Reading Briefs
Customer Segments
How to read, interpret, and use the customer intelligence section of your brief.
Customer segments are the core output of Mavrtr. Every other section of the brief — angles, strategy, ad copy — flows from the segments. Getting familiar with how to read them is the most important skill.
What you get
Each brief contains 2–3 distinct customer segments. Each one represents a meaningfully different type of buyer — different life stage, different motivation, different pain. They're designed to feel like real humans, not marketing personas.
Segment fields explained
Name
A vivid shorthand label (e.g. "The Overstimulated Night Owl"). This is for quick mental reference when scanning multiple segments.
Demographic snapshot
One sentence describing age range, life context, and relevant lifestyle signals.
Psychographic snapshot
2–3 sentences about their mindset, values, daily life, and relationship to the product's category. This is what drives their decision-making.
Awareness stage
Uses Eugene Schwartz's five levels:
| Stage | What they know | Ad approach |
|---|---|---|
| Unaware | Don't know they have a problem | Lead with the problem |
| Problem aware | Feel the pain, don't know the solution exists | Agitate the pain, introduce the category |
| Solution aware | Know solutions exist, not sure which one | Position your product |
| Product aware | Know about you, haven't bought | Handle objections, social proof |
| Most aware | Ready to buy, need a reason now | Offer, urgency, pricing |
Dream outcome
The transformation this segment is actually buying — stated in the customer's own language, not the brand's marketing copy. This is the sentence to build your hooks around.
Pain points (ranked by severity 1–10)
3–5 pains, ordered highest severity first. Severity 10 = "this pain runs their life". Severity 5 = "noticeable but not urgent". Severity 1 = "minor". The ranking is deliberate — your ad hooks should lead with the highest-severity pain.
Desires (ranked by intensity 1–10)
3–5 desires this segment has that the product can fulfil, ordered by how strongly they feel each one. Write your angle's primary text to speak directly to the top-ranked desire.
Objections + rebuttals
2–4 reasons this segment would hesitate or say no. Each objection includes:
- Rebuttal — the sharpest one-liner that neutralises the doubt, in customer voice.
- Placements — where to use this rebuttal:
ad_hook,ad_body,faq,hero,product_page,email,review_reply.
faq + product_page, that rebuttal belongs on the PDP — not in the ad hook. Save the hook for the pain, not the doubt.Verbatim quotes
2–4 real quotes pulled from the research sources. These are verbatim — the exact words a real buyer used in a review, Reddit thread, or forum. Use them in ad copy, landing page headlines, or email subject lines. Real customer language always outperforms copy-written marketing language.
Platforms
Which social platforms this segment is likely active on — useful for deciding ad set placement and creative format.
How to use segments in practice
- Read all 3 segments before committing to a creative direction.
- Pick the segment your product is most likely to convert — not the most interesting one, the most ready-to-buy one.
- Match the awareness stage to your ad strategy. Don't run a Most Aware ad to a Problem Aware audience.
- Start your hook with the highest-severity pain point for that segment.
- Place the objection rebuttals where the placement field says to put them.
Share percent
The share % shows how much of the brand's total buyer base each segment likely represents. These sum to 100. Use this to weight your ad spend — put more budget behind creatives targeting the largest segment, and test the smaller segments once you have winning creatives.