Defining a target audience for creative tools from real workflow evidence

Define the audience by the work people must complete, the approval power they hold and the constraints around their creative process. An age band or broad label such as "marketers in England" is too weak to guide a product decision. Start with competing workflow hypotheses, then recruit current or likely users who can confirm, complicate or reject them.

What to take away

Name the decision before the segment

A team considering an asset-variation feature needs different evidence from one designing rights controls. Write one decision in advance: whether to prioritise rapid resizing, brand templates, asset libraries or an auditable approval record. The GOV.UK Service Manual recommends turning assumptions into research questions and matching each round to a specific user group in its guidance on planning user research.

Now describe the people close to that decision. Useful screening dimensions include:

These are recruitment hypotheses, not facts about an English market.

Build a sample around contrasts

Recruit for contrasts that could change the feature or buying decision. A solo business owner may value a guided starting point, while an agency producer may care more about version control across clients. A brand approver may need provenance and sign-off records. Do not merge their answers into an imaginary average user.

Government guidance says participants should be actual or likely users. It warns recruitment should cover people who use assistive technology or have limited digital skills.

Its page on finding research participants is written for public services, so its suggested numbers are not a universal commercial sampling rule. Recruit against the research question and avoid a convenient but narrow panel.

As indicative guidance, a commercial study often runs two rounds with five to eight participants per distinct contrast. That is not a universal rule; the decision and the variation between users should set the number.

For an England focus, recruit through Creative Access, D&AD, the IPA and regional networks such as Bristol Creative Industries.

Published industry data can help locate a group, but not define its needs. The IPA Agency Census 2025 describes staff at participating IPA member agencies across the UK. It does not cover every agency, every in-house team or England alone. Use it as workforce context, never as proof that a proposed feature has demand.

Protect the people and the client

A recruitment screener can expose names, employers, access needs and commercially sensitive workflow details. Collect only what the study needs and explain the controller, purpose, recording, recipients, retention and withdrawal route before the session. GOV.UK's guidance on managing participant privacy also says third-party processors should appear in consent materials.

Do not ask participants to upload live campaigns, customer lists or unreleased creative. Use a cleared example or a prototype with synthetic content. Separate contact details from research notes and set a deletion point.

Choose a segment with a written rule

After each round, record observations by segment and decision, not demographic shorthand. A segment is ready for further design only when several relevant participants show the same costly or risky task, the team can reach them without unsafe data collection, and a proposed change can be tested.

For example: Segment A covers in-house brand approvers in England who commission campaign assets monthly, approve through a named sign-off route and cannot choose the tool vendor. Screen in only those who have rejected an asset for rights or brand-template reasons.

Conflicting evidence means split the segment or run another round. It is not a licence to write a more confident audience description.

Record who was not reached as well. If recruitment missed freelance makers, rural businesses or people using assistive technology, carry that gap into the decision note instead of implying their needs were considered.

Before you act

Common questions

How should a team choose the first audience to study?

A team should define the audience by the work people must complete, the approval power they hold and the constraints around their creative process. Start with competing workflow hypotheses, then recruit current or likely users who can confirm, complicate or reject them.

How should published industry data such as the IPA Agency Census 2025 be used?

Use it as workforce context to help locate a group, never as proof that a proposed feature has demand. The census describes staff at participating IPA member agencies across the UK. It does not cover every agency, every in-house team or England alone, so it cannot define needs.

What must happen before a segment is ready for further design?

Several relevant participants must show the same costly or risky task. The team must be able to reach them without unsafe data collection, and a proposed change must be testable. Conflicting evidence means splitting the segment or running another round, not writing a more confident audience description.