Categories
Custom intent audiences in Google Ads enable you to reach the perfect audience with your advertising campaign. This feature allows you to target people that are currently in the market, researching solutions similar to the products and services your business offers. By developing a clear understanding of consumer demand, you can tailor your ads to connect with the right audience, at the right time.
By using custom intent audiences Google Ads, you can hone your focus to operate in a niche market, where your products and services cater to a focused group of consumers with particular needs and interests.
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is an effective channel to target niche markets, especially if you have a smart strategy and can efficiently manage your campaign.
Before getting started with a PPC campaign in a niche market, you must know your audience and their expectations. In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of niche markets, and discuss how to target them effectively so that you can make the most out of custom intent audiences in Google Ads.
When you specialize in a niche market, you can define a more compelling value proposition, and establish a strong brand identity that resonates with a smaller, yet more invested audience. Instead of casting a wide net with generic, vague marketing, you hone your focus to pinpoint a select group of prospects. By prioritizing their needs, your business will stand out from the crowd.
Pretenders don’t fool people. If you want to convince people to part with their money, you’ll need to make them trust you. Most people can tell when a brand is being authentic. If you truly speak to the needs of a defined niche market and prove your commitment to its cause, more prospective new customers will gravitate towards you. Conversely, a shallow, catch-all approach to marketing is unlikely to win the trust of many — if any customers.
By using PPC advertising to connect with a specific niche, you have an opportunity to prove yourself as an expert. If the niche is an uncornered market (which is not in control or fulfilled), you may have the chance to be the best solution available. Build the trust to prove your expertise and show that your solution is the one people need.
If you want to succeed with PPC advertising, you need to get specific. A scattergun technique targeting broad audiences will only waste your money. Narrowing your focus is the surefire way to increase your return on investment (ROI).
In paid search advertising, the blueprint for success is simple:
You must create content around topics, keywords, products, and services that have high demand, but low competition. This concept is the crux of a profitable niche.
However, in reality, it’s harder to accomplish, especially with the growing competition in paid advertising. If you develop an intelligent approach to keyword research, audience targeting, and PPC advertising strategies, you may be able to drive exceptional results in any area.
Here are two core areas to focus on when you want to learn more about your niche audience’s interests:
Look for relevant search terms with decent search volume, and a strong indication of purchase intent. To do this, think about your audience and how they may search for solutions.
For example, if you’re selling a skin care product, consider some possible questions your audience may have, such as:
If you incorporate user queries into your keywords and ad copy, you will connect directly with the users entering these terms into search engines.
Imagine you have a sports equipment business, and you want to sell more baseball gear. If you know more about the geographic, demographics and interests of your audience, you can tailor your ads to catch their eye. With some data analysis, you can find out the location, gender, and age of people that are looking for baseball gear online.
Whatever market you operate in, you must hit your goals. Otherwise, your PPC budget is going to waste.
Before you can sell any product or service, you must nurture the demand in the market. People may already have some idea of what they want, but you may need to create more awareness before people make a purchase. In a small, untapped niche, you may need to educate people on the need for your product or service, showing them a solution for a problem they didn’t know they had.
You can experiment with ideas like video demos, quizzes, and thought leadership blog content to educate people and gauge their current interest level. Identify similar products in the market, and look for ways to improve upon existing solutions to attract more attention.
Micro-conversions are single steps along your marketing funnel towards your primary conversion goal. For example, if your business aims to enroll young kids in your tennis camp program, a micro-conversion could be getting them to download your free tennis tips ebook, or make a purchase of a new tennis racket.
In a small niche, there may only be two or three brands worth talking about, as others can’t compete. Ideally, you want to be the biggest fish in a small pond, so your business will attract the most attention. People should only want to come to you. Strive to deliver high-quality content, products, and services that are a little bit different than anything else available in the market.
Remarketing is a powerful method of targeting users that have already engaged with your business in the past. These users tend to be cheaper acquisitions, as their prior interest and exposure to your brand makes it more likely that they will purchase something in the future.
Leverage data insights to use what you know about each user. By that, we mean you can refer to information about their gender, age, and interests whenever you are creating targeted content and ad copy for remarketing purposes. With this more in-depth knowledge of your prospects, you can craft content that will pique their curiosity.
You may think niche markets shouldn’t target broad, general terms, but don’t rule them out entirely. When you use broader search terms, you can generate more traffic. Of course, some of this traffic will comprise unqualified users who are not interested in what you have to offer.
However, broad match keywords will also bring in prospects that may not have found you any other way. Sometimes, goal with broad match type is not conversion, it’s “Discovery”. If you still worried about the risks-or your agency/client won’t let you implement straight broad match –a much lower risk way is to get started with “Broadience”
Brodience = Broad Match Type + Audience Targeting
For example, somebody that searches for “kitchen appliances” may find your ad about “kitchen remodeling,”
While it’s not an exact match, there’s a chance you could pick up more leads and conversions from opening up your keywords list to include related search terms.
Quite often, people will want more than one solution to a problem. Even though you are in a small niche market, your products or services may be able to pivot to solve several issues. For example, an electrician can run ads for home lighting solutions, as well as for commercial AC repair work.
It’s great to be able to deliver good news to your customers. However, you mustn’t mislead them. Aim for a balance between optimism and realism by setting the right expectation.
For example, let’s say your advertising agency has a new client that wants you to run a new brand awareness campaign. You set a goal of increasing site traffic by 70% on their website. After some fantastic visual design work, your marketing team expects excellent results from the paid banner ads.
Unfortunately, the target audience is not interested, as they find the content on the site doesn’t align with the promises from the ad. In the end, your client is disappointed — just like the users who clicked on the ad.
Most people don’t mind waiting for something as long they know why they have to wait. While it can be a little frustrating, most customers will understand that issues can arise.
If there is a delay in production, keep your customers updated. Let them know what is happening and why you need to hold off on the delivery. They will appreciate that you keep them in the loop.
Even niche markets have seasonal trends. For example, a novelty sock company can sell themed designs at Christmas, with Santa or Rudolph socks. You could think about using custom intent audiences in Google Ads to pinpoint shoppers who are searching for these types of niche items during seasonal shopping periods.
Through qualitative learning, you can understand what drives people to purchase certain items during Christmas, summer, or on Black Friday.
If more users are searching for a specific product, the related keywords will have higher purchasing intent, which makes them valuable terms to include in your PPC campaign.
Try asking your audience questions in the lead-up to seasonal periods, so you know what they are interested in at that time.
Sometimes, even the best-laid plans can come undone when something unexpected impacts the market. You could have the best keywords and a solid strategy using custom intent audiences in Google Ads to target a focused niche market.
However, external factors can deter people from behaving normally in the market. People may be less inclined to make certain purchases if they lose their job, or if they get sick. In these cases, their priorities will quickly change, and your ads won’t seem so appealing.
If we consider the current COVID-19 pandemic, it’s clear that the global economy is going to take a massive hit that may sink many small businesses. Some companies may be able to pivot to offer new solutions. For example, you may already offer masks, sanitizers, or cleaning services, which would be in high demand now.
Being ready to adapt to rapid changes in the market makes it more likely that you will drive ROI from paid advertising.
Custom intent audiences in Google Ads are not just another fancy feature you should ignore. Knowing your audience is vital. When you dig deep to get familiar with the needs and interests of a smaller, focused niche audience, you can generate positive results on even a low PPC budget.
If you want to learn more about user intent, read our blog, What is User Intent? The Definitive Guide to Better Keyword Research.
How much did you enjoy this article?
We will help your ad reach the right person, at the right time
Actionable insights discovered for you. Now you can do more in less time.
PPCexpo Keyword Planner will help you align your keywords with the customers’ intent.
Frequent audits will help you optimize your PPC campaign for success.
Visualizations give you the ability to instantly grasp the insights hidden in your numbers.
Experience the new revolution in reporting … click your way to insights, don’t scroll.
Calculate the number of combinations in your PPC campaign. It may surprise you.
Related articles
A landing page is a web page designed to drive specific actions. Learn the essentials of creating high-converting landing pages in our guide.
ROAS calculation can help you evaluate every PPC campaign's performance so that you know which of your campaigns are converting the best.
Discover the marketing lifecycle stages and how they shape customer relationships. You’ll understand their role in driving customer engagement and retention.
