In the Market for More In Market Audiences? 3 Ways to Quickly Scale Search Campaigns.
Google’s In Market Audiences for search came out one year ago. For us, these have quickly become a favourite tactic for improving search performance. Here, we will look at how you can squeeze more value from this targeting method. Don’t worry if you haven’t used In Market Audiences on search before, we’ll also look at the best ways to get started.
Do In Market Audiences work?
Yes. Yes they do. We’ve seen different levels of performance across different campaigns and clients (as you would expect from any PPC tactic) however in most cases we see a substantial impact.
General Rule of Thumb: In Market Audiences have a Conversion Rate that is roughly half-way between the conversion rate of keywords with no audience targeting and keywords with that target an audience of website visitors.
They are that good. This means that if we add an audience in observations we could add a bid adjustment of around +50% if our retargeting audiences has a +100% bid adjustment. While we see a CPC that is a bit higher than the normal campaigns, the CPA/ROAS is typically much better, albeit at a lower volume.
For a small scale campaign, we may be able to allocate all our budget to In Market Audiences which should bring down CPA when there is a good audience match. For larger campaigns, we would want to get as much traffic as is affordable from In Market Audiences and only after saturating these allocate budget elsewhere.
While we have some strong thoughts on how we structure our campaigns and bid on different audiences we aren’t going to go into that right now. You can have an almost overnight impact on your account by adding more In Market Audiences to your existing structure.
3 Ways to Scale Your In Market Audiences (and how long they take to set up)
Of course everyone works at different speeds and works on different sized and structured accounts. These are just a very rough guide and based on an experienced account manager working on a medium sized account (medium accounts being $15 to 50K spend per month)
Number 1: Top Down Selection of Relevant Audiences
Analysis: 10 mins skim reading list of audiences
Implementation: 30 mins if you add audiences to existing campaigns
If you don’t have much data on your converters, or you need to launch super duper fast this is the place to start. You can see a full list of audiences here, pick the ones that sound sensible to you. Keep on reading to find out why you don’t have to restrict yourself to In Market Audiences that aren’t a perfect match and how much further you can take this targeting tactic.
Number 2: Investigate the Insights Index
Analysis: 30 mins in interface
Implementation: 30 mins if you add audiences to existing campaigns
If you have data and don’t want to take a purely top down approach we can pick our prime In Market Audiences using data on our converters.
When we go to Audience Insights in the Google Ads interface(Tools> Share Library > Audience Manager > Audience Insights) we can select and audience of converters and check out the In Market Audience index. This tells us if our converters are much more likely to be in each specific In Market Audience relative to the normal population of a country.
That was a bit of a mouthful, so let’s think of an example. Imagine we are an airline advertising flights from the US to Italy. Say we have had 1,000 converting customers from the US and in this particular case, 320 of them were considered by Google to be a member of the in the market for trips to Florence, this makes sense it’s a lovely place (and just down the road from our office in Tuscany). However, Google knows that normally only 10 out of 1,000 people in the US would be in the market for a trip to Florence which is just 1% of the population on average. As a whopping 32% of our customers are in the market for trips to Florence our customer are 32 times more likely to be in the market for this service than the normal population. This in market audience is therefore given an index oc 32x.
If we have enough data on our converters, we want to target the In Market Audiences with the highest possible index.
When there are audiences that are a close match to the service or product we sell then it’s likely these will have a high index – this is the part you are most likely doing already. The next step is to test extra audiences that don’t seem like they are a good match.
Going back to our US to Italy airline example, we may find that our converters are also likely to be in the market for luggage. We would assume that not everyone who is in the market for a new suitcase wants to buy a flight to Italy, however if someone is in the market for luggage and searching for our normally good keywords then this person more likely to convert. If someone is searching for flights to Italy they could be planning their dream holiday in several years time, where as someone who has also started looking at bags means business.
We’ve seen some unexpected In Market audience work incredibly well. My favourite was for a client that builds a Project Management app for SMEs. We found our converters had a super high index for several car related audiences. Our converters were in the market for used Toyotas and used hybrids. When we stop to think about it, the image of a manager at an SME also being interested in buying a second hand Toyota Prius perfectly fits our customer profile. Remember, we are doing search campaigns here. Someone has to be in the market and also searching for a keyword we are targeting to see our ads so targeting users looking for cars is fine. In Market Audiences let us prioritise users who are searching for our keywords and also more likely to buy.
This final logical leap leads us to our next In Market expansion method.
Number 3: Target Broader Keywords Layered with Audience Targeting
Analysis: at least a couple of hours depending on how many keywords you already have and how much you want to expand your keywords
Implementation: a couple of hours, you might want to launch a separate campaign for these keywords
A tried and tested approach to expand retargeting reach is to add super broad keywords. A venn diagram of people who are in our remarketing lists and also searching for super long tail search terms is pretty minute. So, many PPC people include really broad keywords to show more ads to users in retargeting lists. These could be as broad as just one or two words with a broad match modified match type. We can do this with In Market Audiences too.
Let’s return to our airline example. I’m in a holiday mood. As our conversion rate is substantially higher than normal for our in market audiences we can target broader keywords that would not normally be profitable. By targeting users who are both in the market for trips to Florence and reaching broader search terms with a keyword such as “flight” in broad match modified we can capture incremental conversions from traffic we wouldn’t normally target. See how broad you can push your keywords while keeping things cost effective.
We’ve noticed in some cases that our” broad keywords plus in market audience” campaigns take a little longer than usual to convert. This makes sense as we are probably reaching high intent users but we reach them when they are still searching for the lower intent search terms that we wouldn’t normally target. If these users do take a bit longer to convert or do so on other channels, performance may not look so good if you are using a purely last click attribution model. It’s worth investigating if these keywords impact performance on brand, retargeting, direct traffic etc but we don’t have time to talk about attribution today.
Conclusion
We’ve found In Market Audiences now make up a large and crucial part of many of our search accounts. While we are keen to take advantage of such a powerful tool, it raises interesting questions about the future of Google Ads. We have no real understanding of what signals Google uses to assign a user to an In Market Audience or when someone may be removed from such an audience. These audiences are a black box. It raises some interesting questions about the future of PPC, especially if we become more reliant on such opaque machine learning systems. In the meantime, however, we will happily pump up performance and get as much value from high intent searchers as possible.
On Course to Creating a Culture
On Course to Creating a Culture
Does your culture matter and what do you do about it?
Culture is a pretty fluffy business buzzword however we’ve tripled in size in the last 18 months. So we decided maybe it’s time to start doing a bit more about it despite still being a tech toddler at less than 3 years old. We recently took our first trip to do what could easily be considered a corporate style team building day. As we are based on the beautiful Tuscan coast, we popped up into the Apuane Alps to go zip-lining down a canyon above bubbling rapids. It was epic. Here’s a quick summary of a few of our thoughts that are somewhat related to what company culture may mean.
What is company culture?
Full List of Google Ads In-Market Audiences
Here is a full list of all the in-market audiences you can target with your Google Ads Search campaigns. We tried looking for this online but couldn’t find one. So here you go 🙂
Categories
Baby & Children’s Products
Beauty Products & Services
Business Services
Cars & Vehicles
Clothing & Accessories
Computers & Peripherals
Consumer Electronics
Dating Services
Education
Employment
Event Tickets
Financial Services
Gifts & Occasions
Home & Garden
Property
Software
Sports & Fitness
Telecom
Travel
All In Market Audiences
Baby & Children’s Products
Baby & Children’s Clothing
Baby & Toddler Clothing
Children’s Clothing
Baby & Toddler Feeding
Infant Feeding Supplies
Toddler Meals
Child Car Seats
Childcare & Education
Childcare
Early Childhood Education
Nappies & Baby Hygiene Products
Pushchairs & Prams
Toys & Games
Beauty Products & Services
Bath & Body Products
Face Care Products
Hair Care Products
Make-up & Cosmetics
Perfumes & Fragrances
Spas & Beauty Services
Tanning & Sun Care Products
Business Services
Advertising & Marketing Services
SEO & SEM Services
Business Financial Services
Business Printing & Document Services
Business Technology
Enterprise Software
CRM Solutions
Collaboration & Conferencing Tools
ERP Solutions
Helpdesk & Customer Support Solutions
Network Systems & Services
Hosted Data & Cloud Storage
Network & Enterprise Security
Network Equipment & Virtualisation
Network Management
Web Services
Domain Registration
Web Design & Development
Web Hosting
Corporate Event Planning
Office Supplies
Office Furniture
Payment Processing & Merchant Services
Payroll Services
Staffing & Recruitment Services
Cars & Vehicles
Car Parts & Accessories
Automotive Electronic Components
Car Batteries
Car Brakes
Car Exterior Parts & Accessories
Car Interior Parts & Accessories
Engine & Transmission
High Performance & Aftermarket Car Parts
Wheels & Tyres
Car Repair & Maintenance
Brake Service & Repair
Collision & Car Body Repair
Glass Repair & Replacement
Oil Changes
Transmission Repair
Motor Vehicles
Motor Vehicles (By Type)
4x4s
4x4s (New)
4x4s (Used)
Classic Vehicles
Compact Cars
Compact Cars (New)
Compact Cars (Used)
Convertibles
Convertibles (New)
Convertibles (Used)
Coupes
Coupes (New)
Coupes (Used)
Crossovers
Crossovers (New)
Crossovers (Used)
Diesel Vehicles
Diesel Vehicles (New)
Diesel Vehicles (Used)
Estates
Estates (New)
Estates (Used)
Hatchbacks
Hatchbacks (New)
Hatchbacks (Used)
Hybrid & Alternative Vehicles
Hybrid & Alternative Vehicles (New)
Hybrid & Alternative Vehicles (Used)
Luxury Vehicles
Luxury Vehicles (New)
Luxury Vehicles (Used)
Microcars & Subcompacts
Microcars & Subcompacts (New)
Microcars & Subcompacts (Used)
Motorcycles
Motorcycles (New)
Motorcycles (Used)
Off-Road Vehicles
Off-Road Vehicles (New)
Off-Road Vehicles (Used)
Pickup Trucks
Pick-Up Trucks (Used)
Pickup Trucks (New)
Saloons
Saloons (New)
Saloons (Used)
Scooters & Mopeds
Scooters & Mopeds (New)
Scooters & Mopeds (Used)
Sports Cars
Sports Cars (New)
Sports Cars (Used)
Vans & Minivans
Vans & Minivans (New)
Vans & Minivans (Used)
Motor Vehicles (New)
Motor Vehicles (Used)
Motor Vehicles by Brand
Acura
Alfa Romeo
Audi
BMW
Buick
Cadillac
Chevrolet
Chrysler
Citroën
Dodge
Fiat
Ford
GMC
Honda
Hyundai
Infiniti
Isuzu
Jaguar
Jeep
Kia
Land Rover
Lexus
Lincoln
Maserati
Mazda
Mercedes-Benz
Mini
Mitsubishi
Nissan
Peugeot
Porsche
Ram Trucks
Renault
SEAT
Scion
Subaru
Suzuki
Tesla Motors
Toyota
Vauxhall-Opel
Volkswagen
Volvo
Vehicles (Other)
Bicycles & Accessories
Boats & Watercraft
Campers & Motorhomes
Commercial Vehicles
Clothing & Accessories
Activewear
Costumes
Formal Wear
Bridal Wear
Suits & Business Attire
Handbags
Jewellery & Watches
Fine Jewellery
Watches
Wedding & Engagement Rings
Lingerie
Luggage
Men’s Clothing
Outerwear
Shoes
Boots
Dress Shoes
Trainers
Swimwear
Wallets, Briefcases & Leather Goods
Women’s Clothing
Computers & Peripherals
Computer Accessories & Components
Computer Monitors
Memory & Storage
Computers
Desktop Computers
Laptops & Notebooks
Tablets & Ultraportable Devices
Printers, Scanners & Faxes
Consumer Electronics
Audio
Pro Musician & DJ Equipment
Speakers
Stereo Systems
Camcorders
Cameras
Camera Lenses
Digital SLRs
Game Consoles
Nintendo Consoles
Sony PlayStation
Xbox
Home Cinema Systems
Mobile Phones
Televisions
Dating Services
Education
Exam Preparation & Tutoring
Foreign Language Study
Post-Secondary Education
Arts & Design Education
Business Education
Cosmetology Education & Training
Technology Education
Primary & Secondary Schools
Study Abroad Programmes
Employment
Accounting & Finance Jobs
Career Consulting Services
Clerical & Administrative Jobs
Education Jobs
Executive & Management Jobs
Government & Public Sector Jobs
Health & Medical Jobs
IT & Technical Jobs
Internships
Legal Jobs
Resumes & Portfolios
Retail Jobs
Sales & Marketing Jobs
Temporary & Seasonal Jobs
Event Tickets
Concert & Music Festival Tickets
Performing Arts Tickets
West End & Theatre Tickets
Sports Tickets
American Football Tickets
Baseball Tickets
Basketball Tickets
Football Tickets
Hockey Tickets
Financial Services
Banking Services
Debit & Cheque Services
Savings Accounts
Credit & Lending
Business Loans
Car Loans
Credit Cards
Credit Reports & Monitoring Services
Mortgage
Home Equity Loans
Home Purchase Loans
Mortgage Refinancing
Personal Loans
Student Loans
Financial Planning
Estate Planning
Retirement Planning
Insurance
Car Insurance
Health Insurance
Home Insurance
Life Insurance
Travel Insurance
Investment Services
Tax Services
Gifts & Occasions
Flowers
Gift Baskets
Holiday & Seasonal Items
Christmas Items & Decor
Halloween Items & Decor
Valentine’s Day Items & Decor
Party Supplies & Planning
Event Planning Services
Party Supplies
Personalised Gifts
Photo & Video Services
Event Photographers & Studios
Photo Printing Services
Wedding Planning
Home & Garden
Home & Garden Services
Architectural Services
Carpet Installation
Door & Window Installation
Electrician Services
Flooring Services
General Contracting & Remodelling Services
Home Cleaning Services
Home Inspection Services
Interior Design & Decorating Services
Landscape Design
Locksmith Services
Painting Services
Pest Control Services
Plumbing Services
Roofing Services
Home Appliances
Cooking Ranges & Stoves
Dishwashers
Microwaves
Refrigerators
Small Appliances
Coffee & Espresso Makers
Juicers & Blenders
Mixers
Vacuums
Washers & Dryers
Home Furnishings
Bedroom
Home Office
Home Storage & Shelving
Kitchen & Dining Room
Living Room
Nursery
Home Improvement
Flooring
Kitchen & Bathroom Cabinets
Kitchen & Bathroom Counters
Paint
Plumbing Fixtures
Tools
Home Security
Interior Design
Curtains & Window Treatments
Fireplaces
Lights & Fixtures
Rugs & Carpets
Outdoor Items
BBQs & Grills
Garden & Outdoor Furniture
Lawn Mowers
Pools & Spas
Property
Commercial Properties
Commercial Properties (For Rent)
Commercial Properties (For Sale)
Moving & Relocation
Residential Properties
Residential Properties (For Rent)
Apartments (For Rent)
Houses (For Rent)
Residential Properties (For Sale)
Apartments (For Sale)
New Apartments (For Sale)
Preowned Apartments (For Sale)
Houses (For Sale)
New Houses (For Sale)
Preowned Houses (For Sale)
Software
Antivirus & Security Software
Audio & Music Software
Business & Productivity Software
Design Software
Drawing & Animation Software
Photo Software
Tax & Accounting Software
Video Software
Sports & Fitness
Fitness Products & Services
Exercise Equipment
Fitness Classes & Personal Training Services
Gyms & Athletic Clubs
Outdoor Recreational Equipment
Camping & Hiking Equipment
Fishing Equipment
Sporting Goods
Golf Equipment
Winter Sports Equipment & Accessories
Telecom
Cable & Satellite TV Providers
Internet Service Providers
Mobile Phone Service Providers
Travel
Air Travel
Air Travel by Class
Bus & Rail Travel
Car Hire
Economy, Compact & Mid-size Car Rental
Full-size & Standard Car Rental
Luxury, Convertible & Specialty Car Rental
Minivan & SUV Rental
Cruises
Hotels & Accommodation
Holiday Rentals
Hotels by Star Rating
1 & 2 Star Hotels
3 Star Hotels
4 Star Hotels
5 Star Hotels
Trips by Destination
Trips to Asia-Pacific
Trips to Australia
Trips to Brisbane
Trips to Melbourne
Trips to Perth
Trips to Sydney
Trips to China
Trips to Beijing
Trips to Chengdu
Trips to Guangzhou
Trips to Shanghai
Trips to Hong Kong
Trips to India
Trips to Ahmedabad
Trips to Bangalore
Trips to Chennai
Trips to Delhi
Trips to Goa
Trips to Hyderabad
Trips to Jaipur
Trips to Kochi (India)
Trips to Kolkata
Trips to Mumbai
Trips to Pune
Trips to Indonesia
Trips to Bali
Trips to Bandung
Trips to Jakarta
Trips to Japan
Trips to Fukuoka
Trips to Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe
Trips to Nagoya
Trips to Okinawa
Trips to Sapporo
Trips to Tokyo
Trips to Malaysia
Trips to Kuala Lumpur
Trips to Penang
Trips to Nepal
Trips to New Zealand
Trips to Seoul
Trips to Singapore
Trips to Sri Lanka
Trips to Taipei
Trips to Thailand
Trips to Bangkok
Trips to Chiang Mai
Trips to Phuket
Trips to Vietnam
Trips to Hanoi
Trips to Ho Chi Minh City
Trips to the Philippines
Trips to Europe
Trips to Amsterdam
Trips to Brussels
Trips to Croatia
Trips to Denmark
Trips to Copenhagen
Trips to France
Trips to Bordeaux
Trips to Lyon
Trips to Marseille
Trips to Nice
Trips to Paris
Trips to Toulouse
Trips to Germany
Trips to Berlin
Trips to Cologne
Trips to Dusseldorf
Trips to Frankfurt
Trips to Hamburg
Trips to Munich
Trips to Stuttgart
Trips to Greece
Trips to Helsinki
Trips to Hungary
Trips to Budapest
Trips to Iceland
Trips to Ireland
Trips to Dublin
Trips to Italy
Trips to Bologna
Trips to Florence
Trips to Milan
Trips to Naples
Trips to Rome
Trips to Sicily
Trips to Venice
Trips to Kiev
Trips to Malta
Trips to Moscow
Trips to Oslo
Trips to Poland
Trips to Krakow
Trips to Warsaw
Trips to Portugal
Trips to Faro
Trips to Lisbon
Trips to Porto
Trips to Prague
Trips to Romania
Trips to Sofia
Trips to Spain
Trips to Alicante
Trips to Barcelona
Trips to Bilbao
Trips to Cordoba
Trips to Granada
Trips to Madrid
Trips to Malaga
Trips to Mallorca, Ibiza & Balearic Islands
Trips to Seville
Trips to Valencia
Trips to the Canary Islands
Trips to St. Petersburg
Trips to Sweden
Trips to Stockholm
Trips to Switzerland
Trips to Geneva
Trips to Zurich
Trips to Turkey
Trips to Ankara
Trips to Antalya
Trips to Istanbul
Trips to Izmir
Trips to Vienna
Trips to the UK
Trips to Birmingham, UK
Trips to Edinburgh
Trips to Glasgow
Trips to London, UK
Trips to Manchester, UK
Trips to Latin America
Trips to Bogota
Trips to Brazil
Trips to Rio de Janeiro
Trips to Salvador
Trips to São Paulo
Trips to Buenos Aires
Trips to Costa Rica
Trips to Guatemala
Trips to Lima
Trips to Mexico
Trips to Acapulco
Trips to Cancun & Playa del Carmen
Trips to Guadalajara
Trips to Los Cabos
Trips to Mexico City
Trips to Monterrey
Trips to Puerto Vallarta
Trips to Panama
Trips to Santiago
Trips to the Caribbean
Trips to Aruba
Trips to Cuba
Trips to Jamaica
Trips to Nassau
Trips to Puerto Rico
Trips to the Dominican Republic
Trips to North America
Trips to Canada
Trips to Calgary
Trips to Montreal
Trips to Ottawa
Trips to Toronto
Trips to Vancouver
Trips to the US
Trips to Alaska
Trips to Albuquerque
Trips to Atlanta
Trips to Atlantic City
Trips to Austin
Trips to Baltimore
Trips to Birmingham, AL
Trips to Boston
Trips to Buffalo-Rochester Area
Trips to California
Trips to Los Angeles
Trips to Orange County, CA
Trips to San Diego
Trips to San Francisco Bay Area
Trips to Charleston, SC
Trips to Charlotte
Trips to Chicago
Trips to Cincinnati
Trips to Cleveland
Trips to Columbus
Trips to Dallas-Fort Worth
Trips to Denver
Trips to Detroit
Trips to Florida
Trips to Fort Lauderdale
Trips to Fort Myers
Trips to Jacksonville
Trips to Key West
Trips to Miami
Trips to Orlando
Trips to Pensacola
Trips to Tampa Bay Area
Trips to Gatlinburg
Trips to Greenville, SC
Trips to Hartford
Trips to Hawaii
Trips to Maui
Trips to Oahu
Trips to the Big Island
Trips to Houston
Trips to Indianapolis
Trips to Kansas City
Trips to Las Vegas
Trips to Little Rock
Trips to Louisville
Trips to Memphis
Trips to Milwaukee
Trips to Minneapolis-Saint Paul
Trips to Myrtle Beach & Grand Strand
Trips to Nashville
Trips to New Orleans
Trips to New York City
Trips to Norfolk-Virginia Beach Region
Trips to Ocean City, MD
Trips to Oklahoma City
Trips to Omaha
Trips to Philadelphia
Trips to Phoenix
Trips to Pittsburgh
Trips to Portland, OR
Trips to Raleigh-Durham Area
Trips to Reno
Trips to Richmond, VA
Trips to Salt Lake City
Trips to San Antonio
Trips to Savannah
Trips to Seattle
Trips to St Louis
Trips to Tucson
Trips to Washington, D.C.
Trips to the Middle East & Africa
Trips to Doha
Trips to Egypt
Trips to Israel
Trips to Jeddah
Trips to Jordan
Trips to Kenya
Trips to Kuwait
Trips to Lebanon
Trips to Morocco
Trips to Riyadh
Trips to South Africa
Trips to Cape Town
Trips to Johannesburg
Trips to Tehran
Trips to the United Arab Emirates
Trips to Abu Dhabi
Trips to Dubai
We did some cool tech!
Once again we did some nerdy stuff that other people also think is rather cool. We’re pumped to announce we’ve been shortlisted for the Paid Search Technology of the Year in the UK Biddable Media Awards and we are a little bid proud of this.
The particular tech in question is a typo finder like no other, Mrs Fletcher – named after the nitpicking star detective of Murder She Wrote. It’s a python script which allows you to check whether your ad copy is riddled with errant typo’s or not! We created this script in order to meet one of Taboola’s needs, a main client of ours.
Taboola is one of the biggest players in the native advertising industry and its account structure is huge; meaning that checking ad copy manually is not simply tedious, but impossible. Jessica on the other hand, does this by comparing your ad copy with a master database of words sourced from the free online dictionary ‘Wiktionary’. The script then creates a Google Spreadsheet and sends the account manager an email alert in order to be review manually. This saves all of us a lot of time and headaches, we hope the judges see it our way too!
If you want to play with some of our other tech tools you can check them our in our Super Secret Stash of Scripts.