Segmenting the audience you are trying to reach can be an important step to better understanding your digital campaign space. By segmenting, or breaking down user queries into buckets, you can effectively reach your audience while delivering the most relevant ad to your prospective user base.
Most people using a search engine to find information, entertainment, products, or services are doing so without much consideration for how they are searching. Typically, a user searches on a general term and if they do not get the results they are looking for, they modify their search to be more specific. This is what we call user search behavior and it is how audiences can be further segmented into a funnel that leads to your website.
When analyzing search queries it will become apparent that the data will naturally fit together within buckets that we can then call user or audience segments. With clear audience segments defined a strategy or decision making process will emerge. It is important to understand search diversity and the variations of your head or core keyword set. Once the analysis has been completed you will be left with a road map to better segment your audience and create greater relevancy to the user. Most of this is done within the long-tail of search and can take a long term commitment to optimizing your paid search campaigns. The payoff, however, can hold significant value.
Understanding search behavior will add incredible value to your paid search channel. How you interpret the data will also provide valuable information for your other marketing channels; both on and offline. When you begin to understand that search behavior and audience segmentation is the basis of digital marketing, then your campaigns will succeed better than they ever have before.
