In-Market and Affinity Audiences. Customer Match. Custom Intent. Demographic targeting. Google’s catalog of audience targeting options has exploded over the past couple of years. In this talk, we will cover how to make Google Ads’ ever-growing audience targeting options work for you on a layer-by-layer basis. Attendees will be given strategies for simple tests that can be rolled out right away, to campaign overhauls through data analysis and audience discovery. We will introduce new ideas for new audience layers including remarketing and customer match approaches. We will discuss some examples of tests gone wrong, such as the common problem of limiting audiences so severely that they halt spend altogether. And we will discuss how to overcome these key pitfalls for those who are just starting to use Google audience targeting in earnest across their search ad campaigns.

1. Reaching Qualified Searchers
with
Audience Targeting:
A Layered Approach

2. • The Basics:
• Sources
• Key Benefits
• Types of Targeting Available
• Research:
• Identifying Your Own Audience Testing Opportunities
• How to Organize a Test:
• Segmentation & Strategy
• Common Pitfalls and how to avoid them
Agenda

3. About Me:
Mary Hartman
@PPCHartman
● Industry Speaker
● Senior Account Manager
● Follow me @PPCHartman

4. Sources of
Audience
Data
1) Things Users Do
while using Google properties
● Searches
● Website visits
● Ads clicked
● Videos viewed
● Location
● Device

5. 2) Things Users Create
while using Google properties
● Emails sent and received via Gmail
● Contacts added
● Calendar events
● Photos & videos uploaded
● Docs, sheets, slides on Google
Drive
Sources of
Audience
Data

6. 3) Places Users Visit Online,
where they confirm their identity.
● Demographic information gleaned
from social media sites visited and
attached to the user’s unique
cookie.
● Demographic information gathered
when a user sign up for a Google
account: Birthday, gender, phone
number, country, email, name.
Sources of
Audience
Data

7. Benefits of Layering Search Audience
Targeting with your Keywords
@PPCHartman
1. Optimize: Reach “hotter” ready-to-buy audiences
2. Refine: Exclude unwanted traffic
3. Test: Expand broad match keyword targeting in a low risk way

8. @PPCHartman
SEARCH AUDIENCE TARGETING IS THE
FUTURE

9. @PPCHartman
“The key to success in 2019…will be to create a detailed strategy of the various
audience types and audiences lists and how you can layer them (with positive and
negative bid types) to shape your paid search strategy.”
-Christi Olson
Head of Evangelism for Search,

10. “Customers aren’t keywords -
They’re people”
@PPCHartman
-Mark Irvine
Director of Strategic Partnerships,
Named Most Influential PPC Expert of 2019

11. TYPES OF SEARCH TARGETING AVAILABLE
@PPCHartman

12. In-Market Audiences
@PPCHartman
Ready-to-Purchase Audiences (mid-funnel searchers, browsers, media consumers)
• Based on what users are actively researching and planning
+
=

13. Custom Intent Audiences
@PPCHartman
Ready-to-Purchase searchers across multiple platforms
● Used for YouTube ads only

14. Detailed Demographic Audiences
@PPCHartman
Audiences Based on Who Users Are
● Age
● Gender
● Parental Status
● Marital Status
● Education
● Homeownership status
● Life Events: Only available for YouTube, Gmail ads targeting
● ** Note that on average, 40% of Google Ads demographic info is “unknown”

15. Retargeting Audiences
@PPCHartman
Online interactions with your Business
● Website visitors
● YouTube users (Channel viewers / viewed a video from your channel.
Membership duration is adjustable)
Beyond Simple Cookie-Driven Retargeting
● Customer Lists: Email match, based on what you know about your users, 1st
party data
● Similar Audiences: Allows Google to expand targeting

16. Use Google Analytics to Create Audiences
@PPCHartman
Import behavior-driven audiences into Google Ads by other channel interactions

17. @PPCHartman

18. IDNTIFYING YOUR AUDIENCE TESTING
OPPERTUNITIES
@PPCHartman

19. Leverage Google’s Audience Insights
@PPCHartman

20. Or… Check Google Analytics Data
@PPCHartman

21. @PPCHartman
Hold Back - Observe First!

22. @PPCHartman
Hold Back - Observe First!

23. @PPCHartman
While Observing, consider…
1. Are you maximizing audience depth?
2. Did you determine a point of statistical significance?
• When does the test end?
• How many clicks / conversions will secure your confidence in the observation?
3. Check your “surefire” converter stats vs. new audiences or prospecting audiences.
• Prospect audiences on non-brand keyword searches
• Retargeting audiences
• All audiences on brand keyword searches
Observation of audience behavior can drive strategy choices in CRO or other non-PPC
marketing tactics!

24. Bid Modifiers
@PPCHartman
● Aim to be more or less
competitive compared to
searchers not in the audience
● Take into account existing
adjustments for geo, device,
demographics.
● Ideal tests are with a 0% bid
adjustment = clean data
● Determine increases or
decreases based on previous
results and value per
conversion, your KPIs.

25. Bid Modifiers: Example Calculation
@PPCHartman
5.6% ÷ 4.3% = (1.30%-1)*100
= 30.23% (Round up to 30%)
Bid Adjustment
Users aged 17-25
have a CVR of
Compared to an
ad group CVR of
Subtract 1 and divide by 100
to get your bid adjustment %

26. Case Study:
Challenges
● Leads being generated included college students, non-pro, and non-decision makers.
● Keywords: supply chain visualization, supply chain model, demand planning, logistics planning
Solution
● After observing relevant in-market audiences, we increased bids for “ERP Solutions”
enterprise software visitors:
Result: 50% increase in quality conversions, and a drop in CPA over the course of 30 day test.
@PPCHartman

27. SEGMENTING & LAYERING AUDIENCES:
BEST PRACTICES
@PPCHartman

28. SEGMENTING: Dos & Don’ts
@PPCHartman
Do Don’t
Set to “Observe” setting initially
• Use bid adjustments
Use the “Target” setting without:
• Having the data to back up your decision
• Understanding potential overlap and
dealing with exclusions
• Being willing to take a cut in traffic
Set targeting on the ad group level
• Audiences may respond to different
keyword groups
Set targeting on campaign level
• If you mix campaign & ad group targeting
together, your changes will not post in
Editor.

29. SEGMENTING: Dos & Don’ts
@PPCHartman
Do Don’t
Create ”custom combination” audiences
• Great for targeting multiple audience
attributes at the same time.
Assume having multiple audiences targeted
means they are layered. They aren’t!
• Automatic setting will be
x audience OR y audience
in the same ad group.
Pick audience sizes that will spend your
budget:
• RLSA: 1,000 active users in last 30
days
• This is why set to “observe” is
important.
Over-segment with too many “target”
audiences
• It can kill traffic.
Avoid excluding “unknown” demographic
traffic altogether – 40% of search traffic
qualifies as ”unknown”

30. @PPCHartman
THE SAFETY-NET APPROACH

31. Case Study:
Challenge
● Search efforts were resulting in low-quality leads from whitepaper offers.
● To improve lead quality, keyword targeting had been narrowed down over time to
long-tail industry terms, reducing the amount of reach.
Solution
● New test campaigns targeted “Enterprise Software” and “Network & Enterprise Security”
In-Market audiences - Using “Target” audience setting, excluding consumers and
younger demographic ages since decision-makers in IT tend to be older.
● Keywords in the new campaign were much broader (BMM and Exact match) than the
norm, like ransomware data protection. Such a keyword would have been impossible to
test in the past without drawing in loads of McAfee-type consumer searches.
Result: Checking the client’s CMS, total qualified leads from Google Ads doubled,
primarily from the new campaign test with more diverse keywords & the audience
“safety net” put in place.
@PPCHartman

32. Setting Up a “Safety Net” Search Campaign
@PPCHartman
Do Don’t
Use the “Targeting” audience setting to
narrow your audience.
Keep keyword targeting as narrow as regular
search campaigns, or you’ll risk not spending
any budget at all.
Test more daring keywords as broad
match modified & exact match types.
Don’t fail to cross-exclude keywords that are
targeted in other campaigns with similar, bid-
modified audiences. Avoid cannibalization!
Monitor your SQRs carefully – do not rely
upon the audience targeting 100%
Fail to check mid modifiers that may skew
test data.
Personalize your ads to address the
audiences & use pre-qualifying language.
Use the same generic ad copy as regular
campaigns in your “safety net” campaign.

33. Remember to Set Exclusions!
@PPCHartman
Keep your tests clean and tidy ● Be aware of broad match
modified keywords / query
overlap in other campaigns &
exclude accordingly.
● Layering audiences with a
“Targeting” setting will cut
spend, so a natural solution is
to open up to new keyword
targets.
● Keep negative keyword lists
strong, but review what’s
necessary within the audience.

34. Closing Shout-Out to
Microsoft (formerly Bing) Ads also provides audience testing:
● Custom & Remarketing audiences
● 361 total In-Market audiences
● Demographic targeting including company, industry, and job function from
LinkedIn data!
@PPCHartman

35. ● Share the love! Follow me @PPCHartman
● Link to the Deck: HanapinMarketing.com/

36. @PPCHartman
Appendix: A Link to Google Ads Audiences

37. Bonus: Audiences Available only on Google
Display, YouTube, Gmail ads
Custom Affinity Audiences
● People with interests aligned with your brand
● Target by relevant keywords, URLs, apps, and places you select
Custom Intent Audiences
● People actively researching products and services
● Target by in-market keywords
Life Event Targeting
● Graduation
● Marriage
● Moving
@PPCHartman