Target Content to a Specific Audience on SharePoint Site

What is the Target Audience?

Target Audience allows you to hide content in a SharePoint library from irrelevant users while showing it to specific groups or roles. It simplifies navigation and ensures that users only interact with what’s necessary for them.

Where can audience targeting be enabled?

• Navigational links: Promote links to specific audiences across the navigation of a site, including hub and footer navigation.
• Pages: Target specific site pages to specific audiences in a page library.
• News web part: Push news posts to specific audiences on the start page, in the mobile app, and in News web parts.
• Highlighted content web part: Dynamically display relevant content from a list or library to a page, site, or site collection.
• Quick links web part: Promote specific links to targeted audiences.
• Events web part: Spotlight specific events to relevant audiences.
• Viva Connections Dashboard: Highlight specific cards on the Dashboard to certain audiences.

Setting Up Audience Targeting

Pages, files, and folders in Site contents can be targeted to specific audiences. Follow these steps for each content type. In the instructions below, audience targeting is being applied to Site pages.

Step 1. Select Settings, then select Site Contents, and then select Site Pages.

Step 2. From the page library, select Settings, and then select Audience targeting settings.

Step 3. Select the Enable audience targeting checkbox, and then select OK to return to the previous page. 

Step 4. Next, select the audience. An audience is defined by Microsoft 365 and security groups. If you need to, create a Microsoft 365 group for the members of your audience. Or, if you're a SharePoint administrator, you can create a security group from the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Step 5. From the library, select a page, select the ellipses (...), and then select Details.

Step 6. In the details pane, select a value for the Audience property. Republish to finish applying audience targeting.

Step 7. In Site Pages, confirm the right audiences are targeted to the right content.

Step 8. Repeat these steps for libraries, folders, and documents.

Points to be noted

Enable audience targeting for a web part.

Audient targeting can be applied to several different web parts while in edit mode. When you apply audience targeting to a web part, only the targeted audience will see the web part's contents. If a web part does not have audience targeting applied, all viewers will see the web part's contents.

Enable audience targeting for cards in the Viva Connections Dashboard

The Viva Connections Dashboard enables you to create a curated experience using Dashboard cards that give your employees access to their most critical content and tools. These cards are designed to enable quick task completion either by interacting with a card directly or by opening a quick view in the Dashboard.

Conclusion

Target Audience in SharePoint is a powerful feature that enhances user experience by displaying relevant content. By enabling it across libraries, lists, and web parts, you can create a streamlined and focused environment for your users, boosting productivity and engagement.