Whether it's remarketing, customer match, similar audiences, affinity or in-market audiences, it's no secret that Google is allocating a massive amount of resources into enabling advertisers to reach the most qualified audiences in their Google Ads campaigns.
Marketers know that consumer purchase behavior often changes around major life events, when people are most likely to change their shopping habits or make major purchases, so the ability to engage people around important life milestones, like graduating from college, moving homes, or getting married could prove very valuable to businesses to promote products or services that tie into such events.
For example, someone who's starting a business within the next three months will likely be in the market for web or cloud services. Or, someone who's about to move will likely buy new furniture, moving services, mortgages, and other moving related items during the months of their move.
Thanks to Life Events targeting it is possible, in Google Ads, to reach and engage with users who are in the midst of major life events and in the process of making key purchasing decisions.
Google Ads Life Events targeting, which was announced earlier this year but recently expanded to many new categories, is powered by search history and other signals, and allows advertisers to target users in the months before or after the following major life events:
- College graduation
- Marriage
- Purchasing a home
- Renovating a home
- Moving
- Starting a new job
- Starting a business
- Adding a cat/dog to household
- Retiring
Some of the benefits of Life Events targeting include Real-Time Data, meaning behaviors are updated on every impression, so advertisers are reaching only the most relevant users, and Cross Device Reach, which allows Google to recognize patterns as users move between devices, guaranteeing a holistic picture.
In terms of audience size, life events are infrequent and as a result may reach smaller audiences compared to other types of audiences. However, life events are often larger than in-market categories, as they may correspond with many related purchasing decisions vs. a single one. Currently, Life Events targeting is available for YouTube and Gmail campaigns.
If your business is selling products or services that tie into any of the available categories listed above, I invite you to consider adding Life Events targeting to your marketing mix. I personally can think of many products and services that would benefit from Life Events, including financial, travel, apparel, software, home goods, furniture, and moving services, just to name a few.
To learn more about how Life Events targeting can help improve your digital marketing efforts and ROI, contact the Google certified professionals at MoreVisibility.
