In this post we will describe the audience targeting feature in SharePoint that enables organisations to deliver personalised content to groups or individual users.
Intro
Audience targeting is simple way to personalise the experience of your SharePoint sites. Audience targeting lets people see the most relevant content at the right time. In this guide, I’ll walk through what audience targeting is, where you can use it, and how to configure it step‑by‑step. I’ll also share practical tips and considerations gathered from real‑world implementations.
What is audience targeting?
Audience targeting allows you to show specific content to defined groups of users. These groups can be: Microsoft 365 Groups, security groups or Entra ID (AAD) Dynamic Groups. When enabled, targeted content is prioritised or shown only to the selected audience. Importantly, audience targeting does not replace permissions—it controls visibility, not access. Users with permission can still reach the content via direct links or search.
What doe audience targeting work with?
According to Microsoft’s documentation, audience targeting works across these SharePoint areas:
How to configure audience targeting
Example 1: Top navigation
- Navigate to your SharePoint site > edit your navigation menu
- Scroll down to the bottom of your navigation menu in edit mode > turn on enable site navigation audience targeting
- Press Save
- Select the navigation elements you wish to use audience targeting for
- Under audiences to target > start typing the name of the group you wish to use
- Press OK to apply, an icon will display next to the navigation link to show it is now using audience targeting.
Example 2: Site Pages
- Go to Site contents > Site Pages > Library Settings
- Select audience targeting settings > enable audience targeting > press ok
- Go back to your Site Pages Library, you will now see an audience column displayed in the default view
- Select a page, press the details button
- Under audience, start typing the name of the group you wish to use
- Republish to finish applying audience targeting
NOTE: This approach also works for files and folders, in exactly the same way as described above for site pages.
Example 3: Highlighted content web part
To use audience targeting for the highlighted content webpart, you need to enable audience targeting for the library that contains the items for targeting beforehand:
- Navigate to the document library > press settings
- Select audience targeting settings > Select enable audience targeting
- Press OK
Note: There is a separate setting for classic audience targeting that works with classic SharePoint features such as the content query web part.
- Go back to the document library > select all the files and folders you wish to enable audience targeting on
- Press Properties > Add the Group or Users to the Audience field
NOTE: You can add up to 50 audiences in this section.
- Add the highlighted content web part on your SharePoint page
- Press Edit Properties > scroll down and turn on audience targeting
Example 4: News web part
As with the other examples, before enabling audience targeting for the News web part, you willfirst need to have enabled audience targeting on the Site Pages library, and applied audiences to the news pages:
- Add the News web part to your page > press Edit Properties
- Scroll down and turn on enable audience targeting
Example 5: Quick Links web part
Audience targeting in Quick Links promotes links for specific groups of people. Here’s how to do it:
- Add a Quick Links web part to your page > press Edit Properties
- Scroll down and turn on enable audience targeting
NOTE: If you’ve selected an audience group that you recently created or changed, it might take some time to see targeting applied for that group.
Example 5: Events web part
To use audience targeting for Events, first enable audience targeting for the event list in the site’s Events list, then your event itself, then finally the events web part:
- Navigate to your site, press the cog and then select site content
- Hover over Events, select the ellipses (…) > Settings
- Select Audience targeting settings > Enable audience targeting
- Press OK
- Create an event, or edit an existing one
- Under Audience > add the users or groups
- Press Save
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