As a digital marketing agency, we know that recognising your target audience is essential to the success of your PPC campaigns. The better you understand your intended demographic, the more relevant and targeted your campaigns will be – resulting in improved conversion rates and a better return on investment. For search campaigns specifically, user intent is a fundamental component that needs to be understood to ensure great results.
What is Search Intent?
Search intent is the why behind a searcher’s query – what they’re looking to achieve by typing in those particular keywords. Understanding search intent can help you create more relevant and targeted campaigns that resonate with your audience. And if you can align your PPC campaigns with searchers’ goals, you’re more likely to see better results in terms of both relevancy and conversion rates.
There are four main types of search intent:
Navigational
The searcher is looking for a specific website, web page or brand. For example, they may type in “Facebook” or “Twitter login.”
Informational
The searcher is looking for information on a particular topic. For example, they may type in “what is search intent” or “how to improve PPC campaigns.”
Transactional
The searcher is looking to make a purchase or take some other action. For example, they may type in “Buy shoes online” or “Download e-book.”
Commercial
The searcher is looking for information about a product or service with the intention of making a purchase. For example, they may type in “tradesman insurance” or “PPC services.”
Why is Understanding Search Intent Important?
Understanding search intent is crucial because it can help you to create more relevant and targeted campaigns. If you determine the purpose behind a searcher’s query, you can create ads and landing pages that are more likely to meet their needs.
For example, if you know someone is searching for “best running shoes,” that is a query with commercial intent; the searcher is looking for information about a product with the intention of making a purchase.
If you create an ad targeting this query, you should include information about why your running shoes are the best. You might also want a call-to-action (CTA) here that encourages the searcher to buy your shoes.
On the other hand, if you know that someone is searching for “how to run faster,” that is an informational intent query, and the searcher is looking for information on a particular topic.
If you create an ad targeting this query, you should include information about how your product or service can help the searcher to run faster. You might also want a CTA that encourages the searcher to learn more about your product or service.
Depending on the type of campaign you’re implementing, you might want to disregard certain search terms based on the user intent and focus your efforts elsewhere.
How to Use Search Intent to Improve Your PPC Campaigns
Now that you know what search intent is and why it’s important, let’s look at how this can be used to improve your PPC campaigns.
Audience Relevance & Better Targeting
If you understand the searcher’s intent, you can ensure that your ad is only shown to people who are interested in what you’re selling. This targeted approach improves relevancy and ensures you’re using your budget wisely on advertisements people will engage with and lead to your objectives.
Customer Journey
By understanding what somebody wants to achieve at each stage of their journey, you can create ads relevant to their needs at that particular time. For example, someone just starting their research will be looking for different information than someone ready to make a purchase. So if you provide relevant information at each journey stage, you’ll be much more likely to convert a searcher into a customer.
Customer Lifecycle
Your customers will go through different stages as they interact with your brand. For example, an existing customer will likely be searching for other things than someone who has never heard of your brand before. By understanding the searcher’s intent, you can ensure that your ads are targeted appropriately and that you’re not wasting your budget on ads that aren’t relevant to the person seeing them.
Improved Conversion Rates
If you know what somebody wants to achieve by clicking on your ad, you can ensure they’re taken to a landing page relevant to their needs. This concise, relevant messaging will help to improve your conversion rates and ensure that you’re not losing potential customers by sending them to a generic landing page.
Wrapping up
The first step to any successful marketing campaign is understanding your audience. And when it comes to online advertising, understanding what people are searching for – what their intent is – is essential. After all, if you don’t know what people are looking for, how can you expect to give them what they want?
You can create more relevant and targeted PPC campaigns by understanding search intent. As a result, you’ll be able to improve your audience relevance, ensure that your ads are shown to people interested in what you’re selling, and improve your conversion rates. This combined approach will lead to a more successful PPC campaign and a better ROI for your business.
While we’re on the subject, these same principles also apply for SEO campaigns but are often applied differently. For this reason, SEO and PPC work brilliantly together to target audiences at different stages and with different intent.
If you would like to learn more about search intent and how we use it to improve the PPC campaigns we manage, contact us today. Our team are always available to answer any questions about our process!