A cohort is a tightly defined segment of your addressable market — typically a specific combination of industry and job title. For example: “CMO at healthcare companies with 200–1,000 employees in the US” is a cohort. “vice presidents” is not.
Why cohort-based campaigns outperform mass campaigns
Relevance. A message written for a CMO at a healthcare company is far more relevant than a message written for “senior leaders at B2B companies.” The more specific the audience, the more specific the message, and the higher the reply rate.
Learnability. When you run a campaign to a cohort of 200 contacts and get 18 replies, you can learn a lot: which industries responded most, which job titles replied, what messages worked. When you run a campaign to 2,000 mixed contacts, the signal is noise.
Replicability. A cohort campaign that works for healthcare CTOs can be duplicated for retail CTOs with minimal changes. The case study, the sequence, and the CTA all transfer. A mass campaign is a one-off.
How to define a cohort
The most effective cohorts are defined by three dimensions:
Industry / vertical. Healthcare, automotive, financial services, SaaS, manufacturing. Be specific. “Tech” is not an industry.
Job title / persona. The decision-maker who buys your product. Not just any contact at the company. If your buyer is the Head of Analytics, target Head of Analytics — not “data people.”
Company size (optional but powerful). If your product is best suited for companies with 200–1,000 employees, filter to that range. Reaching companies that are too small or too large wastes outreach and burns contacts.
| ⚙ Example cohort breakdown for a B2B analytics company |
Cohort 1 | Head of Analytics at CPG companies, US, 500–2,000 employees |
Cohort 2 | Chief Data Officer at financial services firms, US, 1,000–5,000 employees |
Cohort 3 | VP of Data Science at healthcare companies, India, 200–1,000 employees |
Cohort 4 | Analytics head at automotive companies, India, 500+ employees |
Good practices
One campaign per cohort. Separate list, separate messages, separate case study.
Start with 100–200 contacts. Scale only if the reply rate justifies it.
One case study per cohort is ideal
If you have a healthcare case study, run it for your healthcare cohort. If you have an automotive case study, run it for your automotive cohort.
The Lookalike agent is built specifically for this. Add a case study to your Knowledge Base, select the right cohort as your list, and the agent will write messages that reference the case study’s industry and results in a way that resonates with your target.