microtargeting

Microtargeting is (also called micro-targeting or micro-niche targeting) is a marketing strategy that uses consumer data and demographics to identify the interests of specific individuals or very small groups of like-minded individuals and influence their thoughts or actions. An important goal of a microtargeting initiative is to know the target audience so well that messages get delivered through the target's preferred communication channel.

In the 2012 United States Presidential campaign, microtargeting techniques were successfully used to interact with and appeal to voters on an individualized basis. To achieve this type of personalization on such a massive scale, political campaign managers collected (and continually updated) detailed information about individual voters and used predictive analytics to model voter sentiment. Understanding the voting population on an individual level enabled campaign leaders to go beyond standard political party-oriented messages and communicate with voters about specific topics in order to influence the voter's decision.