On October 26, Google rolled out new updates to their targeting for search campaigns. This is big news for businesses and how they target their customers. These changes could mean a lot as organizations continue to try and find new ways to speak directly to their ideal audience.
Although Google allows advertisers great control over which search terms their ads match on, many advertisers often struggle to match up a user’s intent to their searches. As advertisers spend so much time with keyword research, building keyword lists, and reviewing their keyword performance, it’s easy to forget that their customers aren’t keywords – they’re people.
A man and a woman searching for “shoes” aren’t likely to be searching for the exact same pair. And a 19-year-old and a 65-year-old searching for “dresses” are more than likely searching for something completely different from each other. With the changes to AdWords, targeting specific demographics just became a whole lot easier.
What changed?
Before the update, SEM campaigns had targeting that used keywords, device, language, location, and time of day. Marketers were not able to bid specifically on a certain age range or gender. Today, Google launched Demographics for SEM campaigns. Now we are able to target specific ages and genders. Demographics is an AdWords feature that allows advertisers to modify keyword bids for ages and genders, helping make sure advertisers reach higher value demographics through more effective SEM campaigns.
What does this mean?
This is a great added feature for AdWords advertisers. The addition of Demographic targeting helps narrow down the target audience to focus the ads to a higher-converting audience. For example, if a business realizes males 18-24 click on the ads often but don’t convert, they can set their bids to not show ads or show less ads to them when they search for one of their keywords. Alternatively, if a business finds out females 45-54 are some of the highest converters on the site, the business can bid more aggressively on those specific demographics.
Demographics for SEM campaigns had been in beta for over four years, and today it’s finally ready for all AdWords customers. Through the beta, Google found that Demographic targeting has decreased CPAs (cost per acquisitions) 15%. They also found a 65% increase in CTRs (click-thru rates) thanks to the Demographic targeting. If you’re interested in learning more about Search Engine Marketing Campaigns, feel free to contact us or download our SEM Whitepaper at the bottom of this post.
Want to hear more about this?
There are plenty more advantages to starting an SEM campaign, so feel free to explore our site and take advantage of our material. Also if you’re interested in hearing what else we have to say about Demographic Targeting, check out our Facebook Live show (KMS10at10) every Friday to hear me explain it even more.