Audience research
Part of Plan subscription commerce audience research before you size the market
How do you find the subscription commerce target audience in England?
Method for defining a subscription commerce target audience in England, using ICO decision notices, GOV.UK guidance and IAB UK adspend research.
What to take away
- The ICO publishes enforcement action and decision notices for businesses that mishandled consent, renewals or cancellation, so audience research in England is a regulatory risk exercise as well as a marketing one.
- Build your subscription commerce audience from three layerswho has the problem, who can pay monthly, and who is still paying in month six.
- Check your cancellation and renewal terms against GOV.UK consumer law guidance and the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 before you target anyone.
- Test segments with small paid campaigns before committing a full launch budget.
- Write down your assumptions and review them quarterly.
Start with the problem, not the demographic
Most subscription teams begin with age brackets. That produces weak segments. Start instead with a recurring problem someone already pays to solve.
Segment sentence checklist
- One sentence per segment
- Name monthly spend £X
- Name what Y they pay for
- Name Z they dislike
- If numbers missing, you are guessing
- Interview ten people before ad copy
A dog owner in Leeds buying monthly flea treatment has a different renewal psychology from a software buyer in Bristol paying for cloud storage. The difference matters when you design reminders and cancellation flows.
Write one sentence per segment: "This person spends £X a month on Y and dislikes Z about it." If you cannot fill in the numbers, you are guessing. For a structured way to gather those sentences, see our guide to running customer interviews for subscription products.
Interview ten people from the segment before you write any ad copy. Their own words will beat your assumptions about why they pay.
Map the regulatory edge
Audience research in England has a compliance dimension generic guides miss. The ICO's action we've taken pages carry decision notices and enforcement outcomes for companies that mishandled consent or renewal communications, and the ICO's direct marketing guidance explains what the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) require of you. Read two or three notices that resemble your model before writing your research brief.
Map the regulatory edge
- Read two or three ICO decision notices
- Check GOV.UK consumer cancellation rights
- Match consent rules to cold email or trial
- Record how each segment opted in
- Change terms or audience if surprised
This shapes who you can target. If your segment relies on cold email to consumers, consent rules bite harder than for businesses that opt in through a trial.
Consumer expectations are documented too. GOV.UK's consumer law guidance sets out the rights behind the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, which cover cancellation, refunds and disputes. The Competition and Markets Authority enforces much of this alongside local authority Trading Standards. If your proposed audience would be surprised by your renewal terms, change the terms or the audience.
Keep a written record of how each shortlisted segment opted in. If a regulator asks for evidence, a page of assumptions will not answer the question.
Size the segment with real data
Once you have candidate segments, estimate reach and cost per acquisition. The IAB UK and PwC Digital Adspend study, published in the IAB UK insight archive, gives channel-level spend figures that help you sanity-check budgets before you commit.
For example, a team paying £400 a month for search ads may find a narrower segment converts at twice the rate. That is an illustrative figure. Compare segments on cost per retained subscriber, not cost per signup.
ONS population and household figures give you a ceiling for an England-wide segment. Census 2021 results, which you can pull by local authority through the ONS's Nomis service, are the usual starting point. Then apply a realistic penetration rate.
Your own order data usually beats an external estimate. Look at which plans, regions and add-ONS already retain well, then ask whether a larger group like that exists.
Tools for finding and testing the segment
- Run small paid tests in Google Ads or Meta Ads Manager and compare segments on cost per retained subscriber rather than cost per signup.
- Recruit interview and survey samples with a panel or a survey tool such as SurveyMonkey or Typeform.
- Pull cohort and retention data from your billing and subscription analytics, such as Stripe Billing, ChartMogul or Baremetrics, instead of trusting ad-platform conversion counts.
- Check search demand in Google Keyword Planner and on-site behaviour in Google Analytics 4 before you commit to a segment.
Screen for retention, not just signup
A segment that signs up and cancels in month two is worse than no segment at all. Add a retention screen to your research.
Ask three questions. Does this person have a reason to keep paying in month six? Can they cancel easily, and will they feel fairly treated if they do? Does the price sit comfortably within their existing monthly spending on this category?
If any answer is no, the segment is fragile. Document it and move on. Our audience research guide for England sets out the wider process from sizing through to demand testing.
Price tolerance belongs in the same screen. A segment that flinches at month four will leave as soon as a cheaper rival appears, so test the renewal price with a small sample first.
Decision table
Choose
- Small budget, unproven segment
- One narrow segment, small paid test
- Cold-contact segment
- Business audiences with clear opt-in
- High month-one cancellations
- Retention screen before scaling
- Regulated category, unclear rules
- ICO notices and GOV.UK consumer pages
- Planning channel spend
- IAB UK research plus your own tests
Avoid
- Small budget, unproven segment
- Broad demographic targeting
- Cold-contact segment
- Consumer cold email without consent
- High month-one cancellations
- Bigger ad budget to compensate
- Regulated category, unclear rules
- Copying a competitor's wording
- Planning channel spend
- National averages for your niche
Common questions
How many segments should a small subscription business research?
Two or three is usually enough to start. More than that spreads your test budget too thinly to learn anything useful.
Does audience research differ in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland?
Consumer protection law applies across the UK, but enforcement priorities and market conditions can differ. Check devolved guidance for region-specific segments.
How often should I repeat this research?
Quarterly is a sensible rhythm for most teams. Revisit sooner if cancellation moves sharply or a regulator publishes new guidance. Set a calendar reminder and keep the earlier version so you can compare the two.
What is the single biggest mistake?
Choosing an audience because it is easy to reach rather than because it has a recurring problem worth paying to solve.
