Gone are the days of just relying on keywords to drive you PPC success.
Audience usage in Google Ads increased tenfold thanks to loose keyword match types.
Use audience targeting No longer an option for campaigns; it should be part of your overall campaign strategy.
Here, you’ll learn four advanced audience targeting strategies to optimize your PPC targeting to leverage budget and maximize return on ad spend (ROAS).
1. Smarter use of Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA)
Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) allows you to Customize your search campaigns Tailor your bidding/targeting options based on the user behavior of previous site visitors and targeting those users as they search on Google.
Example: When searching for competitor brands, target those who spend more than the average purchase income.
This strategy will allow you to target and display ads for users that have historically generated high converting value for you when you search for one of your competitors in Google Search, which can help you avoid losing customers to paying competitors.
For example, an online grocery retailer can identify shoppers who spend more than their average order value each week.
In this case, advertisers can set up a separate campaign to target and bid on competitors’ terms, but use RLSA so that ads are only served when users on the listing search.
This is a great way to make sure your budget is only used to keep profitable customers.
If you want to apply this strategy to your account, you will first need to find the average purchase revenue per user reported in your Google Analytics account by navigating to Profit > Overview:
Once you find the average order value number, you can use the audience builder to create an audience list by Configure > Audiences In Google Analytics:
Screenshot by author, March 2022You can set event parameters and add any conditions:
Screenshot by author, March 2022This tactic is particularly effective in industries where consumers are disloyal and may often travel back and forth between different retailers to find the best price (for example, in grocery retailing).
By applying this list, you can customize your ad copy and promote loyalty discounts to these customers to prevent them from abandoning your brand for a competitor:
Screenshot by author, March 20222. Integrate social audiences with RLSA
have more than 2.9 billion Monthly active users, Facebook has no competition for its massive audience.
While Facebook positioning may be beneficial for reaching the masses, another major benefit Facebook offers is that potential granularity You can use it to target Facebook users.
Unlike Google Ads, Facebook has information about what users actually “like” or follow, as well as in-depth data from users’ profiles.
The benefits of using social ads in search campaigns can be huge.
For example, a recent Facebook case study showed that Bombas brands saw 27 point boost Ad recalls for evergreen campaigns when using custom audience targeting.
Still, I’ve come across a large number of brands with inconsistent ways of advertising on Facebook and Google, so they can’t share the insights gained from one platform to the other to maximize their success.
Example: Use Facebook to discover new potential buyers, then target those people in search to increase their likelihood of converting.
Facebook is one of the best platforms Expand your reach And identify new users who are not currently actively looking for your product or service.
go through tag ad If you target these new audience segments on Facebook, you will be able to target these users later when they search Google for top-of-funnel keywords, increasing the likelihood that those Facebook clicks will convert to new customers .
To do this, you first need to create a new campaign on Facebook aimed at targeting new potential customers that you are not already targeting with your search ads (excluding existing website visitors and mailing list members):
Screenshot by author, March 2022By tagging the generated Facebook activity with a UTM tag, any clicks from that audience will be recorded in Google Analytics under the activity name you set.
You’ll then be able to create an audience list in Google Analytics that includes the traffic from this specific Facebook campaign:
Screenshot by author, March 2022Remember, like any audience list you create, it must have at least 1,000 members before it’s eligible to be used in Google Search.
Once your audience list is populated with enough traffic from Facebook, create a search campaign on Google Ads that only contains Top of funnel keywords Such as informational queries related to the products/services you offer (they need to be at the top of the funnel as these audiences are not specifically searching for your products/services).
Finally, apply the remarketing list to the ad groups you created in your search campaign, and choose your goals and bid settings so that your search ads will only show to users from new potential customer lists found on Facebook.
If you feel like you’ve exhausted your industry’s current demand for Google Search, I highly recommend this tactic as it allows you to effectively create by reaching new users and promoting consideration for your product or service Search for requirements.
You can also use Microsoft Ads to leverage the same strategy to maximize your reach.
3. Use Custom Affinity Audiences
Google launched custom Affinity audience Gives advertisers more granular control over audience targeting options on the Display Network.
This solves the problem with regular Google Ads affinity audiences, as there is no predefined affinity audience for every business.
Navigate to Display Campaigns in Google Ads, click Targeting > Audience Segments > Your Custom Audience Segment > New Custom Audience.
Here you can create your own specific audiences using free-form interests entered as keywords and/or using URLs as a proxy for interest packages:
Screenshot by author, March 2022In this example, custom affinity targeting uses interests (keywords entered) and URL targeting to build an audience of “garden lovers.”
As you build your audience, you get real-time demographic insights. This helps further granularity to ensure you’re targeting the right people.
While custom affinity audience targeting allows more control over GDN, I think it’s best for brand building.
You can take a more granular approach to GDN targeting by layering custom affinity audiences with other forms of targeting to increase campaign efficiency.
4. Combine market segmentation with remarketing
In-market audience Allows you to set up your campaigns to reach people further down the funnel who are more willing to make purchases.
Google accurately categorizes users so you can target those who are most interested in their products.
Google says you can use real-time data and a powerful classification system based on displayed market behavior to differentiate interest and buyer intent.
In-market audiences can help drive incremental conversions and help you connect with consumers, the last step before they make a buying decision.
To target in-market segments, you need to navigate to Targeting > In-Market and Life Events > In-Market Segment.
Here, you’ll see a list of nearly 500 available in-market audiences, with the option to further refine advanced categories (highlighted below).
Just click the “down” arrow on each In-Market category to drill down to your desired audience.
Screenshot by author, March 2022In-market segmentation can have a real impact on conversions when used in conjunction with website remarketing lists.
You can place in-market segments at the top of your remarketing lists to increase reach while remaining highly relevant to increase overall conversion rates.
in conclusion
Paid Search Keywords Costs are rising year by year. If your marketing budget isn’t increasing to keep up with this shift, you’ll need to get creative to drive new demand growth.
Many advertisers are shifting significant budgets to other platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, and TikTok, largely due to superior audience targeting options (rather than searcher intent) and lower CPCs.
With this in mind and the increasing use of automation in Google Ads, I think Google will continue to increase its audience targeting options in a privacy-centric way.
The PPC landscape is always changing. Make sure you’re up to date with the latest features and test some of the tips listed above to see if they can deliver improved paid media results for your business.
More resources:
Featured image: Jirsak/Shutterstock
