One of the reasons search terms will be hidden in the report is that there aren’t enough people searching in that way.
Two examples of this shift are shopping campaigns and local service ads.
For example, the phrases “dog walker,” “dog walking,” and “walk the dog” would all be treated as different ideas. This allowed us to bid on how people think and search.
In the past, keywords had a very specific role. Each keyword represented a unique idea, corresponding to specific user queries.
As such, an advertiser would have no problem matching the exact way a person searched to the person who became or didn’t become a customer.
Based on the bid and quality score, we receive an ad rank, which determines where the ad will appear on the search engine results page (SERP).
Search term reports showed whether the match type was “vanilla” or a close variant.
The keyword is both dying and thriving right now.
For example, an advertiser would no longer need to bid on abbreviations or misspellings.
Negatives retained their utility and never took on close variant properties.
While search keywords were undergoing these transformations, audience-based keywords were starting to make their way into display and video campaigns.
While their role is definitely changing, they still have a pivotal place in campaign strategy.
However, their mechanics have undeniably changed over the years.
But, with the search term report starting to hide search queries, this common ground is starting to disappear.
By the 2020s, broad match started to include audiences, which brought it back into popularity. Meanwhile, phrase and exact match enjoyed equal popularity with control-oriented advertisers.
Keywords As Audiences
One of the reasons why keywords are so important is that they are a common ground for both SEO and PPC.
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Instead of focusing on the keyword, we may soon be focusing on audiences and building strategies that meet customer needs.
This would ensure coverage while communicating where the advertiser wanted the budget to go.
The Rise Of Close Variants
Close variants have expanded quite a bit in recent years but used to be contained to quality of life matching.
This means advertisers would need to include all variants as negatives if they wanted to block traffic.
2016 saw a lot of things change. Google removed the right-hand side of the search results page and introduced “close variants.”
These keywords had different but equally powerful functions:
- Topic and Content Targeting: Bidding on placements corresponding to the content of the keyword.
- Custom Intent: People who search in a certain way or who show interest in the keywords you picked.
- Audience Signals: In PMax campaigns, advertisers can build an audience signal based on desired keywords.
Negative Keywords
They can be used to work together to create content and bid strategies.
That said, you can still put proactive protections (negative keywords and audience exclusions).
The Future Of Keywords
While keywords do require people to search in specific ways, they may not always line up with the world’s focus on privacy.
Traditionally, keywords behave as our representatives in the auction every time a user enters a query.
As that level of data becomes a privilege instead of a right we need to get more comfortable with cohorts.
This meant we could see which keyword variant represented the best return on investment (ROI) without having to use every possible version of the keyword.
In today’s world, where privacy is super important, we now have to guess the best keyword concepts based on traffic forecasts and performance.
Visual content is rising in popularity, and audiences are pushing ahead as a major targeting source.
It’s gaining momentum for a few reasons:
- More and more advertisers are being pressured to adopt it due to sunsetting features.
- Genuine utility for brands looking to communicate with their customers at all stages of the buying journey.
Are Keywords Still The Best Guiding Star In Targeting Strategies?
It will not pass judgment on how keywords are used in today’s marketing strategies.
They are instrumental in providing direction for our strategies.
In the old days, match types highly impacted keyword theory due to their distinct properties:
- Broad: So long as any part of the core idea matched, the keyword would enter the auction.
- Modified Broad (RIP): Each word in the keyword had to be present but could be in any order, and there could be terms before and after.
- Phrase: The keyword phrase could not be interrupted, but there could be terms before and after.
- Exact: Only the exact keyword would trigger the auction.
These ad types consistently provide great ROI and show that actively bidding on keywords is less important than understanding the people behind the queries.
Final Takeaways
Additionally, they are a core component of how the most popular form of digital marketing (search) functions.
Local service ads don’t use keywords at all, instead focusing on reviews, proximity, and how well a query likely applies to a service you’re bidding on.
Audiences and feed-based campaigns represent the future of active targets.
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