I believe that Paid Search advertising was designed for niche industries.
If someone is searching for a relatively generic term like “shoes” or “doctor” a few things are likely to happen:
- The search results will be crowded and competitive – a LOT of advertisers are eligible to show on that search.
- It’s much less likely that an unknown brand will pick up the traffic
- The ads are less likely to convert, as the keywords are pretty generic, and the advertiser doesn’t have much to go off of to make a good match between the searcher and their landing page experience.
- As a result of all of the above, it will be more expensive to convert the customer.
But that’s not the case in a niche industry. In a niche industry, there is less competition in the search results – or at minimum, fewer entrants into the auction. In a niche industry, advertisers have a better understanding of what the user is looking for and are more likely to be able to craft their ads and landing page experiences to match. And in niche industries, the lifetime value of the consumer is often higher (more money from fewer customers vs. less money from many more customers), so it’s more likely the campaign will be profitable.
When they lean into what makes niche industries special and unique, advertisers best position themselves for campaign success. This means:
Use Phrase and Exact Match Terms, especially in the beginning
Niche industry searches can usually be identified because they contain a key word or phrase that specifies where and what they are. For example, “accounting software for churches,” “adaptive maternity swimsuits,” or “patient management software for rehab centers.” It’s important that those key words and phrases are included in the keyword list – otherwise niche advertisers are likely to show up on a lot of irrelevant searches, especially in the beginning when Google is still gathering data on who and what will convert well for the advertiser.
Broad match has been improving and can make sense down the line, but to provide the proof of concept and give the algorithm the best data in the beginning, stick to phrase and exact when starting out.
Qualify Your Ad Copy
If an advertiser is advertising software that only serves companies with more than 15 employees, the ad should mention that. If the bras are only available up to size 38DD, the ad should indicate that too. By being clear in the ad about who the product is for, advertisers are likely to reduce traffic that isn’t qualified, instead saving their budgets for traffic that is.
Also make sure that the landing page messaging includes and reflects whatever is being advertised. If someone is looking for Big & Tall, don’t take them to Juniors. If looking for enterprise customers, include some enterprise case studies on the landing page.
Qualify Your Audience
It is crucial for niche advertisers to make sure they’re advertising to the right people, even when it comes to search campaigns. The ability to use customer lists in search campaigns can be very helpful when targeting a particular set of prospects. Targeting specific audiences can also be a useful way to prequalify customers if, for example, one is targeting business professionals, people planning to move, or parents of toddlers – all of which are available audiences on Google, Meta, or both. When budgets are tight, smart targeting can mean the difference between driving qualified traffic and conversions and… not.
Bid For Success
Avoid bidding for target impression share and instead use manual CPCs or maximize clicks or conversions when starting out. Niche advertisers can’t afford to get in a bidding war with a larger advertiser – so don’t.
Extensions Are Your Friends
Google offers a wide variety of ad extension options – whether those are callouts, sitelinks, image, call, promotion, and more. As a niche industry, it’s extremely important to add in any relevant extensions – these allow advertisers to provide more information about their product or service, further qualify the traffic to the site, and help make sure that the traffic that is sent shows up in the right place.
Sitelink extensions, for example, can help a single paid search ad appeal to users in different stages of the marketing funnel, providing links for those in the research stage or for current customers, i.e. FAQs, Contact Us, and Refill links, all on the same ad.
Extensions are also a great way to take up more SERP real estate without necessarily spending more money – something that can be especially important in niche spaces.
By leaning into what makes niche industries special, and taking advantage of the opportunities paid search can provide to qualify searchers and ad copy, niche advertisers can uniquely position themselves to take full advantage of what paid search has to offer.
