An index is a statistical measure used to compare the concentration of a characteristic within a target audience to a reference population. It can help us understand the relative signification of a trait, behavior, or attribute within the target audience compared to a benchmark population.
To calculate an index, we divide the proportion of the target audience with the characteristic by the proportion of the reference population with the same characteristic, then multiply by 100 to get a percentage.
The baseline for AudienceLens is always the general population with an index of 100.
An index value greater than 100 suggests that the characteristic is more prevalent in the target audience than in the reference population.
An index value of less than 100 tells us that the characteristic is less prevalent in the target audience than in the reference population.
If we see an index value of 100, the prevalence of the characteristic is the same in both the target audience and the reference population.
Indexes are commonly used in audience analysis to identify key demographics, behaviors, preferences, or other attributes that differentiate a target audience from the general population. Marketers may then tailor their messaging, products, and services to better meet their audiences' needs and interests.
If you see "NA" for an index value, that means the chosen combination is outside our valid scoring threshold.