Before the next campaign
Who do we actually want to reach?
You can spend a lot of time improving an ad, writing a message or finding a speaker. It helps to know whether the right people will ever see it.
This guide starts with your buyers: the companies you can serve, the people involved in buying, and where they spend their attention. We call that your named market. Once you can inspect the people behind the audience, the next marketing decision gets much more concrete.
You might take unsuitable companies out of an ad campaign, spot a useful reason to approach an account, choose a smaller event, or find a creator you would have missed by sorting on follower count.
Pick one of those jobs. Give it an owner and a date. You can follow the method with your existing research and tools; the Postelix walkthroughs show how to keep the buyer context available as the work changes.
Start with a campaign you already need to run. Give the audience research a job to do.
We are deciding: [campaign, account priority, event or partnership] We want to reach: [buying roles, company type and region] Today we choose using: [current process] Better buyer information could change: [one decision] Owner: [name] First action: [date] We will judge it by: [quality, time, cost and relevant outcome]
The shared starting point
Know who belongs in the audience.
A useful market definition sounds like something you would say to a colleague. “Finance and legal teams at mid-sized European companies that need help managing contract renewals” gives you something to check. “Innovative businesses looking to grow” leaves almost everything open.
Start from customers you recognise.
Bring a few good customers, clear exclusions, buying roles, regions and two or three competitors. For several products, begin with the buyer group relevant to this campaign.
Look at the actual people.
Review a small sample across different companies. Could the company buy? Does the person use, influence or approve the purchase? Read the source behind the match.
Correct patterns in the mistakes.
If recruitment firms keep appearing in a software-vendor audience, fix the definition or source mix. Keep valid, quieter buyers. A finance director does not have to comment every week to belong.
A distinction worth keeping
Good fit and good timing are separate questions.
A company can be an excellent customer prospect without shopping this week. A recent comment can give you a conversation starter without proving a buying project. Use fit to choose the audience and the evidence to decide what to do next.
In Postelix: review your first audience
- Confirm your company, buyer group, competitors and regions in Setup.
- Open Audience → People and inspect the strongest matches across several companies.
- Read the role, company, fit explanation and source activity. Review the Accounts view for the wider buying group.
- Check customers, active opportunities and exclusions with your CRM before preparing a new-client campaign.
- Correct recurring mismatches and review the resulting audience before putting it to work.
For a substantial change of market, use the current market-change flow and review its allowances. The PDF’s setup chapter covers the starting inputs.
Give the next campaign
a better audience.
For teams already running LinkedIn ads, or preparing a funded campaign.
Before changing the creative again, look at the companies you are paying to reach.
A broad industry and seniority filter can include plenty of people you would never sell to. Build a company audience you can review, then decide which roles inside those companies should see the campaign.
Write the campaign brief first.
Name the offer, buyer, region, intended action and owner. Record the current campaign settings and results if you have a baseline. Choose one initial audience or creative change so the result is easier to interpret.
Prepare the company audience.
Review the company identities, remove duplicates and apply your customer or opportunity exclusions where relevant. Keep the audience file with its date and campaign name.
Choose the people within those accounts.
Apply location and appropriate job titles, or a function-and-seniority combination. A company match alone does not make every employee a buyer.
Check matching, launch and review.
Upload the company list in Campaign Manager, inspect the match result and check the final audience after filters. Choose the format that serves the offer. Review delivery, spend and qualified response before making the next change.
| Decision | What you would choose |
|---|---|
| Companies | Mid-sized businesses in the countries you serve, with a relevant contract-management need. |
| People | Finance and legal buying roles. Exclude unrelated functions. |
| Offer | A practical renewal-ownership checklist. |
| First test | Use the reviewed company audience with the existing creative. |
| Review | Delivery, cost and relevant enquiries against the prior campaign. |
Illustrative setup. LinkedIn determines matching and delivery; a company list does not guarantee impressions to particular named people.
In Postelix: prepare the audience and role targeting
- Open Ads → LinkedIn ad audiences.
- Choose Whole audience or Marked for ads, then the company-level option, Reach buyers at these accounts.
- Select Prepare company file. Review identity coverage, duplicates and readiness before downloading the CSV.
- Under Choose the accounts, then define who inside them, confirm locations and review the title, function, seniority and exclusion suggestions.
- Copy or download the setup notes and hand them to the campaign owner with the company file.
- Upload the list in Campaign Manager and apply the role targeting to the intended campaign.
Check LinkedIn’s current company-list guidance for matching requirements. A small valid market may call for a different channel.
Campaign: [name and offer] Goal: [the next action we want] Companies and region: [who belongs] Buying roles: [titles or function and seniority] Exclusions: [customers, opportunities, unsuitable accounts] Audience file and date: [reference] Initial change: [audience OR creative] Budget and owner: [amount and person] Baseline: [current delivery, cost and qualified response] Review date and next decision: [when and what]
Choose where your team
should spend its time.
For sales teams choosing accounts and preparing relevant conversations.
A useful account priority should come with a reason, a person and a next action.
Start with the commercial work already under way: a region you are entering, a product you are selling, or a set of accounts sales needs to develop. Buyer research should help the team decide where to begin and what to ask.
Pick a manageable set of accounts.
Check company fit and buying roles. Look for customers, live deals and existing conversations before assigning a new owner. Keep the selection small enough to research properly.
Read the observation behind the suggestion.
Check the source and activity date. Someone asking about renewal ownership gives you a different opening from someone liking a general finance post.
Choose an appropriate first action.
Answer a public question, continue a relevant discussion, ask a useful question privately, or do more research. Let the context determine the action.
Record what happened.
Save the response, owner and next step. A colleague should be able to pick up the account without repeating the conversation.
An opening grounded in a public discussion
“The ownership point you raised is one we keep seeing too. When renewals move between finance and legal, who owns the final decision on your side?”
The question follows the person’s topic and gives them something straightforward to answer. Use it only where that is the actual context and your experience supports it.
If there is no relevant recent observation, a clear business reason can still support an introduction. There is no need to manufacture a trigger.
In Postelix: take an account through to the next conversation
- Open Audience → Accounts and review the companies and known buying roles.
- Inspect the recommended person, fit and source evidence.
- Review Home → Do now or Leads → Today for relevant suggested work.
- Choose Prepare outreach, then read and edit the draft in Leads → Drafts.
- Confirm the sender and message before using Approve and send.
- Continue the thread in Leads → Inbox and record the real outcome and next step.
Read the whole thread before replying. If there is already an account owner, give them the context.
Account: [company] Why it fits: [specific business fit] Person and buying role: [name, role, reason to begin here] Relevant observation: [source, date, what actually happened] Existing relationship: [CRM or conversation check] First action: [answer, introduction, research or follow-up] Owner and date: [person and next action date] Response and agreed next step: [update after the conversation]
Work out where
you should show up.
For teams deciding where to attend, exhibit, sponsor or arrange meetings.
The sponsor deck says 10,000 attendees. Your team needs to know who it could usefully meet.
Compare events against the buyers and partners you want to reach. Then choose the format that gives your team a workable way to meet them, with the full cost in view.
Build a short comparison.
Choose two or three events that fit the market, region and timing. Check the current edition, location, organiser and participation options.
Separate attendance from interest.
A current organiser record or someone saying they are attending is stronger meeting-planning evidence than an interaction with event content. An exhibitor logo tells you about the company; check which people are going.
Compare access and total cost.
Include the pass or sponsorship, travel, staff time and follow-up. A delegate pass with useful meetings can be a sensible choice alongside a larger exhibition package.
Prepare the meetings before travelling.
Give each target conversation an owner, a relevant topic and a proposed next step. Leave room in the day to follow up on useful introductions.
A focused industry event
Eight relevant people with current attendance evidence. A delegate pass is available.
Next action: approach those people and assess whether enough useful meetings can be arranged.
A larger conference
Twenty relevant companies are listed. The sponsorship costs more, and individual attendance is unclear.
Next action: ask who will be there and compare a smaller participation option.
Different evidence coverage can change the apparent overlap. A low match count alone is not a reason to rule out an event.
In Postelix: inspect an event and its buyer evidence
- Open Events and read Why it fits this market.
- Open the official event site to check the edition, dates and participation options.
- Inspect People from your market and Why this person is here.
- Open the cited source to distinguish attendance, company participation and event-content engagement.
- Open relevant people in Audience and check fit and relationship ownership.
- Put meeting arrangements and follow-up in your normal calendar and CRM.
Event, edition and date: [name and year] Business purpose: [buyers, partners or existing relationships] Relevant people and companies: [reviewed examples] Attendance evidence: [source and date] Still to check: [who is going, access, availability] Participation option: [delegate, exhibit, sponsor, host] Full cost: [fees, travel, team time and follow-up] Meetings to arrange: [person, topic and owner] Decision: [attend, seek more evidence, change package or decline] Afterwards: [meetings held, qualified next steps and later outcomes]
Find the people
your buyers listen to.
For teams choosing creators, experts and communities to work with.
Follower count is easy to compare. Whether your buyers pay attention takes a closer look.
Begin with the audience you want to reach and the problem you want to talk about. Your shortlist might include a practitioner, a founder or a professional association. The right partner may never call themselves an influencer.
Define the collaboration’s job.
Are you introducing a category, explaining a buying consideration, promoting a resource or starting conversations? That choice shapes the partner, format and measurement.
Look for relevant buyer overlap.
Inspect who engages, their companies and buying roles. Read the sample size, measurement window and source. Compare figures only when they describe comparable evidence.
Check topic, format and commercial fit.
Read the creator’s work. Ask what they can contribute and distribute, what it costs and whether the topic suits their audience. A smaller specialist may be a better choice for a particular region or problem.
Make a specific proposal.
Bring a useful idea, your contribution and a suggested format. Agree responsibilities, distribution, dates, fees and how you will review the result.
A professional community belongs on the shortlist.
sampled people engaged with the CX Professionals Association.
In the same ecommerce customer-service AI study, 26 sampled people engaged with Siena co-founder Lisa Popovici. Both give a team a starting point for partnership research, with different formats and conversations to explore.
London study, August 2026. A 90-day window using the 170 most active people from a role-filtered pool of 264. These are observed engagement counts, not promised campaign reach. The groups may overlap.
Read the study and its tablesIn Postelix: build a partner shortlist in Voices
- Open Voices and read the sample and measurement information.
- Inspect the overlap count and denominator for a relevant creator.
- Distinguish a current sample from retained historical evidence.
- Open LinkedIn to review their topics and the people in the conversation.
- Save three plausible partners, then compare buyer relevance, topic fit, format and cost.
- Use the relationship controls to record who you are investigating or working with.
Review the actual people and sources where available. A one-person difference in a small sample should not decide the partnership.
Partner: [creator, expert or community] Buyers we want to reach: [roles, companies and region] Why this partner: [buyer overlap and topic fit] Evidence: [sample, date and source] Proposed idea: [specific topic and why the audience would care] Our contribution: [expertise, example, research or resource] Format and distribution: [what each side will deliver] Fee, responsibilities and date: [agreed terms] Review: [delivery, relevant response, enquiries and total cost]
When someone asks whether it helped
Show the decision,
then show the result.
Keep a record of what you changed and why. It makes the first review much easier.
You may see a practical improvement before a sale closes: unsuitable accounts removed before launch, less repeated research, or a better event choice. Record it alongside the eventual campaign and sales outcomes.
| Workflow | First useful evidence | Commercial follow-through |
|---|---|---|
| Ads | Audience quality, matching, delivery and spend | Relevant enquiries, opportunities and acquisition cost |
| Outbound | Preparation time and substantive replies | Qualified conversations, meetings and account progress |
| Events | Relevant meetings held and agreed next steps | Opportunities created or advanced against the full cost |
| Influencers | Agreed delivery and relevant buyer response | Tracked enquiries and later opportunities against total cost |
Use the right source for each number.
Campaign Manager holds paid delivery and spend. Postelix supplies buyer context and observed activity. Your CRM holds opportunities and customers. A public reaction on a sponsored post can also come from organic distribution, so keep the evidence clear when reporting it.
Include the work it took.
Count the software, review time and additional campaign costs. If research drops from twelve hours to four, you have released eight hours of team capacity. Compare like-for-like tasks and show how that time was used.
We used buyer research to change [specific campaign decision]. Previously, we [baseline approach and result]. We changed [audience, account priority, event or partner] because [evidence]. The full cost was [software, time and campaign cost]. So far, we have seen [delivery, quality or time improvement]. Commercial progress is [qualified enquiries, opportunities or customers]. We still need to establish [what is not yet known]. On [date], we will decide whether to [continue, adjust or stop].
The full playbook includes an internal approval note and a worked business-case example. Open the business-case chapter.
Put it to work
Make the first week useful.
Start with a decision due soon. The schedule below is a working plan; data collection, matching and colleague approvals can take longer.
Choose the job.
Agree the buyer group, owner, baseline and first decision.
Review the audience.
Inspect the people and accounts. Correct repeated mismatches.
Prepare the output.
Make the campaign brief, account priorities, event comparison or partner shortlist.
Give it to the owner.
Launch approved work or arrange the next conversation when the inputs are ready.
Record what changed.
Check early delivery and problems. Set the next review around the actual buying cycle.
Each following week, review new evidence and choose the next useful action. Refresh campaign audiences when there is a reason, keeping the file versions so you can still compare results.
A few practical questions
Before you begin.
Can I use the guide without Postelix?
Yes. The briefs, comparisons and review method work with your current research and tools. The product walkthroughs show how Postelix maintains buyer context across the four workflows.
What does “named market” mean?
A reviewed group of identifiable people and companies relevant to your business. You can inspect who belongs, why they fit and what evidence is available. Discovery and activity coverage can change over time.
Do I need to use all four workflows?
Start with the one your team already needs. An upcoming campaign or event gives you a concrete decision and someone responsible for the result. Add another workflow when it has a clear owner and purpose.
What if there are too few buyers for a LinkedIn ad campaign?
Check company identities, matching and the effect of your role and location filters. Broaden only where the additional audience still fits. If the valid audience remains too small, use it to prioritise accounts or assess relevant events and partnerships.
What do I get in the demo?
A fictional market with sample buyers, activity, creators and events. Enter your email to explore it and try the guided workflows. You can then check whether your market looks suitable. Building your own market requires a paid subscription.
Can I share this with my team?
Yes. Share the page, copy a chapter link or download the full PDF. The guide and download are open, and the templates can be copied into your team’s own documents.
About this guide
Published by Postelix, 8 September 2026. Adapted from The Named Market Playbook, public edition, reviewed 7 September 2026. Postelix builds and maintains buyer audiences for ads, outbound, events and influencer research.
Worked campaign examples are illustrative. The CX research example links to its original study and measurement details. Product controls can change; the live workspace shows the available actions.