Google has continued to extend their audience targeting capabilities into Search. On Tuesday, the company announced that in-market audiences, which is currently available for Display Network and YouTube campaigns, will be coming to Search campaigns.
The news was shared in a Google blog post that was released ahead of their annual live-streamed event, Google Marketing Next.
The targeting, which was first introduced in 2013 under the name In-marketing buyers, is aimed at reaching consumers that are getting ready to make a purchase, based on an analysis of intent signals, like recent search queries and website browsing activity. This was from the blog post:
For example, if you’re a car dealership, you can increase your reach among users who have already searched for “SUVs with best gas mileage” and “spacious SUVs.”
Right now, there are more than a dozen In-market audiences available in AdWords to target users who are looking to buy things, such as event tickets, real estate or apparel.
Along with similar audiences for Search and Shopping, the addition of the targeting options marks the shift to tapping user search for targeting in Search campaigns. This addition does it in an aggregated, anonymized way, although Google has long-resisted incorporating that data in Search targeting for privacy reasons. But then Facebook came along and advertiser expectations of targeting capabilities changed with it.
Regarding timing of the rollout of this feature, there seems to be none right now. It took about a year for similar audiences for Search and Shopping to roll out generally after Google first announced it last year.