Asians Have Least Visibility Among Multicultural Segments

While all multiethnic targeting segments have issues with accuracy and reach, for those marketers looking to target an Asian population, it’s a long, hard road. Even though Asians make up 7.2% of the US population, their coverage is the lowest within 3rd party data segments.

Looking at our data with AIMM, we found that not only was the accuracy for Asian segments the lowest of the groups considered (White, Hispanic, African American, and Asian), but the coverage was also the lowest, with only 52 % of the Asian population included in the 3rd party pools of IDs. Those numbers combine to yield a visibility number, reflecting how effective 3rd party targeting is at reaching Asians. The answer is not effective!

There are many reasons why these numbers are surprising. Firstly, it’s not like Asian Americans aren’t online. 75% of English-speaking Asian-American adults have used the Internet. By comparison, 58% of white adults, 43% of African-Americans, and 50% of English-speaking Hispanics are online. Secondly, given their high income levels, the average Asian annual income is US$85,000, while the average American’s is US$60,000; you would expect Asian consumers to create the kind of digital paper trail that drives 3rd party segment inclusion.

The same is true with their high rates of homeownership. Between 1980 and 2019, Asian households had the largest homeownership rate increase of any racial or ethnic group, from 52 percent in 1980 to 60 percent in 2019.

That makes the coverage and accuracy disparity even more shocking. This issue of representation in advertising targeting is rectifiable if the industry wants to change. Truthset is here to help. We can provide marketers insight into which segments are the most accurate as well as measurement after the fact to verify which audiences are being reached. For more information, contact us.

Sources:

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2001/12/12/asian-americans-and-the-internet/

https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/more-asian-americans-are-becoming-homeowners-they-still-face-barriers-housing-market