How to Use Google Search for Better Audience Targeting

Not all messaging resonates with all people. That sounds like a given, right? Sadly, many marketers don’t abide by this general rule of thumb.

And that’s why audience targeting is a key component of any strategic marketing campaign.

Without identifying a specific audience, your carefully planned, innovative digital tactics are nothing more than the age-old “spray and pray” approach of marketers past.

Luckily, there are a few simple ways to identify and target specific audiences with a technology we all know and love: Google.

Better yet, there are advanced artificial intelligence tools designed just for this very purpose.

But let’s start with the insights you can pull from our favorite search engine.

Perform Keyword Research

Choosing the correct keywords for your target audience is half the battle of getting your messaging in front of them. Google’s Keyword Planner tool is a free (with a Google Ads account) and effective way to achieve this.

Not only does it give you the historical search volume on a particular keyword, it recommends related keywords and provides forecasts.

Let’s say you’re optimizing content for a specific search term. You’re certain your target audience is using this term frequently and you’re ready to appear on page one of search results. When you do some digging in Keyword Planner, however, you might realize that nobody is really using it. Talk about poor audience targeting.

But with all the free data on the keywords from Google, you’re well on your way to a fully optimized strategy.

Do Some Digging With Search Predictions

Google’s predictive search function is another way to figure out what your audience is actually looking for, allowing for more accurate targeting.

You can simply open a new tab and start a Google query, then take a look at the suggested searches that auto-populate. These are based on what actual users are searching, so it’s an excellent way to gauge search trends and what will resonate with your intended audience.

A word of caution: Predictive search is personalized, so if you’re signed into your Google account while you do this research the results may be skewed to your preferences instead of your audience’s. Use a private browser or incognito window to avoid this.

Get Competitor Insights

You can also use some simple Googling to gain valuable competitor information.

Think about it from your target audience’s perspective—what would they be searching? Try those queries. From there, see how your competitors are ranking.

Why is this important? Though it seems elementary, it’s one of the best ways to refine your audience targeting because it shows you exactly how you’ll need to position your marketing to beat out the competitors that show up in these searches.

A Smarter Way to do Audience Targeting

Great news. There’s a way to get accurate audience targeting that’s just as simple as these Google hacks, but far more intuitive. It’s the AI-powered content intelligence platform called Cobomba.

Cobomba helps marketers create more effective content using customer data and AI to provide content recommendations that connect with audience needs and desires. Essentially, the intelligent software takes your business objective (i.e. goal) and then analyzes the Google search data for you. You get all the Google goodness with a lot less work.

From content type, messaging, and calls to action to competitive differentiation, conversion points, and promotional channels, you’ll know how to target your audience in the most effective way possible.