Smarter TV Campaign Planning with Audience Estimation

TL;DR: Plan smarter TV campaigns by knowing exactly who you'll reach before spending a dollar. Audience Estimation shows if your targeting is too narrow or just right, with real-time feedback as you adjust settings.

Launching a TV campaign requires more than just great creative — you need to ensure your message reaches the right audience at the right time. But how do you know if your targeting isn't too narrow?

That's where Skybeam's Audience Estimation comes in. It helps you quickly check if your selected audience is big enough to deliver results — while giving you a Deliverability Score (from Very Low to Optimal) that predicts campaign success based on your choices.

For Small and Midsize Businesses: Local Doesn’t Have to Mean Limited

Expanding Beyond Your Existing Customer Base

Example: a regional home services company in Robinson, Illinois was targeting only its hometown. But when they used Audience Estimation, they saw their audience was just 4,100–4,500 people, with a Medium deliverability score.

By expanding slightly to include nearby areas like Olney, Effingham, and Springfield, they grew their estimated audience to 66K–74K — without straying far from home. More importantly, their potential household reach jumped from 3.5K to 8.2K — a meaningful difference for a $300/day campaign.

📌 Takeaway: Even small adjustments in geography can double your household reach and improve campaign deliverability.

Targeting Niche Audiences? Don’t Over-Filter Your Inventory

Example: A fitness brand in Phoenix, Arizona wanted to reach people into weight training who watch sports channels like CBS Sports, FloSports, and Barstool Sports. But with such specific criteria, the audience was too narrow to support a cost-effective campaign.

After running an Audience Estimation, they realized they could maintain relevance without over-restricting. By opening up to all available inventory in Phoenix, they kept their core audience but significantly improved deliverability and reach.

📌 Takeaway: You don’t need to give up niche targeting — you just need to pair it with smarter inventory or geo choices to unlock scale.

For Agencies: Smarter Planning Across Different Client Goals

Compare Targeting Strategies Before Spending

Agencies often work with clients who have multiple ideal customer profiles (ICPs)—but choosing the right one for a campaign isn’t always obvious. Should you go broad to reach more people? Or narrow to hit high-value prospects?

Skybeam’s Audience Estimation lets you test different targeting strategies side by side — so you can clearly see the trade-offs in reach, impressions, and household impact before launching.

Example: You’re planning a campaign in New York for a client with two potential ICPs and a $300/day budget:

• ICP 1: Business owners aged 35–54

• ICP 2: High-income households ($200K+), also aged 35–54

Using Skybeam’s Audience Estimation, you get clear insights:

• The first audience could potentially reach 656K–802K people, with 14K–20K households per day

• The second is much narrower: 302K–369K people, 12K–18K households daily
  

Both have an Optimal deliverability score, but now you can clearly show how each choice affects potential scale.

📌 Tip: Audience Estimation helps you guide your client’s strategy — whether that means choosing one ICP, splitting creative between both, or adjusting the budget for better balance.

Pitch Campaign Ideas with Supporting Insights

Getting ready for a client presentation? Audience Estimation makes it easy to bring the data that backs up your big ideas — no guesswork needed.

Instead of just saying what might work, you can show things like:

• How much reach each targeting option can potentially deliver

• Whether the audience size is big enough to hit campaign goals

• How the budget plays out across different regions or setups

• Clear what-if comparisons that highlight the trade-offs
  

🎯 Why it matters: Clients get a transparent view of their options — and you look like a total pro with data to support every recommendation.

5 Ways to Use Audience Estimation in Your Workflow

Skybeam’s Audience Estimation isn’t just for checking numbers — it’s a tool for unlocking better performance before your campaign even goes live. Here are a few tactics that will help you streamline your campaign planning:

1. Find the Right-Sized Audience

If your audience is too narrow, your campaign might struggle to deliver. If it’s too broad, you could be wasting your budget on people who aren’t a good fit. Audience Estimation helps you catch both early on — so you can fine-tune targeting before launch.

2. Optimize Budget by Region or Market Size

Not all regions require the same spend. Use Audience Estimation to compare how far your budget will go in different locations — then adjust targeting or budget allocation accordingly.

✔️ Small area = lower cost, faster saturation

✔️ Larger market = higher potential reach, but higher spend needed

3. Fine-Tune Your Targeting

Not sure which direction to take? Audience Estimation lets you easily test different targeting setups side by side — whether it’s changing locations, demographics, interests, or inventory.

See how each scenario affects:

• Estimated reach and impressions

• Deliverability Score

• Household impact and budget efficiency
  

It’s a great way to pressure-test your strategy and pick the best path before your campaign goes live.

4. Expand Streaming Inventories Strategically

Clients often want to stick to specific platforms — but if their audience isn’t there, performance suffers. Limiting inventory can cap your campaign’s visibility.

Instead, include a mix of top-performing, premium inventories. This broadens exposure while keeping your audience filters intact.

5. Test Before You Launch

The best-performing campaigns often start with experimentation. Use Audience Estimation to test different combinations of audience traits, locations, and inventories in advance. This helps you:

• Identify the best trade-offs between precision and scale

• Catch potential issues before your campaign goes live

• Present data-backed recommendations to clients with confidence
  

Bottom Line: Plan Smarter, Perform Better

TV advertising works best when it’s precise and scalable. With Skybeam’s Audience Estimation, you’ll know if your audience is too niche, too broad, or just right — before you spend a cent.

Whether you’re launching your first local campaign or managing multiple client accounts, this tool gives you the data to back up every media decision.

👉 Ready to eliminate campaign underdelivery? Try Audience Estimation today