It’s the most wonderful time of year for search advertisers: Google is rolling out announced new methods for reaching your desired audience through text ads this holiday season. By leveraging affinity audiences and seasonal event segments for in-market audiences, your top-notch messaging will easily reach promising potential customers.
Originally published on Google. Let’s explore both targeting options, which will soon be available in your Google Ads account, and consider their potential impact on your holiday marketing. Finally, we’ll outline some actionable next steps.
Affinity audiences for search
For those familiar with display advertising, affinity audiences are a familiar tool used to reach potential customers across the Google Display Network (GDN). Essentially, an affinity audience consists of users sharing a common interest in a specific subject. Google identifies potential affinity audience members based on their search history, frequently visited sites, and other factors.
You’ll soon be able to enhance your search campaigns by integrating affinity audiences with your existing keywords. To illustrate, announcement post provides an example of a camping gear company. Traditionally, you might reach potential customers by targeting keywords like “tent for camping.” With affinity audiences, you can target that same keyword while also focusing on users who’ve shown a passion for the outdoors. This means affinity audiences for search will allow for more targeted advertising, increasing the likelihood of conversions from users who see your ads.
Impact on your holiday marketing strategy
The holiday season typically sees a surge in competition on the search network. Advertisers often increase budgets and broaden keyword targeting. As a result, generating significant website traffic from generic keywords like “tent for camping” becomes increasingly challenging. Integrating affinity audiences with your search keywords provides a way to stand out amidst the holiday marketing clutter. With rising competition (and CPCs), wasting resources on unlikely-to-convert leads is not an option. Affinity audiences ensure you won’t have to.
Seasonal event segments for in-market audiences
Since 2018, in-market audiences have helped search advertisers improve conversion rates by connecting them with consumers actively researching and comparing products. For example, if I spend weeks searching for “men’s jeans” and browsing e-commerce sites like H&M, Google might categorize me under the Apparel & Accessories in-market audience. This enables retailers selling men’s jeans to easily target individuals like myself who are clearly interested in making a purchase.
Soon, in-market audience targeting will become even more effective with the introduction of seasonal event segments. These subcategories target consumers actively researching and comparing products in anticipation of an upcoming holiday or event. Knowing your target audience is preparing for a specific occasion—like Valentine’s Day—allows for crafting timely offers and precisely targeted messaging. In other words, seasonal event segments for in-market audiences help you distinguish between consumers generally interested in your business and those interested for a particular reason.
Impact on your holiday marketing strategy
It’s no surprise that both Black Friday and Christmas will have dedicated in-market segments upon this update’s release. Leveraging these segments to enhance your messaging during peak competition is a no-brainer. For instance, imagine selling winter apparel like coats, hats, and scarves. The Black Friday in-market segment allows you to reach consumers specifically seeking apparel deals from retailers with pre-holiday promotions. With this knowledge, you can tailor your messaging accordingly: “Winter Coats for Women￨Limited Time Black Friday Sale.”
Next steps for you
You can expect to see affinity audiences for search and seasonal event segments for in-market audiences within your Google Ads account over the next few weeks—just in time to experiment before Black Friday arrives. Should you immediately apply affinity audiences to your top-performing keywords? I wouldn’t recommend it. The main goal of affinity audiences for search is to refine your text ad reach and boost conversion rates. Applying an affinity audience to already successful keywords risks excluding high-quality leads and negatively impacting your conversion rates.
Instead, try testing an affinity audience with an ad group that has room for improvement. If an ad group’s keywords generate many impressions but struggle to convert, they could benefit from an affinity audience. The same logic applies to seasonal event segments for in-market audiences. I wouldn’t immediately experiment with seasonal segmentation on your top-performing in-market audience. Instead, I’d look for an audience needing a boost and observe how seasonal segmentation performs. You’ll gain valuable insights without high risk!