Advanced Audience Building in Google Ads
Targeting serves as the cornerstone of PPC campaigns. The adaptability in how you target can significantly influence the outcomes of your PPC efforts. Our team at YRV Dynamics created the following POV to highlight how to leverage the right audiences to scale revenue.
The process starts with the Audience Manager. From here in Google Ads, you can pick the following categories:
- Data Segments: These are the 1P data you want to incorporate into an audience. This can include key audiences in your platform mix, such as website visitors or YouTube viewers. Also, data segments can be imported from GA: users who ATC, IC, Purchasers, etc…GA targeting parameters are underused by most Google Ads buyers.
- Custom Segments: These are listed within the custom intent audiences, where buyers can pick key audiences generated by Google.
- Combined: Combine/exclude various segments accordingly
Custom Intent: These are audiences based on recent search behavior. They are chosen within the above familiar chart. Keywords and topics included are the user's intent. The algorithm works quite well here. The upside of this option is including similar sites, even apps. Other ideas include looking for special sales events such as Black Friday, Christmas Specials, etc.… This may work with larger ACQ spends where awareness scaling is needed. Various sub-elements include the following:
- In Market: Browsing for purchase, in the buying mindset. Can include housing, automotive, travel, clothing, etc…
- Life Events: Audiences in a life event, such as marriage, looking for a home, event ticketing, job change, etc…
- Detailed Demos: Gender and age demo
- Affinity: Users identified through various Google platform signals. These include fashionistas, sports fans, health and fitness buffs, etc…
Remarketing List: This allows you to reconnect with users who have visited your site or app. It can also include abandoned carts or instant checkout users. For remarketing lists, most advertisers like to use dynamic remarketing, highlighting products SKUs users previously viewed. Dynamic remarketing is surgical, involving key audiences to activate.
Similar Audiences: These are done with a remarketing list, site visitors, YouTube users, app users, etc.… Buyers may want to bid with these groups aggressively because they have more potential than other audiences. This is a good second or priority for custom-intent audiences
Combining Audiences: This leads to the advanced element we mentioned. These can be roughly any combination that works for your campaign, such as remarketing and similar. The great thing about the combination is the ability to add AND/OR elements to refine your audience.
Testing all these elements to identify which ones work best for your campaign is important. It's also important to identify which ones will be users within your smart funnel.
- Pre-Awareness/Awareness: Unexposed audiences. These can include affinity similar or custom intent audiences. The initial demo should also be included. KPIs: CPM, total impression, reach
- Mid Funnel: Previous engagers/ remarketing lists (to push users down the funnel), life event/ in-market. KPIs: CPC, CTR, landing page views, cost-per landing page view
- Bottom Funnel: Typically remarketing lists. The bottom of the funnel can also be an in-market audience, depending on how much reach you want to give your bottom conversion piece—KPIs: Cost Per Conversion, Conversion Rate, Conversion funnel optics for ATC, IC.
Finally, there is more traditional targeting, such as geo and device targeting.
Ecommerce Campaigns
Leveraging the right audience within PMAX or shopping campaigns is key. This can also be adapted for other placements, but we wanted to prioritize key e-commerce placements. First with PMAX:
- Your Data: 1P or customer match lists, as audiences from within key efforts within the account
- Interests and Demo: Affinity or custom intent (please see above).
The recommendation is to use both so PMAX can experiment and unlock the right combination of audiences and creative for high conversion value. On the other hand, standard shopping campaigns are more traditional Google Ads setups than PMAX.
YouTube/ GDN Placement Targeting
This is unique to YouTube and GDN. This includes selecting channels or videos to place your ads on. However, there is a larger issue of scaling by cherry-picking specific content. This can be used with larger sites or apps (at the scale of the NBA app or site).
Click here to follow the conversation with Yousaf on YouTube for Google Ads: Advanced Audience Building. In the meantime, we have additional industry updates on our LinkedIn channel.
Yousaf Yunes is the CEO/ Lead Founder / Principal at YRV Dynamics, with more than 15 years of expertise in the advertising industry. He’s garnered a Top Rated Plus status on Upwork, earning a perfect job satisfaction score of 100% with twenty-one 5-star reviews from his Upwork clients. Yousaf earned certifications in Google Search and YouTube/Video and holds dual Blueprint certifications in Meta’s planning and buying. Yousaf has also won the Monty McKinney Award for the Institute of Advanced Advertising Studies (IAAS).
During his downtime, Yousaf is the lead moderator for the largest Meta group focused on Blueprint, known as “Facebook Blueprint Certification Prep,” which boasts a membership of over 30,000 individuals.
