Beyond Click-Through Rates: How Personality-Based Marketing Drives Better Campaign Optimisation

We've spent years watching marketers chase quick wins and surface-level metrics. You know the drill - celebrating a 3% lift in click-through rates or tweaking ad copy endlessly for marginal gains. But what if we told you we're missing the bigger picture? By understanding the fundamental personalities of our audience through the OCEAN model (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism), we can unlock insights that transform how we optimize our campaigns. Let us explain why.

Starting with Quick Wins

Yes, when you start using personality-based marketing, you'll see immediate benefits. Our clients using Ada consistently report higher conversion rates at the top of the funnel. It makes sense - when you create content that resonates with someone's core personality traits, they're naturally more likely to engage. But here's the thing: those initial conversion lifts are just the tip of the iceberg.

Breaking the Quarterly Cycle

The real power comes from what we learn about our customers along the way. We recently analysed a client's marketing approach from the past year. Like many brands, they'd been switching their messaging focus quarterly - promoting cost savings one quarter, time savings the next, and so on. As they told me, "We're just trying to see what works." The problem? They were never comparing apples with apples. They couldn't build any meaningful insights because they were constantly changing too many variables.

The Power of Personality-Based Journey Mapping

That's where personality-based marketing changes the game. When you know someone's dominant personality trait from their first interaction, you can create a consistent, personalised journey throughout the funnel. Instead of randomly testing different benefits, you can systematically understand which personality types respond to specific advantages. For instance, you might find your conscientious audience segments deeply value reliability messaging, while your more open audiences engage better with innovation-focused benefits.

Looking Beyond Click-Through Rates

Here's what really opened our eyes: one of our clients discovered that their highest-converting personality segment had a relatively modest click-through rate of 0.9%. Meanwhile, their best-performing segment for click-throughs (at 3.2%) resulted in far fewer actual sales. Why? Because the higher CTR group were primarily information gatherers, not serious buyers. Without personality insights, they might have optimised their entire campaign around the wrong audience.

Leveraging OCEAN for Better Optimisation

This is where Ada's OCEAN-based approach proves invaluable. By identifying personality traits at the top of the funnel, we can align every subsequent touchpoint with what we know about that customer's preferences. It's not just about creating personality-matched content - it's about understanding the entire customer journey through the lens of personality.

The Real Impact on Campaign Performance

The impact on campaign optimisation is profound. Instead of making broad assumptions about what works, we can test and learn with precision. We can build customer journeys that maintain relevance from first click to final conversion. Most importantly, we can make smarter decisions about where to invest our time and resources based on which personality types actually drive business value, not just surface-level engagement.

Looking Beyond the Numbers

The next time you review your marketing metrics, look beyond the immediate numbers. Ask yourself: do you really know why certain customers convert better than others? Do you understand the personality traits driving your most valuable segments? Because in our experience, those insights are worth far more than a few percentage points of click-through rate.

Want to learn how Ada can help you unlock these deeper customer insights? Let's talk about bringing personality-based marketing to your campaigns.