Sub-avatars: getting specific about your buyers

ATIYO product documentation · Brand Bible · 6 min read

A sub-avatar is a narrower slice inside one of your customer avatars. Where an avatar describes a type of buyer, a sub-avatar zooms in on a specific situation, trigger, or mindset within that type. In ATIYO, sub-avatars live under their parent avatar in the Brand Bible and help your team write ads that feel personally aimed rather than broadly targeted.

Specificity gives a team a clearer hypothesis to test. 'New parents' describes a broad market. 'The parent who just realized bedtime has become a nightly battle' describes a narrower situation that can support a distinct hook and angle.

Avatar vs. sub-avatar

The distinction is easiest to see with an example. Say you sell a sleep supplement and one of your avatars is the 'Overworked Professional.' Inside that single avatar, several distinct situations could each deserve their own concept.

  • The professional who can fall asleep but wakes at 3am and can't get back down.
  • The professional who lies awake with a racing mind after a stressful day.
  • The professional who relies on melatonin and wants to stop feeling groggy in the morning.

Same avatar, same core product, but each sub-avatar leads to a different hook, a different pain, and often a different ad. That's the value of splitting them out.

If two situations under one avatar would produce meaningfully different hooks, that's your signal to create separate sub-avatars.

When to create a sub-avatar

You don't need sub-avatars for every avatar. Add them when the extra specificity will actually change the creative. Good triggers include:

  • A single avatar has more than one distinct trigger moment or pain point.
  • You're seeing different objections from different groups inside the same avatar.
  • One segment responds to a completely different angle than the rest.
  • You want to test tightly targeted concepts against a broader one.

If a sub-avatar would just repeat the parent avatar with slightly different wording, skip it. Thin sub-avatars add clutter without adding clarity.

How to create a sub-avatar in ATIYO

  1. Open Brand Bible and select the parent avatar you want to break down.
  2. Add a sub-avatar and name it after the specific situation, not a number.
  3. Describe the trigger moment or mindset that sets this slice apart from the parent.
  4. Note the specific pain and the specific outcome this group wants.
  5. Save it so it's available alongside the parent avatar when you brief.

Turning sub-avatars into sharper ads

The point of getting specific is to change what your editor produces. Once a sub-avatar exists, reference it when you create a brief so the concept is built around that exact moment. Test a specific hook such as '3am wake-ups' against a broader one such as 'better sleep,' then let the recorded evidence guide the next brief.

Pair each sub-avatar with its own angle

Sub-avatars work best when paired with a tailored marketing angle. The sub-avatar defines the moment; the angle defines how you frame the product against it. Documenting both keeps concepts consistent as you scale volume on your Creative Roadmap.

Use them to plan test batches

Sub-avatars make it easier to plan variations that share a product but address different moments. Record the outcome and supported learning for each creative, then compare that evidence in Insights before deciding what to test again.

Keeping sub-avatars manageable

As your library grows, review it regularly. Archive a sub-avatar when it duplicates another segment, no longer reflects the customer evidence, or no longer helps the team write a distinct brief. A tidy library is easier to use consistently.

Next steps

Now that your buyers are described in detail, define the core desires driving each sub-avatar, then write marketing angles that speak to those exact moments. If you haven't set up your top-level avatars yet, start with Creating customer avatars in ATIYO. For the full operating model, read the ecommerce creative testing system or use the creative brief template.

Related articles

Creating customer avatars in ATIYOHow to add strong customer avatars to your Brand Bible in ATIYO, what fields matter, and how avatars power your creative briefs. Defining your customers' core desiresCore desires are the deep emotional outcomes your customers are really chasing. Here's how to define them in ATIYO and use them in briefs. Writing marketing angles that convertMarketing angles are the specific ways you frame your product against a desire. Here's how to write ones that convert and store them in ATIYO.
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