Amp your Custom Intent Targeting on Google Ads with purchase intent signals

Google Ads platform enables advertisers to reach highly targeted audiences. One of the most powerful tools available for achieving this precision is Custom Intent Targeting. This feature, especially within the Google Display Network (GDN) and YouTube ads, allows brands to reach audiences based on their expressed interests and purchase intent.

Custom Intent Audiences enable advertisers to target people who are actively looking for products, services, or content that matches their business. By focusing on users who have shown intent through recent online behaviors like searches, website visits, and content engagement you can deliver ads to a highly relevant and motivated audience. With Custom Intent Targeting, advertisers can:

– Create audiences based on specific keywords, websites, and apps that potential customers have interacted with.

– Target users on Google Display Network (GDN) and YouTube who are further down the funnel and ready to make a purchase.

– Develop highly relevant ad campaigns that reach users exhibiting purchase intent.

Many advertisers confuse Custom Intent Audiences with In-Market Audiences, as both focus on targeting users with high intent to purchase. However, there are significant differences:

– In-Market Audiences are pre-defined by Google, offering a broader categorization of users actively researching or comparing products and services. With In-Market Audiences, you may only have broader options like “Beauty & Personal Care” which might not capture your niche precisely.

– Custom Intent Audiences , on the other hand, allow advertisers to create more granular, customized audience segments based on specific keywords, websites, and apps that users have interacted with. For example, if you’re running ads for a haircare brand, you can create Custom Intent Audiences around product category keywords, competitor keywords or websites.

Ideally, your ads should be shown to users on YouTube or Google Display Network (GDN) who are actively researching, buying or consuming content in the shopping category for your brand. This can be accomplished as follows:

Step 1. Identify products that shoppers are actively buying, and the related content that they are consuming in your brand’s shopping category. You can use tools like Shopalyst Brand Knowledge Graph.

Step 2. Extract the top attributes of these best selling products – features, benefits, ingredients, competitors, reviews and the like. You could use a co-pilot like Maia by Shopalyst to accomplish this.

Step 3. Match these best selling attributes with keywords available in the Google Keywords Planer. You can use tools like the Shopalyst Audience Builder to readily access category specific curated keywords.

To get the most out of Custom Intent Audiences, follow these best practices:

1. Optimize Keywords and Phrases

When building your audience, focus on long-tail keywords that reflect strong intent. For example, instead of just using “running shoes,” use more specific keywords like “best running shoes for marathon training.”

2. Test and Refine Custom Intent Audiences

A key to success with Custom Intent Audiences is continuous testing and optimization. Set up different ad groups with varying audience combinations (e.g., keywords only, keywords + websites, etc.) and measure which drives the best performance in terms of clicks, conversions, and return on ad spend (ROAS).

3. Competitor Targeting with Custom Intent Audiences

A powerful way to use Custom Intent Audiences is by targeting users who are interacting with your competitors’ websites. For example, if you’re in the fitness industry, you can create a Custom Intent Audience of users who’ve visited competitor websites like Peloton or NordicTrack.

4. Exclude Irrelevant Audiences

To avoid wasting ad spend on users who don’t align with your product, use negative keywords and exclude irrelevant audiences. For example, if you sell high-end products, you may want to exclude users searching for “cheap” or “budget” options.

Custom Intent Targeting in Google Ads allows advertisers to precisely target users showing a strong purchase intent, creating opportunities for higher conversion rates and better return on investment (ROI). By creating Custom Intent Audiences based on keywords, competitor websites, and specific apps, businesses can deliver highly relevant ads to people who are more likely to convert.

Remember to continuously test and refine your Custom Intent Audiences, optimize your keywords, and exclude irrelevant traffic to maximize the effectiveness of your campaigns. By leveraging tools like Shopalyst Audience Builder , you can outperform the competition and make the most of your ad spend.