How to Use Audiences to Improve Your PPC Adwords Campaigns?

Find out how Google Ads audience targeting can help you hone your PPC campaigns, taking your ads to the right people at the right time. Here are some strategies for making the most of your existing Google Ads audiences list and finding high-value potential customers.

Similar Audiences for Search

Find people who behave like the ones on your remarketing list

This tool helps you find other people who behave just like your existing site visitors and are therefore more likely to become customers.

When adding similar audiences to your campaign or targeting, Google reviews your existing remarketing list and creates a new list of users who search in a similar way. You can then use this audience for observation or targeting. These lists are automatically updated, and users removed once they have visited your site.

For example, people who have visited your site and bought one item may also have a history of searching for a slightly different item for use with the same appliance. Using the ‘similar audiences’ tool will give you access to a list of users who have also searched for those slightly different items, but aren’t currently on your remarketing list.

One of the benefits of this feature is that it gives you a list of potential customers that have not already interacted with your brand, so you can use your existing search campaigns to reach them.

Audience Exclusions

Stop paying for clicks from already-converted users

Whether the audience exclusions work for you will depend on your business and the call to action you’re using. If, for example, you need contact details and nothing else, you’ll want to prevent any existing clients from clicking on your ads and costing you money – even if they’ve only just converted on your site.

You can find this tool under the ‘Exclusions’ tab (next to the ‘Audiences’ tab). Be careful not to exclude existing users where the conversion action is different from the one they have already taken; sometimes, your recently converted users are exactly who you want to show your ads to. Which leads us nicely on to…

Remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA)

Make sure your converted users remember you when they’re shopping around

RLSA is a neat tool to ensure your brand is the first brand your users think of when they search for keywords related to your product or service, particularly if it’s something people usually do a bit of research or price comparison on.

You can do this by using the audience you want to target as a bid modifier on your existing campaign by adding them under ‘targeting’ in the audiences section of the interface. If you change the setting to ‘observation’, it will use this audience as an additional layer within the search audience, rather than targeting them solely.

You can also target these users separately by duplicating one of your existing campaigns and choosing ‘targeting’ instead of ‘observation’, which is useful when there’s a lot of search volume occurring via your lists, as it allows you to tailor the many features of a search campaign for these specific users.

RLSA With Dynamic Search Ads (RDSA)

Extend your campaign to people searching for similar content to your own

With Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs), Google inspects the content on your website and serves your web pages up with a tailored headline to people searching for related keywords (that is, keywords that you’re not currently using in your campaigns, but are applicable to your content).

This can be particularly useful if your content changes frequently, as it saves you having to do extensive keyword research for each new product or service you add. When combined with RLSA, DSA campaigns can help you stay in touch with users who are already familiar with your brand and are searching for terms that, although relevant to your site, are not currently in your keyword list.

In-market audiences

Find consumers who are already looking for a product or service like the one you offer

This is your one-stop shop for finding consumers who have been clicking on ads similar to yours and subsequently converting, or have been paying visits to sites like yours recently. This allows you to get your brand seen during the ‘shopping around’ process, showcasing your products and services to consumers with a high likelihood of making a purchase.

Choose from an ever-growing list of audiences, looking for everything from baby clothes and toys to holidays and homes.

How to make the most of these opportunities

To ensure you’re making your remarketing lists work for you, keep them up to date and relevant to your product and services. They need to grow and evolve with your business to make the best use of the stream of tools being produced to help you get your brand noticed.