Sales Pipeline

What are In-Market Shoppers and How Do You Target Them?

Do you have issues reaching lower funnel lead opportunities? While the core of your marketing mission is to deliver personalized and relevant campaigns to your audience, knowing when a lead will convert is a common issue. With Google’s feature for search engines enabling you to reach in-market shopper audiences, you can get closer to that goal.

So, what are  in-market audiences and how can you use them to your advantage to boost your publication’s bottom line? With ads reaching 90% of internet users worldwide, it’s essential to ensure your ads are delivered to your target audience at key moments in their buyer’s journey to fill your sales pipeline.

Ready to learn more? Let’s discover the benefits of in-market shopper targeting.

Key Takeaways:

  • You can target in-market shopper audiences in Google display, video, and search.
  • In-market audiences help you reach new audiences and increase performance.
  • Continue optimizing your campaigns with new audience groups to improve results.

What are In-Market Shoppers?

In-market shoppers are audiences who are more likely to convert due to their internet and research behavior. You can utilize machine learning to analyze search behaviors and browsing activity to hypothesize the user’s purchase intent. Google will then connect ads to users who are already comparing and researching services similar to yours across the search engine and Google Display Network.

Google will factor in the following signals to determine the buyer’s intent:

  • Clicks on related ads
  • Frequency and proximity of website visits
  • Browsed content
  • Conversions

While in-market shoppers sound similar to custom affinity or remarketing targeting, these users may be completely unaware of your brand. You can combine in-market shopper audiences with remarketing targeting to drive more qualified traffic to your website and improve lead quality.

As a publication advertiser, this gives you access to precisely curated audiences for your market and allows you to reach people who are farther in the funnel.

Why Should You Use In-Market Audiences?

With the average conversion rate for Google Ad Display Network being 3.75%, you need to work extra hard for each click. Instead of only targeting hand-raisers who have shown interest in your publication, you can use signals from user intent to show you if people are ready to make a purchase. By leveraging real-time data and powerful behavioral signals, in-market segments allow you to present an offer at the right time.

Here are a few additional reasons to use in-market audiences:

  • Grow your audience with high-quality and ready to buy users and drive more traffic to your website.
  • Increase conversions by focusing your advertising dollars on lower-funnel activities.
  • Boost performance with high click-through and conversion rates – in-market shoppers increase click through rate (CTR) by 28%!
Source: WebFX

What are the Downsides to In-Market Shopper Targeting?

While in-market audiences provide endless opportunities for your brand, there are a few downsides that you’ll want to keep in mind before fully jumping in.

Your cost per thousand impressions or cost per click (CPM/CPC) may increase due to saturated markets and increased competition. However, since the audiences are smaller, they’re more likely to convert and are valuable for your overall conversion goals.

If you’re concerned about increasing your budget, implement the following tactics:

  • Create impactful ad copy and design that’s drives clicks.
  • Develop an optimized landing page that houses more information about your brand.
  • Ensure that your products and services match the needs of your targeted audiences.

How to Get Started with In-Market Shopper Audiences

You can now use in-market audiences on various Google campaigns, like display, search, and video, to drive more conversions and increase your bottom line.

Setting up your in-market shopper audiences is simple and can be created for each customer segment or demographic, which is a great way to target your buyer personas.

The steps will vary depending on your campaign. Let’s look at how to create a display and video in-market audience:

  1. Log into your Google ads account and create a regular new display campaign.
  2. Start building your ad campaign until you eventually reach the “create your ad group” section.
  3. Select “browse” and then “what they are actively researching or planning.”
  4. Browse through the various audience types until you find a product or category that fits your business.
  5. Click done and continue with the campaign until it’s complete.
Source: WordStream

Tips to Maximize Your Conversions with In-Market Audiences

While getting started with in-market shopper targeting isn’t complicated, you’ll want to implement the right strategy to keep your budget controlled and maximize conversions.

Here are a few best practices to get started:

Use Bid-Only Targeting

Start small by testing your ad campaigns and optimizing them regularly. You can add in-market audiences to your existing campaigns with the “bid only” option.

Bid only allows you to collect informed data to optimize your campaigns better. Over time, you will start to notice specific audience segments performing better than others, and you can create separate targeting campaigns from there.

Layer In-Market Audiences

To optimize your campaigns further, you can refine your audiences by layering demographics and geographics into your targeting features. With fierce competition in the digital space, it’s more important than ever for your ads to attract new audiences.

You can utilize your buyer personas to create ads that market to similar customers as your new segments. For example, ensure that your ad copy and creative aligns with what attracts similar buyer types, such as similar interests, beliefs, and affinities.

Start A/B Testing

While in-market shoppers are likely ready to make a purchase, it’s certainly not the holy grail of pay per click (PPC) conversions. If you want to fill your pipeline with qualified buyers, you still need to develop impactful campaigns that target the customer journey.

You can optimize performance with A/B testing. For example, if you use traditional keywords in your search ads, consider duplicating your top-performing campaigns and running them with in-market shopper audiences.

Grow Your Business by Reaching More In-Market Shoppers

If you’re looking to fill your pipeline with qualified buyers, targeting in-market shoppers with Google audiences is a great way to extend your reach and increase conversions. With in-market audiences, you can actively reach new audiences who are searching for services similar to yours. While it’s a simple process to get started, make sure you continue to optimize your campaigns to drive better results and engage with high-quality leads in your pipeline’s lower funnel.

Ready to maximize your pipeline with high-intent in-market shoppers and buyers? Contact Boom Communications Group for more information.

Jeff Baker

Jeff Baker is the Principal/Business Development Strategist at Boom Communications Group. He brings years of experience in marketing, sales and business consulting to the table. If you're looking to steer your company in the right direction and prioritize business objectives, Jeff is your man.