Ads are everywhere. Whether scrolling through websites or walking down the street, we are bombarded with products. But paid advertisement is pretty unavoidable these days and unfortunately, it isn’t cheap.
If you’re paying for a Google Ad or something similar, you obviously want to make sure you’re getting the most for your money. It will probably hurt a lot, then, for you to hear that a 2020 report by WordStream stated that the click-through rate (CTR) for a Google Ads search campaign was 4.62% across all industries. That means that if you were paying for an ad last year, almost 96% of users who searched for your targeted keywords didn’t click on your ad.
We can assume this low rate is either because search engine users saw your ad and didn’t click, or because your ad didn’t appear in their search at all.
So what can you do about it?
You may already be relying on the retargeting funnel model, but you need to actually get viewers to your site for this to work. The best way to ensure your ad goes further is through a custom intent audience.
What is custom intent audience?
Custom intent audiences allow you to connect your site to your target audience by re-engaging viewers who previously ignored your ad. It allows you to further define your relevant keywords (interests or behaviours of your target audience), URLs (similar sites used by your target audience) and apps (used by your target audience) so that search engines have a more comprehensive idea of your target viewer. You can set a custom audience in your Display, Discovery, Gmail and video campaigns.
The Google Ads site uses the following example to explain why custom intent audience is effective:
‘Rather than reaching the “sports fans” affinity audience, a running shoe company may want to reach “avid marathon runners” instead. With custom audiences, the shoe company can define this audience by entering keywords, URLs and/or apps.
- Entering interests such as “5K runs”, “triathlon athlete”, or “long-distance runner”
- Using URLs of websites with content about running, training schedules, marathon nutrition and other marathon themes
- Entering apps in the Health & Fitness category that an avid marathon runner may likely be interested in.’
Custom intent audience is designed to catch users who are actively searching for your product or content, so your advertisement can be specialised to them.
How to create a custom intent audience
Creating a custom intent audience is really straightforward and will probably build upon a lot of the research you have already done. It’s so easy, it probably doesn’t feel like it ads much value – but believe us, it does!
Go to your Google Ad and create a new audience. Add at least 50 keywords (including the ones that have the highest conversion/performance rate from your current campaign) and create the audience.
Custom intent audiences are a cost-effective way to increase the traffic to your site. Reaching users who are already invested in what you have to offer means a high conversion rate for your site and by really refining your target audience you remove a fair chunk of the general competition.
Click through to our Google Ads page to find out how we can help you make the most of your paid adverts.