Target Your Competitors via Google Ads Custom Intent

Along with a new user interface and being rebranded as Google Ads about a month ago, Google AdWords have also introduced a new targeting option for display ads - Custom intent targeting. This game-changing feature has just started getting more coverage and usage among digital marketing agencies, and here’s what you need to know about it.

Custom intent audience means quite literally what the two words mean together. By using this targeting option, you can go beyond the predefined targeting options such as the existing categories in interest or in-market targeting. This is where you can insert keywords and URLs (psst! Your competitor URLs!) for Google to find the best audience for your products. You will also be able to target your audience’s intents - individuals who are simply browsing around, adding items into carts or purchasing online. All you need is a few specific URLs and relevant keywords! Keep in mind that custom intent targeting is for display campaigns only, and will not be an available option for search - at least as of now.

Basically, custom intent targeting allows you to target your competitors’ visitors, but not in a way that is as direct as you might expect. Do note that creating a custom intent audience list with your competitor’s URL will not put your ads on your competitor’s website, although your ads could show up if said website has open ad slots.

You’ll definitely need to know who your competitors are first! Here’s 3 ways that you can do so:

You might already know your direct competitors in your business line, such as the shop selling the same products with yours just two lanes down, or another agency providing the same services for the same costs in a busier city center, as an example. You can target their specific product pages which are more relevant towards your own products and add in keywords. This is one of the easiest way to get started with locating your competitors.

If you have run a Google Ad campaign or two with us, you might have gained some insights into how you perform against your competitors with us via the Auction Insights function. This is where you find out how much search or display impressions you have lost due to insufficient budget and how much of it is lost due to your lower ad ranks, along with other metrics such as your top of the page rate and most crucially - which competitors are taking up your ad slots.

If you are just starting up with your first campaign and have some keywords in mind already, you can search these keywords up on Google to see which companies are taking up the ad slots for your own reference. If they are selling the same products or services with your business, you already found yourself a possible competitor!

Aha! Here’s the interesting part. Two sections above, we have mentioned that custom intent targeting does not directly target your competitors.

You see, after you have created your own custom intent list with your competitor URLs and specific product keywords, Google’s super smart machine will do its magic and find out which category of people are frequently browsing through the relevant topics, keywords, websites, products et cetera.

You are selling laptops online. The easiest targeting option for you without custom intent would probably be interest targeting - Technology and gadgets & online shopping, for example. But is this the only way your audience is defined?

You have a few competitors who are also selling laptops online, and you know their website URLs. Let’s say you create your own custom intent audience list with these URLs, and some hot-selling product keywords that you have in common with the other shops.

You launch your display campaign with this list, and Google starts finding the common point between the site visitors of the compiled URLs and keywords in your list. Google algorithms then determined that individuals with an interest in photography and books, and are also recently searching for home furniture (in-market audience) are another prominent group of audience looking to purchase laptops online, just as much as the audience that you initially set if not more.

Google then shows your display ads on available ad slots when these people are browsing, and voila! You have just shown your ads to people outside your range of predefined audience who turns out to be more likely to purchase from you than your direct competitors.

Without a custom intent audience list, you could have missed out this huge chunk of audience who might be buying from you next. With this new Google Ads feature, you can expect the digital ad competition to get even stronger now, so you should definitely start early and get ahead of your competitors! By the way, PanPages TRINITY will be happy to answer your inquiries about this feature and more. Simply leave your inquiry on our official website or call us at 03-5611 8099 to find out more!