Search as we know it is changing, with keywords and match types giving way to a more audience-powered approach. It’s a transition that has been slowly coming, but now that remarketing and remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA) are available on Bing and Google, search marketers can no longer afford to ignore audience-based buying.
In the new search world order, searching for searchers will increasingly be a part of every successful marketer’s integrated search strategy.
Welcome to the new world of search
In the early days of search, keywords and match types were the main levers search advertisers used to find customers. Keywords allowed us to reach the consumers who were searching for our products and services, while match types allowed the query-to-keyword relationship to be more or less relevant, a kind of volume and relevance throttle.
Today, audiences enable advertisers to target the right message to the right person — at potentially the right time — in a way that keywords cannot. Keywords can give you intent and interest levels, but search is now on the cusp of something greater: the ability to create campaigns to specifically meet customers, wherever they are.
Just as exciting, we can use audiences to help us stop wasting digital marketing spend… and those audiences don’t have to be limited to users who have engaged with us from a search standpoint.
Could all search campaigns be remarketing campaigns?
I’ve been noodling on the idea for a while that all campaigns are remarketing campaigns. You might disagree with me, especially since Bing only allows a -90-percent bid modifier. But… a -90-percent bid modifier is still fairly close to creating an exclusion or a negative campaign.
Why is this important? It gives you the ability to segment your customers, adjust your bid strategy to reduce acquisition costs and adjust your messaging based on the audience segment.
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