microtarget

verb

mi·​cro·​tar·​get ˈmī-krō-ˌtär-gət How to pronounce microtarget (audio)
microtargeted; microtargeting; microtargets

transitive verb

: to direct tailored advertisements, political messages, etc., at (people) based on detailed information about them (such as what they buy, watch, or respond to on a website) : to target (small groups of people) for highly specific advertisements or messages
Like social media platforms, Hulu and streaming services attract advertisers by offering them precision ad targeting, which can microtarget users based on information such as gender, race and search history with much higher precision than traditional broadcast advertising.Cat Zakrzewski
microtargeting noun
Microtargeting lets campaigns tap Facebook's vast caches of data to reach specific audiences with pinpoint accuracy, going after voters in certain neighborhoods, jobs and age ranges, or even serving up ads only to fans of certain television shows or sports teams. Nancy Scola

Examples of microtarget in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The streamer’s secret sauce is its ability to microtarget ads to customers, including through the beachfront real estate that is the Roku menu homepage. Josef Adalian, Vulture, 6 May 2021 After Trump’s 2016 victory, Parscale worked with consultants and an ex-Cambridge Analytica data scientist to build out a data storehouse that could better microtarget audiences with specialized ads, former collaborators said. Garance Burke, Fortune, 18 Nov. 2020 In 2020, campaigns use this data to microtarget us with record numbers of online ads, mailers, knocks on the door and text messages. Washington Post, 26 Oct. 2020

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'microtarget.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1986, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of microtarget was in 1986

Dictionary Entries Near microtarget

Cite this Entry

“Microtarget.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/microtarget. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

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