This is our final post in a series exploring the value of audience insights in search marketing. Over the past few weeks, we heard from experts and leaders in the industry on the opportunity, predictions, and insights on the topic. With our final post today, we would like to explore the path to success when applying audience insights in your own campaigns.


Additional insights about your audience, such as location, time of day, and how they’ve engaged with you in the past, can help you better understand the intent of your audience so you can serve the most relevant message.

But more information can also mean more complexity. So to help you effectively navigate and leverage audience insights in your campaigns, we’ve developed a 3-step framework for success: Gather, Target, Engage. The infographic below captures the steps in more detail, along with case studies of advertisers who have applied them to their campaigns.

Click here to download the infographic
1. Gather insights that matter: This step is about identifying relevant signals to leverage in your campaigns, which is essential for developing insights on who the audience is, what context they are in, as well as what their interests may be. Here are some examples of the types of signals you can identify:

Who: The user’s relationship with you, including whether they have previously visited your site or made a purchase
What: Time, location and device used
Interests: Interests in specific categories based on consumed content

2. Target based on discovered insights: The next step is to combine these signals, and based on them, create segments you can target. Below are examples of segments you can create if you were selling laptops:
“Close to store”, based on device and location signals.
“Android users” may be more inclined to purchase a Chromebook.
“Interested in bags”: If a user has bought a laptop through your website, he might now need a laptop case rather than a laptop.
3. Engage your audience with a tailored ad: This final step is about delivering your audience a tailored message. Messaging can be optimized for each segment with A/B testing. By measuring results post-engagement, you can reassess if there are new signals to gather, ultimately coming back to the first step in the cycle.
Advertiser success with Audience-driven planning
Specsavers is a good example of an advertiser who applied this framework, matching their ad copy with location-specific segments. The strategy helped drive a 189% increase in their key metric - conversions. To find out more, you can see other case studies in the infographic or explore previous posts in our series. You can also hear about upcoming developments in your inbox, by signing up for our newsletter.