Making Data Great Again: RLSA Edition

Jill Goldstein - August 24, 2016

The Google AdWords platform provides very good data. It’s enough to determine how your ads are performing, what’s working and what can be improved. But what if I told you that there was one simple change that can make your data not just good, but great? This simple change will open doors… rather, break down walls, to increased optimization opportunities and conversion potential. And guess what? It won’t cost you a thing.

Drumroll, please… Remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA) utilizing the “bid only” targeting setting. Let’s take the implementation step by step.

Step 1: Choose an audience. Remember, RLSA requires over 1,000 users per list to serve, so it may make sense to start with broader lists such as all visitors, non-converting visitors or shopping cart abandoners.

Step 2: Add your selected audience(s) to existing search campaigns (at the ad group level) with the targeting setting, “bid only.”

Step 3: Sit back and let your data flow.

It’s as simple as that! By adding an audience to a search campaign with the targeting setting “bid only,” you are essentially just segmenting that audience in a way to be able to visualize the performance metrics of that subset of individuals. You are not spending an additional penny to do so, rather you are simply getting incredible insight into how that audience interacts with your advertising and website.

Once you gather enough data, there are many RLSA strategies you can implement. This can be simply adding bid adjustments to be more aggressive when this pre-qualified audience is searching, creating an RLSA ad group that will allow you to speak to this group uniquely or even creating a separate RLSA campaign to allow control over the budget.

With this newfound data, I have no doubt that you’ll trump the competition!