Today’s consumers are constantly moving between channels and devices, and video is becoming an increasingly important part of their journey. In fact, in a study we conducted at Google, eighty percent of shoppers told us they have switched between search and video when they’re researching products to buy. Which begs the question, as a search marketer, how do you effectively add video to your strategy?
Custom intent audiences is the answer. They take a useful signal (what people are looking for) and let you engage them across different media. These audiences are designed to work with the search skill set that you already have with a few differences on the margins. (I’m focusing on video for today, but remember that you can also create these audiences on display and Gmail.)
What are custom intent audiences?
Custom intent audiences help you reach customers on YouTube based on the terms they use to search for products or services on Google.com. You select a set of keywords, then your video ads will be shown to people whose past queries match your keywords when they’re watching YouTube. There are a lot of similarities and differences vs. traditional search campaigns when working with custom intent audiences. Let’s start with the similarities.
Think like a search marketer
In many ways managing video campaigns with custom intent audiences should be quite familiar:
When to not think like a search marketer
While video campaigns with custom intent audiences by and large start out like a search campaign, there are some key differences that you should keep in mind.
I love search marketing. With custom intent audiences, you can apply a honed search skillset to video. And if you’re on the fence, consider this: On average, advertisers that run YouTube video ads in addition to Search ads see three percent higher search conversion rates and four percent lower search CPAs versus advertisers who run search ads alone. Video is now an integral part of a well-balanced performance campaign.
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Matt Lawson is Vice President of Ads Marketing for Google, responsible for a broad portfolio of ads products including search, shopping, display, and analytics.
This content was originally published here.