In today’s economic climate, marketers and growth leaders face a tricky balancing act. While cost control and retention are critical, we cannot lose sight of what truly fuels business momentum: a healthy, growing customer base.
Forward-thinking brands understand that investing in acquisition today is the foundation for tomorrow’s top-line growth. However, it is not just about acquiring more customers but about attracting the right customers to the funnel from the outset.
Smarter Acquisition Starts at the Top
Filling the funnel without precision leads to wasted marketing dollars and high downstream costs from processing and rejecting unqualified applicants.
At the recent TransUnion Summit in Toronto, I spoke with telco and financial institution leaders who highlighted this exact challenge. Risk executives consistently shared that their acquisition marketing generated too many unqualified applications and attracted the wrong new customer types. This increased operational costs and introduced higher risk to the business — a costly combination in today’s environment.
TU Aggregate Data: Precision for Finance and Telco
For those unfamiliar with TransUnion, they are the credit bureau that maintains credit files on virtually every adult Canadian. Many marketers are unaware of this powerful data source and its potential to transform acquisition.
TransUnion aggregate data helps identify audiences with the right credit profiles before they even engage. This reduces processing costs, minimizes rejection rates, and results in stronger, more profitable customer relationships. And it can all be done in a completely privacy-compliant way at a national scale.
intelligentVIEW: Broad Power Across Verticals
Beyond finance and telco, intelligentVIEW helps retail, consumer goods, and home services brands build powerful look-alike audiences based on their best existing customers.
With unique postal code-level data covering every Canadian household, marketers can create targeted programs that improve media efficiency and drive higher conversion rates. This approach allows you to move beyond rigid segmentation and connect with the households most likely to convert.
Sounds Good in Theory? Keep Reading
You might think this all sounds great in theory, but how does it really work? More importantly, how does it align with your current systems, marketing programs, and agency partnerships without adding complexity?
How It Works
- Define your ideal customer. Analyze your first-party data, including loyalty data, CRM insights, Transunion credit profiles, or purchase patterns, to understand what makes a high-value customer.
- Find similar audiences (lookalikes). Using intelligentVIEW, identify postal codes and households that resemble your best customers. For finance and telco, enhance this with TransUnion aggregate data to ensure financial suitability right from the start.
- Activate campaigns seamlessly. Deploy targeted digital, direct mail, and omnichannel programs focused only on your most promising prospects. These audiences integrate smoothly into your existing media plans, tech stack, and agency workflows, so no major operational overhaul is needed.
- Stay privacy compliant at scale. All targeting is done at an aggregate level without using personally identifiable information, ensuring compliance while enabling both national and local reach.
Focus On Growth Even in Uncertain Times
While economic conditions may prompt some brands to pull back, those who invest wisely in acquisitions today will be the ones leading tomorrow. By putting the right customers at the top of the funnel, you build a stronger, more profitable future and power real top-line growth.
Ready to Transform Your Acquisition Strategy?
Curious how this can work for your brand? Request a demo to explore how precision targeting can reduce waste, improve conversion rates, and strengthen your customer acquisition strategy in 2025.
