In a world where precision and profitability are the cornerstones of marketing success, relying solely on traditional metrics like revenue or customer acquisition is no longer enough.
MMA and Neustar have written a very insightful research whitepaper, outlining that the movable middles are a key new target group. By trimming off consumers who are very unlikely to buy from a brand as well as those who are very likely to buy from it, marketers can zero in on the consumers that are most responsive to the brand’s advertising. In their study, MMA and Neustar found out that ROAS for the movable middles was 5X greater than for the rest of the population.
At Crealytics, we enable brands to focus on the movable middles by leveraging advanced predictive Customer Lifetime Value (pCLV) models to drive smarter targeting decisions. We use the p(alive) score to cluster customers into different segments and target the ones that are most likely to buy from your brand, not only once, but regularly.
“Crealytics regularly identifies opportunities between 20% to 50% of additional incremental revenue and helps clients realize that opportunity in a joint roadmap. Key is audience selection in the movable middle and focusing on highly incremental channels. Avoid that you pay Google or Meta double or three times for the same customers who already like your business. You don’t want to rent your customers from the platforms.”
What Is the p(alive) score and why does it matter?
At the heart of pCLV is the p(alive) score—a metric that estimates the probability of a customer staying active with your brand. By analyzing behavioral and transactional data, we can cluster customers into actionable segments:
-
Unlikely to Reactivate: Customers with low p(alive) scores, who are disengaged and unlikely to return.
-
Movable Middles: Customers with mid-range p(alive) scores, offering the highest potential for reactivation and profitability.
-
Most Loyal Customers: High p(alive) scores indicate customers who already engage frequently and require less advertising.
Focusing on the Movable Middles allows marketers to allocate their budgets toward audiences most likely to respond, driving higher ROAS and better performance of your paid media programs.
Excluding “extreme” customers that are unlikely to make a difference
In alignment with the Movable Middles Growth Framework, Crealytics’ approach excludes the following customers:
-
Unlikely-to-Reactivate Customers: Instead of wasting ad spend on those with minimal potential, we can allocate resources to more promising prospects.
-
Most Loyal Customers: These individuals are already engaged and don’t need frequent advertising to stay active.
By zeroing in on the Movable Middles, we target audiences who are:
- Open to engagement.
- Responsive to personalized marketing.
- Most likely to deliver profitable long-term value.
Crealytics can implement pCLV across ad platforms
Thanks to the flexibility of modern advertising platforms, Crealytics’ predictive CLV insights can be seamlessly integrated into your campaigns on:
-
Google Ads: Use custom audience segments and value-based bidding to prioritize customers in the Movable Middle.
-
Meta (Facebook & Instagram): Create lookalike audiences and leverage dynamic ads to reach high-potential customers with personalized content.
-
TikTok: Tap into TikTok’s interest and behavioral targeting to engage the Movable Middle with creative, high-impact ads.
This multi-platform approach ensures brands can engage audiences where they are most active, driving greater ROI across channels.
An example from a leading B2B retailer in the US
A use case of advanced targeting and leveraging the “movable middles” for your business is winback simulation. Winback simulation is a powerful tool for prioritizing customer engagement efforts by focusing resources where they yield the highest return. In digital channels, it enables precise targeting of accounts above a specific threshold or the top percentage of customers. Strategic audience building, combined with careful optimization to avoid targeting your best active customers, can help save precious ad budget —particularly across Display placements.
Crealytics supported a leading US B2B retailer in implementing winback simulation, uncovering that future top customers often differ from past ones, and some historically significant accounts showed signs of slowing down, making them ideal winback targets. The simulation revealed an average winback potential of $50.4k per customer and a staggering total potential of $114.2 million annually from 2019 to 2023. By focusing on lapsing top customers—the “movable middle”—rather than those likely to stay active, the retailer maximized resource efficiency and impact in their digital strategy.
How can you benefit from Crealytics’ solution?
Marketing leaders can leverage Crealytics’ advanced targeting capabilities to:
- Optimize budget allocation with pinpoint precision.
- Drive meaningful, long-term growth by focusing on high-potential customers.
- Outperform traditional broad-reach or loyalty-heavy campaigns.
The result? Campaigns that deliver not just immediate wins but sustained, scalable success.
At Crealytics, we help brands navigate the complexities of modern marketing with data-driven strategies and cutting-edge tools. Ready to take your customer targeting to the next level?
