As an advertiser using Google Ads, you will get recommendations from Google based on which audiences you should target. This applies for both Search and Display and should improve the intent of your campaigns.
But where do these suggestions actually come from?
A brand new update that rolled out this week will tell you why Google has chosen them – instead of just listing the recommendations.
What it means for PPC advertisers
With over a decade’s worth of PPC experience, Will Haswell, Head of Acquisition at Adzooma, explains what the update means:
“The new audiences that are being recommended have more context behind them. They’re basically justifications as to why Google is suggesting them, such as ‘competitors are using them’, or that it’s relevant based on other audiences that you already have applied to campaigns throughout the account.
“It also gives you the ability to make a better decision as to whether or not you should apply or layer those audiences to that campaign.”
To access this new feature, go to: Campaigns > Audience > Edit Audiences > Ideas in your Google Ads account. Here you should find a breakdown of your recommended audiences, giving you the go ahead to apply extras.
Why is it so important?
The new audience recommendations allow advertisers to reach customers with higher intent, making their campaigns go further with minimal effort.
As Will explains:
“Audiences are good to have and layer, and can improve your performance whether it’s a better click-through rate or it’s a better conversion rate. It increases the relevancy, you’re targeting more relevant people that are either in-market, or searching, and so on.
“If you’re bidding on a keyword such as PPC optimisation tool and you’ve applied some audiences to it, such as people that are interested in advertising or digital marketing, you can also apply bid modifiers to increase your bid on those audiences if you think there’s more intent there.
“Plus, there was no real insight before, but now it surfaces the audience to advertisers rather than having to find it themselves.”
Are the recommendation ideas 100% accurate?
You will never know how accurate your suggestions are for certain as they are fully generated and driven by Google. However, it can still be extremely profitable to understand your audiences and who you should be targeting.
A final word:
“The message is to always take it with a pinch of salt, you don’t have to apply all of the suggestions, and you should know your account and market well enough to make educated decisions on whether you apply them.
“It’s just there to basically speed up the process, surface the recommendations, and justify the reasons behind them.”
