What is Demographics for Search Ads?

Adwords is currently trialling new Demographics for Search Ads (DFSA) which will give advertisers the ability to target higher-value demographic audiences in order to improve the effectiveness of their search campaigns.

Already Existing Adwords Targeting Criteria for Search

Adwords’ search campaigns already offer the following targeting criteria:

• Device
• Language
• Location
• Dayparting
• Keyword

Age and gender are soon to be added to this list!

Demographics  targeting is already available within display campaigns, but is new to search and will allow advertisers to use modifiers to increase bids for demographics which generate higher conversion rates.

Why is Demographics for Search Ads a Good Thing?

Not all users are created equally. If you are currently running display campaigns then you will have likely found that users from a particular age range, or of a particular gender will convert better on your website than others.

With this information being available for search, you will now be able to optimise your bids to according the conversion rate for each demographic group.

This new targeting criteria will also give rise to the opportunity to create campaigns, ad copy, and landing pages which are catered towards a specific audience.

Example: If you have found that females between the ages of 25 and 34 generate the highest conversion rates on your website, you can now captalise on this by creating a campaign which focuses on this specific audience with ad copy that speaks directly to them, and a landing page which displays information about the services they are most interested in.

Where Will The New Demographic Targeting Be Available?

Within the campaign view, navigate to the Audiences tab and then select either the Gender or Age tab in order to view performance at ad group level and make bid adjustments.

You will then be able to add an age or gender as “bid only” and begin optimising your bids. Bids can be decreased by as much as 90%, or increased by up-to 900%. Your ads will still be served to all users, however your bids will be adjusted based on the bid modifiers that you have set.

Which Campaigns are Best for Demographic Targeting?

Demographic targeting can be used within any search campaign, however it is especially useful for campaigns where any of the following is true:

• Campaigns with an average position of 2.0 or lower on the page. By optimising your bids for better performing demographics you can achieve a higher average position and increase clicks for the demographics which are generating results
• Campaigns with a poor conversion rate. Using bid adjustments you can seek to isolate the users that produce the highest conversion rates, thereby increasing the average conversion rate.
• Campaigns with a cost-per-acquisition which is higher than your target CPA. Optimising the the bid adjustments for each demographic audience can help bring down your campaign’s average CPA to an acceptable level.

Is Demographics for Search Available for All Advertisers?

As of the time this article has been written, DFSA is currently being trialled for certain advertisers/agencies only. Ace Adwords is currently trailing this new DFSA – please feel free to get in contact if you would like to know more about how to starting using this new effective form of targeting.