What is People-Based Advertising? Definition by Intent Amplify
- Last updated on: September 4, 2025
Digital advertising saw a profound change in the last ten years. Marketers do not only use cookies, standard targeting, or coarse demographic groups anymore. They now concentrate on accuracy, closeness, and trust. People-Based Advertising (PBA) is one such method that has gained popularity in this scenario as it helps the brands to reach the right individuals with a highly personalized message regardless of the device, channel, or platform.
For B2B firms related to technology, SaaS, fintech, and cybersecurity, where buying cycles are complicated and the decision-making involves numerous stakeholders, the practice of targeting authentic people rather than only anonymous clicks has turned into a unique selling point. This is the point where People-Based Advertising redefines the rules of the game.
At Intent Amplify®, we mean People-Based Advertising to be a customer-oriented plan that implements verified customer data and identity resolution to deliver tailored, unified experiences irrespective of their location in the digital journey. Traditional advertising that aims at wide groups contrasts PBA as it concentrates on those specific decision-makers and influencers who have the greatest impact on your business.
What is People-Based Advertising?
“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself’ – Peter F. Drucker
People-Based Advertising (PBA) is a digital marketing approach that centers on individuals rather than devices or cookies. It reconciles customer identities that are proven, such as professional emails, CRM records, or account data, with on and offline behaviors to give a comprehensive picture of the person. Advertisers can show personalized ads aligned with the prospect’s buying stage, business needs, and intent signals.
To put it simply, People-Based Advertising enables you to drop talking to “audiences” in the abstract and instead talk directly with real people who drive decisions within organizations. For B2B marketers, this means targeting CFOs, CISOs, IT leaders, or procurement heads with content that resonates, rather than wasting spend on impressions that don’t convert.
This method not only fattens up targeting correctness but also upgrades relationships as it indicates to leads that your brand sees their problems and priorities. Essentially, People-Based Advertising transforms marketing from a broad “reach and frequency” model to a precision-driven engagement strategy.
How People-Based Advertising Works: The Process Explained
People-Based Advertising is essentially an identity-driven approach. It depends on linking scattered data points into a single, errorless individual profile you want to address. Usually, the steps in the process are as follows:
1. Data Collection and Integration
Marketers start by gathering data from various sources – CRM systems, customer databases, email lists, website interactions, event registrations, and even offline interactions like trade shows. This forms a basic pool of first-party data that is both accurate and privacy-compliant.
2. Identity Resolution
The following stage is aligning these data points to unique people. For example, a corporate decision-maker may engage with your brand on LinkedIn while at work, look up solutions on their personal device, and download a whitepaper via their company email. Identity resolution technology merges these deeds so that it knows that they are all from the same person.
3. Audience Building
After marketers have established identities, they can create very specific audience segments. In the case of B2B, this might be the categorization of CFOs of enterprise fintech firms or CISOs of mid-market cybersecurity companies. The segmentation guarantees that the ads are shown only to those decision-makers and influencers who are most relevant.
4. Cross-Channel Activation
The strength of People-Based Advertising is most visible when campaign activation is across multiple channels such as social media, programmatic display, email, connected TV, or direct publisher partnerships. The main idea is that a specific individual gets the same message from you whether they visit your website or read your ad.
5. Measurement and Optimization
The connection of campaigns to certified identities makes it possible for marketers to have a better picture of the performance. Instead of anonymous impressions, marketers track how accounts, roles, or persons move through the funnel and adjust budgets.
By integrating data, identity, and activation, People-Based Advertising delivers the right message to the right person, at the right time.
Types of People-Based Advertising
In B2B marketing, People-Based Advertising (PBA) is known as person-based, persona-based, title-based, or known-contact advertising. Essentially, it means showing ad impressions to the right individual within the buying committee, not any anonymous browser.
1. Known-Contact Advertising
This is aimed at getting the greatest number of verified people already in your database or CRM.Ads appear only when the visitor matches a known contact, ensuring precision and zero wasted spend.
2. Persona-Based Advertising
Advertising campaigns here target defined buyer personas like “CISO of a mid-sized fintech firm” or “Procurement Manager.” Unlike one-size-fits-all, ads are tailored to job functions, responsibilities, and specific decision-making roles.
3. Title- and Role-Based Advertising
In certain cases, you might be required to narrow down a persona even further and concentrate only on the specific job titles of the target accounts, for example, CIO, VP of IT, or Head of Risk. Through title-based advertising, the most appropriate message gets directly to the decision-maker who is accountable for buying influence.
4. Account-Centric Advertising
As a sequel to ABM, in this method, you make use of identity-resolved data from your target account list. The main idea is that those who are in charge of the company and have roles for you in the buying process are getting the same ads all the time, and that these ads are customized for their roles.
5. Lookalike and Expansion Advertising
People-Based Advertising can discover potential customers who have characteristics similar to your most loyal customers and thus increase the number of people who might be interested in your product or service, but without losing relevancy besides your known contacts.
6. Retargeting Through Identity
Unlike cookie-based retargeting, identity-driven retargeting reconnects with known prospects who engaged with your content or website for personalized follow-up.
People-Based Advertising vs. Traditional Digital Advertising
The transition to People-Based Advertising (PBA) is more discernible if we place it next to conventional digital advertising models. The endpoints of both are to target potential buyers, but their methods and effects are diverse
1. Targeting Approach
Traditional Advertising: Relies on cookies, third-party data, and broad demographic segments. For example, you might target “IT professionals aged 30–50 in North America.”
People-Based Advertising: Uses verified first-party and identity-resolved data to reach specific individuals, such as “CIOs at Fortune 500 companies who have engaged with cybersecurity webinars in the past six months.
2. Accuracy and Relevance
Targeting in Traditional Advertising is not very precise, and thus, there is a great possibility that a big part of the advertising budget will be wasted. Besides, ads may be seen by individuals who are not a part of the buying committee or by some irrelevant contacts.
People-Based Advertising: Makes it certain that ads get to real decision-makers and influencers, who are the sources of message relevance and, thus, a lower number of wasted advertisements.
People-Based Advertising is not dependent on cookie-based targeting; rather, it employs AI to merge data and make outreach more personal. Currently, 27% of B2B marketers are utilizing AI for personalization, and 1/3 of them are implementing Generative AI – a transition that cannot be paralleled by traditional advertising.
3. Cross-Device Consistency
In the case of traditional Advertising, cookies normally contain information about one single device or browser; thus, the user experience is disjointed.
People-Based Advertising: Can track a person regardless of the device or platform, and therefore, a person can have a continuous interaction with the brand if they are on LinkedIn, email, or an industry publication.
4. Measurement and Attribution
Traditional Advertising: The achievement of success is usually represented by the number of impressions or click-through rates. Due to anonymity, it is difficult to identify the source of hits in the chain.
People-Based Advertising: Gives marketers the opportunity to get insights on an individual basis, which allows them to monitor engagement at the person or account level and make a direct connection to pipeline and revenue impact.
5. Longevity in a Cookieless Future
Traditional Advertising: The impending extinction of third-party cookies will turn the reliance on them into a potential hazard.
People-Based Advertising: The foundation of this is on first-party and consent-based data, which is compliant with the latest privacy laws and is therefore future-proof.
In a nutshell, while traditional advertising scatters a wide range of possibilities, People-Based Advertising is all about precision angling – hitting the very buyers that matter to your business.
Building Trust and Driving Growth with Intent Amplify
Intent Amplify® champions the ever-evolving People-Based Advertising as more than a mere targeting – it is trust. By blending reliable data, identity resolution, and precision targeting, we connect decision-makers in the right industries and locations.
Our people-first approach mirrors growth ambitions and maximizes every ad dollar’s potential for revenue impact. Combining ABM activation and omnichannel demand generation, Intent Amplify is the go-to tech, SaaS, fintech, and cybersecurity solution.
FAQs
1. What is People-Based Advertising in simple terms?
People-Based Advertising is an approach that utilizes verified identity data to target real individuals as opposed to devices or cookies. The technology aids advertisers in reaching the actual decision-makers who guide the purchasing process.
2. Why is People-Based Advertising important for B2B marketing?
It can improve the personalization of marketing strategies, enable marketers to engage specific stakeholders in targeted accounts, and measure the effect on pipeline and revenue, thus making campaigns efficient and effective.
3. How is People-Based Advertising different from traditional advertising?
Traditional ads rely on cookies and broad demographics, unlike PBA which uses verified identity data for precision-targeted ads.
4. What types of People-Based Advertising exist?
Known-contact advertising, persona-based, title-based, account-centric, lookalike, and identity-driven retargeting are types of People-Based Advertising. They have been developed to get hold of real decision-makers.
5. Is People-Based Advertising privacy-compliant?
Indeed. As long as grounded on first-party and consent-based data, PBA is in accordance with GDPR, CCPA, and other worldwide privacy regulations.
