</li>
	</ul>
</ol>

Tip: Learn more about the different types of customers and about customer segmentation models in particular.

One method for customer segmentation is to separate customers based on basic demographic details, such as age ranges, geographic locations, job titles, income levels, or household sizes.

For example, a wealth management firm might run a marketing campaign targeting people living in a particular upscale neighborhood.

By analyzing demographics, businesses can effectively target their marketing efforts, develop personalized messaging, and create offers that resonate with their audience.

Psychographic segmentation takes into account your customers’ personalities, values, and interests. Businesses can tap into the psychological and emotional aspects of how your audience makes decisions. This is an ideal option if you offer multiple products or services.

Imagine a car manufacturer who wants to target environmentally conscious customers for their new electric vehicle. With psychographic segmentation, the company can target prospects who are passionate about reducing their carbon footprint and living a sustainable lifestyle.

Behavioral segmentation refers to grouping customers based on past actions or behaviors, such as items they’ve bought in the past or marketing campaigns they’ve responded to.

For example, you might market to customers who haven’t bought from you recently to try to win back their business. Or you might create targeted campaigns when your audience has shown interest in a specific product.

This option works well when you can track customer data. Analyze past purchases, website buyer journeys, and marketing funnels to find specific segments (e.g., bargain hunters, high spenders, occasional shoppers) and build campaigns around those groups.

Tip: Learn more about customer data management (CDM), how to use a customer data platform, and how to do customer profiling.

Segmenting customers serves several purposes, including:

It helps you create tailored marketing messages that resonate with customers’ needs and interests.

It informs new products and services based on what matters to your buyers.

It lets you personalize communications to improve outcomes.

It helps you deliver the best customer service because you “get” your customers.

Your customers experience your brand in different ways. They choose you to fulfill different needs. And they have unique values and interests. That’s why promoting the same messaging across the board isn’t always the most effective solution.

Instead, successful companies use customer segmentation to meet their customers where they are. They uncover pain points and aspirations so they can cater to different needs.

By learning what these “segments” are, you can have more productive interactions with your audience based on what they need.

To leverage the benefits of customer segmentation, brands first need to identify the various segments within their audience. That’s the purpose of a customer segmentation analysis. 

Your customer data holds valuable information about how, when, what, and where your customers buy. Accessing and reviewing this data can help you find patterns and common denominators, giving you new ways to segment your customers.

You can find a treasure trove of data from your CRM, social media pages, purchasing history, loyalty programs, and customer intelligence data from third-party customer intelligence platforms like the Meltwater consumer intelligence suite.

This next step requires brands to dig deeper into the customer data to uncover patterns. 

Here are some customer segmentation examples of what you might look for.

Average buying cycle for a particular item (e.g., every two months, every three weeks)

Utilizing customer intelligence analytics by using customer segmentation tools like the Meltwater customer intelligence suite can help you review large volumes of data at scale and help you find patterns that might otherwise go overlooked. You can find more ways to segment your customers than you initially thought.

Once you’ve identified distinct groups and shared connections, you can build customer personas around these aspects. These personas represent fictional characters that embody the characteristics of each segment.

Typically, businesses use customer personas to develop marketing campaigns that speak directly to those customers. Customer segmentation adds a layer of reality and tangibility to personas, allowing you to speak to representations of real people.

These personas can be as detailed as you like. Ideally, they’ll reveal as much unique information as possible so you can tailor your messaging effectively.

Tip: Take a look at our guide to market segmentation and personas, and learn more about customer profiling, and persona mapping.

Customer segmentation isn’t a one-and-done activity. As your business evolves and customer preferences and buying habits change, you'll need to make customer segmentation an ongoing activity to ensure you continue speaking to the right audience.

Let’s review some customer segmentation best practices to prioritize segmentation in your marketing strategy.

Continuously monitor and update customer segments

Implementing your customer segments is only half the battle. The real challenge lies in continuously monitoring and updating these segments.

Customer behavior is dynamic, and their preferences can change rapidly. With ongoing monitoring, businesses can stay ahead of these shifts and ensure their segments remain relevant.

Ongoing monitoring also allows for the opportunity to identify new segments or niche markets that may have been overlooked. This might warrant the need to develop new products or services, pursue new markets, or position your brand in new ways.

Did you know? The Meltwater Suite allows you to monitor your customer segments in real-time. Get a free tour of our platform today!

Integrate customer segmentation with other marketing strategies

Customer segmentation isn’t meant to be a standalone activity. Think of it as a smaller slice of the much larger marketing pie — it’s more filling when you combine it with other initiatives.

For starters, segmentation forms the basis of personalized marketing experiences. After identifying your segments, you can tailor messages and campaigns to the segments you want to pursue, which can lead to higher engagement rates, conversions, ROI, and profits.

Take email marketing, for example. Rather than blasting your entire customer list, you can segment your messaging based on a specific attribute, such as customers who opted in to your lead magnet but have not yet made a purchase. Customer segmentation can increase open rates and click-throughs because it speaks directly to those customers’ needs and circumstances.

The same idea applies to social media advertising. With Facebook, for instance, you can narrow your focus by a variety of filters, such as demographics and behaviors. If you’ve developed your customer personas, choosing these filters should be easy — just align them with your persona characteristics.

You can also rely on your customer segments to choose your marketing channels. Decide where your target audience spends the most time so you have the best chance of connecting with them.

Tip: Learn more about audience segmentation.

Leverage customer segmentation for improved customer experiences

The value of customer segmentation isn’t relegated to marketing; segments might also inform your customer service and product development.

Let’s say you surface new pain points in your customer intelligence analysis. You could pass those pain points along to development teams, who can implement new features that address those challenges.

If you’ve segmented customers who have churned, you can continue marketing to that segment to flex your customer service muscles and reignite the relationships.

Tip: Learn more about social media customer service best practices and take a look at social media customer service examples.

Ultimately, customer segmentation is about understanding your customers as much as possible so you can deliver on their expectations. When they see that you get them in ways your competitors don’t, they’ll have one more reason to keep coming back to you.

Discover examples of B2B and retail customer segmentation and how they leveraged the insights for a better customer journey.

Accurate, effective customer segmentation starts with having the right data. Meltwater’s consumer intelligence platform puts comprehensive data in your hands, helping you get inside the minds of your customers. Learn their preferences, interests, and what drives their decisions, with data translated into context and action steps.

Learn more when you request a demo by filling out the form below:

What Is Customer Segmentation? Definition & Strategy 2025

Sales intelligence tools can be a game changer for businesses. These tools provide valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences, allowing companies to tailor their sales strategies to meet their target audience wherever they are. With the right data at their fingertips, businesses can better understand who their customers are and what they need. In turn, you’ll look like a superhero as you increase sales and customer satisfaction.

One of the key benefits of using sales intelligence tools is the ability to track customer interactions across multiple channels. You can gain a comprehensive view of each customer's journey, from the initial contact to the purchase and beyond. This data can help you identify patterns and trends to guide your decision-making and better engage your customers in the future. 

To get started with sales intelligence, you’ll need the right sales intelligence tool that gives you a complete picture of your customers.

Let’s explore the top sales intelligence tools on the market so you can get your revenue flowing faster:

Reading tip: Learn how to use chatbots to improve your sales and take a look at the best sales software on the market.

Meltwater is an end-to-end, AI-powered platform that empowers sales and marketing with comprehensive customer journey insights. Our social media listening and media monitoring solutions collect competitive data that will help you personalize your sales outreach.

Its data-driven features empower your sales strategy in several ways:

Identify trends or market shifts in real time

Learn about potential new competitors in the market

Meltwater sales intelligence offers intel into

The more you know about your competitors and their sales processes, the better you can reverse-engineer what they’re doing and tailor your own processes.

Our platform does an exceptional job of collecting and aggregating this data on your behalf. You can customize your dashboards to see the analytics that are most important to you. With a single source of truth, BDRs can improve how they prospect, cross-sell, and onboard customers without spending hours on competitive analysis.

Get your free tour of our platform today!

The Meltwater Blog

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What Is Customer Segmentation? Definition & Strategy 2025

12 Best Sales Intelligence Software Tools 2025

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8 PR Trends Your Brand Should Be Dominating in 2025

The Best Content Marketing Tools for 2025

Social Media Trends and Habits in Southeast Asia

Bluesky Vs Twitter/X, What’s the Difference?

What is Bluesky? Discover Social Media’s Latest Star

When is the Best Time to Post on TikTok in 2025?

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