Writing a Targeting Objective
The Targeting Objective describes who you are looking for and why, in your own words. Search criteria decide who gets found; the objective decides who counts as a fit.
It sits last on the form on purpose. The objective is written against every choice above it, so asking for it first would mean asking before the answers exist.
Before You Begin
- The rest of the stream configured — the objective is written against it
- An understanding of what qualification does with it
Steps
Say who the person is, concretely
Name the role and the kind of business. Principals and owners at Canadian mortgage brokerages is usable. Decision-makers in finance is not — it gives the Role-Objective Alignment criterion, worth 15 points on its own, almost nothing to measure against.
Say what problem you are addressing
This is what the Problem Acuity criterion reads. If your campaign rests on a specific pressure — a regulatory change, a renewal cycle, a cost that has just risen — say so plainly. A lead who does not have that problem can then be scored down for exactly the right reason, instead of being scored well because nothing contradicted them.
Reference your brand assets with @
Type @ to attach audience segments, offerings, testimonials and other brand assets. Referencing an offering explicitly helps the Ware Relevance criterion decide whether what you sell applies to this person at all.
Say what disqualifies someone, if there is an obvious trap
If a nearby role or industry keeps appearing in your results, name it as a non-fit. This is the most direct way to stop a close match being treated as a good one.
Or use Let Zyntro Suggest
The Let Zyntro Suggest button drafts an objective from your brand, your offerings, your audiences and the choices you have made on the form. It is a starting point worth editing rather than a finished answer.
Save the stream
The objective is stored with the stream and read by every qualification pass from then on. Editing it changes how future leads are scored, not leads already decided.
Result
Qualification now has something specific to judge against. The scoring breakdown on each lead will quote your objective back to you in its reasoning, which is the quickest way to tell whether it was clear enough.
Why specificity pays
| Criterion | Points | What it needs from your objective |
|---|---|---|
| Role-Objective Alignment | 15 | A named role, not a category of person |
| Industry Fit | 12 | The actual business, stated closely enough to rule out adjacent ones |
| Ware Relevance | 12 | Which offerings apply — reference them with @ |
| Problem Acuity | 7 | The specific pressure your campaign addresses |
Important: On a feeder stream the objective is required, because a feeder has no search criteria — it is the only targeting signal qualification has. Saving a feeder without one would produce a stream that scores every lead against nothing. Describe the broader business fit: what makes someone worth keeping even when they do not suit a specific campaign.
Tip: The fastest way to improve an objective is to read a wrongly-quarantined lead's AI Assessment. It usually explains why the search returned that person, and that explanation is the gap in your objective stated for you.
