Paid search helped shift marketing efforts from push to pull but, in some ways, it also altered thinking to be centered more on keywords and less on the audiences advertisers are trying to reach. The good news is that sophisticated marketers now recognize that search performance data can be successfully leveraged to better inform audience targeting.
Search performance data helps advertisers reach valuable consumers AND those that have demonstrated interest in a specific product or service. The intent insights gleaned from search can be used to inform display and social strategies, as well as to create remarketing lists for search ads. By qualifying the audiences you target on these channels, advertisers decrease wasted spend while continuing the consumer conversation across multiple channels.
Skai’s open architecture allows us to partner with multiple Data Management Providers (DMPs) including BlueKai, X+1, Turn and Aggregate Knowledge/Neustar. Through these integrations search insights, including performance data, campaign structure information, and even custom defined groups of keywords, can be passed to a DMP. The DMP can then use this information to create audiences.
For example, if an advertiser integrates Skai with a DMP, he or she could target specific audiences on display. Consumers that have searched for the keyword “home insurance” or have searched for any keyword within a “home insurance” campaign may be valuable audiences for the advertiser to target. The advertiser could also tag high performing keywords using Skai dimensions and only target consumers that have searched on those terms. This helps the advertiser refine audiences by consumer intent – increasing the ROI of display campaigns.
Finding new avenues or more efficient ways to reach consumers is becoming increasingly important as competition stiffens in the digital advertising world. Integrating YOUR search data into YOUR audience targeting is extremely powerful.
We believe that targeting audiences rather than just keywords, and using your search performance data to decide how to best apply your budgets and increase return is becoming increasingly more important as digital marketing matures. Skai has a history of innovating across channels and our DMP integration solution is just one more way to help our clients capitalize on the synergy of search, social, and display.