What percentage of spend targeting Hispanics is wasted?

As any good marketer knows, the Hispanic market is a huge segment for advertising dollars and attention. There are about 60 million Hispanics in the US, and annual aggregate Hispanic household spending was projected to reach $978 billion in 2020. This would make Hispanics the single largest and highest-spending minority group.

In the open marketplace for 3rd party data segments, Hispanic audiences are commonplace. By our last count, there are almost 5 times the number of Hispanic segments than African American segments, and the same is true for the reach of those segments.

Some data collection to create a Hispanic segment is based on Spanish language preferences or culturally-Spanish names, like Jose or Pablo. This makes it “easy” to add people to these groups, because there are a lot of data points that might hint at being Hispanic. Of course, we know that speaking Spanish doesn’t mean someone is Hispanic, or that NOT speaking Spanish doesn’t mean they aren’t.

So it must be easy to measure if an advertiser is reaching Hispanics online, right?

No! Given the linguistic and cultural complexity of the Hispanic groups in the US, which includes immigrants from Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico and many other Spanish-speaking countries, you can see why finding the right segment for advertisers might be difficult.

70% of spend targeting is Hispanics is WASTED

In a look at segments available across different providers, we found the average Truthscore was .30, meaning that about 30% of spend using these segments would be On Target. The range was 7% to 82% within the segments we looked at, so some providers are very accurately targeting Hispanics and others… less so.

The Hispanic population of the US is 18.5% according to the census, meaning that any segments coming in under 18.5% get those ads no closer to the intended audience than just tossing ads out at random.

What can marketers do better

In general, marketers should be careful to work with reputable data providers, understanding the quality and the reach of the segments and the quality of the underlying inputs. Better yet, they can use Truthset to pre-select accurate segments based on Truthscores ™, optimize during the campaign, and measure after to ensure the right audiences were reached.

Truthset is a data intelligence company focused exclusively on validating the accuracy of consumer data. Truthset uses a Wisdom of the Crowds methodology to compile a likelihood of truth for any individual record that can be used to validate the accuracy of data and power more accurate consumer interactions, called a Truthscore ™ . This Truthscore can be used to select and improve segments from 3rd party providers for most demographic attributes, as well as measuring campaigns after the fact, not just age and gender.

Contact us to find out how to more accurately reach Hispanic consumers or other demographic groups online.