Running a successful PPC campaign today requires more than just getting ads in front of people; it’s about reaching the right audience with precision.
Whether you’re aiming for local shoppers or a global audience, ad targeting plays a pivotal role in maximizing your ROI.
When targeting users through platforms like Google Ads or Microsoft Ads, you can reach people based on:
- Who they are (demographics).
- What they’re actively searching for.
- Their interests and hobbies.
- And more.
By mastering the variety of options available on platforms like Google Ads and Microsoft Ads, you can ensure your ads resonate with the people most likely to take action.
Let’s dive into the core targeting options that can help fine-tune your campaigns for optimal performance.
Search Targeting
We’ll start with the most common form of targeting in Google and Microsoft Ads: Search.
Search campaigns are a powerful strategy for marketers, allowing you to reach users when they are actively searching for products or services.
By showing an ad on a search engine results page (SERP), you’re in a position to answer the user’s query and potentially influence them to make a purchase.
So, how do you show up on these SERPs?
By bidding on keywords.
What Are Keywords?
Keywords are phrases advertisers use to tell platforms like Google and Microsoft what searches we want our ads to show up for.
For example, when someone goes to Google and types in [blue couch], Google will scan your account to see if you’re targeting and bidding on the keyword.
If you do, then you’re eligible to show up for the query. If not, then your ad won’t show.
However, just having the keyword in your account isn’t enough to show up for all those “blue couch” queries.
There are many other factors that influence whether your ads will show for a certain query, like keyword match types, negative keywords, and your keyword bids, but that’s a topic for another chapter.
Dynamic Search Ads
Another type of targeting in Search campaigns is called Dynamic Search Ads, or DSA for short.
Unlike traditional keyword bidding, DSA campaigns use your website content to target your ads, and can help fill in potential keyword gaps that you’re not already bidding on – but are still relevant to the user.
DSA content, like headlines and landing pages, is also generated from your existing website content, which can save you time in the initial setup.
You can allow the platform to scan all website pages, some pages, or a list of pages you specify to ensure the ad content is relevant for the user.
For example, you may not want the platform to scan your “Returns and Shipping” page because it wouldn’t be relevant content for the initial query.
Dynamic Search Ads are a great tool when you’re looking to expand the reach of your current Search campaigns.
They’re designed to help advertisers bridge the gap to match for relevant queries that aren’t already being bid on within your campaigns.
Audiences
Rounding out targeting on the Search network, we have Audience targeting.
There are numerous types of audiences you can target in Search campaigns, including:
- In-Market.
- Remarketing.
- Detailed Demographics.
- And more.
By adding these types of audiences to a Search campaign, you can choose to either target your ads only to those users who match that audience and are searching for keywords, or you can increase bids on those matched audiences while also serving ads to users who just match the keyword targeting.
Using these audience layers, you can optimize your campaigns by creating a custom experience for these matched audience users by:
- Creating a separate campaign targeting only those users.
- Adjust ad copy.
- Setting separate bid strategies.
- And more.
Display Targeting
Display campaigns on the Google Display Network (GDN) have a variety of targeting options that live under two main categories: content and audience.
Content (also known as contextual) targeting means your targeting options focus on the content of the page or website.
When you choose content targeting, you’re indicating to Google that you want your ads to show based on these types of content factors:
- Topics: Choosing topics to show ads on content related to a certain subject.
- Placements: Choosing a specific website, app, or video to show ads on.
- Keywords: Choosing keywords to trigger your ad when people view related content on YouTube, websites, or apps.
Screenshot from Google Display Network, October 2024When you choose audience targeting, you’re telling Google you want your ads to show for users who exhibit the behaviors you’ve identified as important.
These audience segments include:
- Detailed demographics.
- Affinity.
- In-Market.
- Life events.
- Custom segments.
- Combined segments.
Let’s take a deeper dive into each of these audience segments for more information.
Topic Targeting
Topic targeting has one of the widest reach of content targeting options.
It allows advertisers to choose topics from a list Google has created that group websites, placements, and apps that fit into that theme.
Topics can range in theme, from gardening and enterprise software to extreme sports and medical research.
There are many high-level categories, most with multiple sub-categories to help you find the type of content you want your ads to show up next to.
Screenshot from Google Display Network, October 2024Placement Targeting
Placement targeting is one of the narrowest targeting options on the GDN.
With placement targeting, advertisers provide Google with a list of specific websites or apps they would like their ads to show up on.
However, just because you choose specific websites does not guarantee that your ad will be displayed.
For your ad to be eligible to show on those websites or apps, they need to be opted into Google’s ad network, AdSense.
Keyword Targeting
Keywords are also a potential targeting option for the GDN, but it’s important to note the difference in functionality compared to Search campaigns.
For the GDN, keyword targeting does not use match types.
They end up functioning like Broad Match keywords, spanning a wider range of potential keywords to show up for.
Additionally, when choosing keyword targeting on the GDN, it also takes the context of those keywords into play – meaning your ads can show up on webpages, apps, and videos related to those keywords.
Detailed Demographics
Detailed demographic targeting allows you to target users based on information Google presumes or infers about them.
These categories include:
- Parental status.
- Marital status.
- Education.
- Homeownership status.
Screenshot from Google Display Network, October 2024Each of these categories has sub-categories to help narrow down who exactly you’d like to reach.
For example, when choosing a Parental status, you can choose based on whether they are parents of infants, toddlers, grade schoolers, teenagers, or adult children.
Affinity
Affinity audiences have the broadest reach of Display Network targeting. When first created, the original intention was to mimic TV audiences.
These lists are groups of people who might have an affinity toward a certain industry or hobby like “social media enthusiasts” or “frequent travelers.”
These audiences are best used when you’re trying to reach a large group of people for brand awareness efforts.
Screenshot from Google Display Network, October 2024In-Market
In-market audiences are considered similar to topic targeting, but are predefined audiences rather than content targeting groups from Google.
These audiences are groups of users Google believes are actively researching, or “in market” for a specific product or service.
Similar to topic targeting, the available in-market audience segments are available for you to browse and choose the same way as topics.
Many have sub-categories as well to drill down to a narrower group of people if needed.
Adding this layer of in-market audiences can help narrow down who your ads show to based on those who exhibit research behavior in addition to conducting actual searches.
Screenshot from Google Display Network, October 2024Life Events
Life event targeting allows you to target users who are exhibiting behaviors or indicators of common major life events.
Since its inception, the list of available life events has continued to grow and includes events like:
- Purchasing a home soon.
- Moving soon or recently moved.
- Starting a new job soon.
- Retiring soon or recently retired.
- And many more.
Screenshot from Google Display Network, October 2024Custom Segments
Custom segments have more recently replaced the former “Custom Intent” audiences.
These let advertisers curate custom lists of users who:
- Have certain interests or purchase intentions (using keywords).
- Have searched for any of those terms on Google.
Additionally, you can expand these segments by including people who browse certain types of websites or use certain types of apps.
This type of targeting is great for reaching users that meet a specific niche or interest your product or service is for.
Screenshot from Google Display Network, October 2024Combined Segments
Combined segment targeting is the best way to reach your ideal audience if you have multiple segments a user must match.
With combined segments, these function as an “and” statement.
For example, you can include users who match a certain life event or in-market audience segment, and must also match another type of audience segment, like a detailed demographic segment.
Screenshot from Google Display Network, October 2024You also have the ability to exclude segments to better target your ideal customer.
Remarketing
Remarketing is a way to engage with users who have interacted with your business before.
There are many ways to use your own data segments for remarketing purposes and leverage them in your PPC account.
Let’s start with the most common method: remarketing pixels.
Remarketing Pixel Audiences
A remarketing pixel is a small block of code that adds your website visitors to your data segments, allowing you to target your ads to these visitors.
With the data it captures from your website visitors, you can create custom remarketing segments to target in ad platforms.
Additionally, you can create criteria for these lists to only include a certain subset of an audience.
One very common list created is a “Purchasers” list, which means anyone who made a purchase from your website or submitted a lead form online.
This list can be used as a target audience or an exclusion audience for a campaign – meaning you don’t want these users to see your ad.
Another common remarketing list created is an “Abandoned Cart” list, meaning someone who has viewed the “Cart” page but has not completed a purchase.
Customer Match Audiences
Another type of remarketing list is Customer Match audiences.
These lists are first-party data segments that you have gathered from your business and uploaded to the ad platforms.
There are requirements on what available fields you can upload to create a Customer Match audience.
To upload a customer list audience, you can use any of the following fields:
- Email.
- Phone.
- First Name.
- Last Name.
- Country.
- Zip.
- Mobile Device ID.
This list type is great when you want to target users in your CRM or those who may have not been cookied with your remarketing pixel.
Google Analytics Imported Audiences
In Google Ads, you have the ability to link your Google Analytics and Google Ads accounts together to import audiences created in Google Analytics.
Google Analytics has a much more powerful set of audience criteria, such as creating lists of users based on the amount of time they spend on a webpage or the website.
This allows you to leverage site engagement, sequencing, and other indicators to create a more robust remarketing list.
Screenshot from GA4, October 2024Remarketing audiences can be applied to campaigns as the sole group of users to target or as a bid modifier layer called “Observation.”
If you’re looking to target only users in those lists, it’s important to choose “Target” instead of “Observation.”
Remarketing audiences are available in both Search and Display campaign types.
Demographics
Demographic targeting can be a great way to incrementally impact performance or ensure you’re reaching your ideal target audience.
These targeting layers are determined by the information given to the channels when a profile is created as well as the behaviors of the user.
Overall, these targeting options are best leveraged as incremental layers to modify the other targeting options listed above rather than being used alone.
Age & Gender
Demographic information is available for targeting in all campaign types in Google Ads and Microsoft Ads.
Both channels support bid modifiers for a user’s age and gender.
These targeting options allow you to see how your ads are performing for a certain group of users, and then adjust bid modifiers up or down to increase or decrease your bids on those groups of users.
Screenshot from Google Ads, October 2024Household Income
Google Ads has an additional demographic lever available for users living in the United States: Household Income.
The data for these groups is determined by the location’s average household income, so it’s not a perfect science, but this can be a great lever to pull if you’re trying to target users based on income.
This targeting option lives in the Audiences section of the Google Ads interface and can be adjusted similarly to Age and Gender segments.
Screenshot from Google Ads, October 2024In Summary
Ultimately, PPC targeting is about delivering your message to the right people – at the right time, with the right relevance.
From demographic specifics to behavioral insights, leveraging the diverse targeting tools available can turn a good campaign into a great one.
The more you fine-tune your approach, the more likely your ads will convert.
Don’t be afraid to test and tweak your targeting methods – sometimes, small changes make a huge difference.
More resources:
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