Customizing Your PPC Campaigns to Browsers, Shoppers, &Buyers

As any good marketer will tell you, understanding your customers' mindset as they move through thecustomer lifecycle is imperative to running successful campaigns. This is especially true in searchmarketing, where it's vital to understand the basic mechanisms behind how people search. Thisinformation, for example, is the foundation for keyword selection, ad copy, and even biddingstrategies. And though the psychology of search is a deep subject, there are simple, practical modelsthat can help you quickly gather and use consumers' search behavior information when designingyour search campaigns.

One such model is the Visitor Intention Model, which postulates that there is a correlation betweenthe phrases people type into search engines and their purchase intent. In other words, you canpredict where someone is in the customer lifecycle as well as how likely that person is to buysomething from you based on their search phrase.

Under the Visitor Intention Model, search engine users tend to fall within one of three primarycategories: Browsers, Shoppers, or Buyers. (They may also fall into two secondary categories,Informational Searchers and Navigational Searchers, but for our purposes we'll focus on the formerthree, which are most pertinent to search marketers.)

The following is a quick primer to get you up-to-speed on each category of the Visitor IntentionModel, including how to use a searcher's keywords to identify which category they belong to andhow to appeal to searchers in each category through your campaigns.

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Browsers

Searchers in the Browser category are in information-gathering mode. The search phrases theyenter tend to be short and not very specific like "Las Vegas," "coupons," or "spyware." And whiletraffic tends to be high for this group of terms, Browsers are generally looking for information ratherthan products and are unlikely to make an immediate purchase.

As such, paid search ads targeting these phrases tend to have a very low return. In fact, Browsersactually tend to click on natural search results more often than ads. And when they do click on ads,Browsers will often click on more than one as they gather as much information as possible -- usuallystarting at the top of the page and working their way down, becoming more selective as they goalong.

Both search engines and advertisers respond to this low effectiveness, and as a result we often seefew ads or even none for popular browse queries. (Instead, the search engines often will use thespace on the page usually dedicated to advertising to place general information on the subjectsearched, often taken from sources such as Wikipedia.)

Nonetheless, engaging with Browsers can lead to sales down the road for some PPC marketers. Agood paid search strategy is to provide these potential customers with educational information about

your product or service category via articles, technical advice, white papers, and so on. Don't focuson price, delivery, or guarantees, because many Browsers won't care and may actually be turned offby aggressive pitches at this point in their shopping journey. Also, try capturing their email addressso you can stay in touch and make it more likely for them to return to your site again in the future.

Shoppers

In contrast to Browsers, Shoppers have an identified need and are considering their options. Theyare closer to a purchase decision and are generally using a search engine to compare differentproducts or services. And while there are more Browsers than Shoppers on the search engines atany given time, you're far more likely to make a sale to a Shopper.

Shoppers' search queries can often be identified by their two- and three-word phrases that containcomparison words such as "best," "cheap," or "review." These keyword phrases tend to have bothdecent traffic and conversion rates.

Descriptive terms about your product or service work well when marketing to Shoppers, as do head-to-head comparisons with competitor products, feature lists, and third-party testimonials, becausethey give Shoppers what they need: information to help them make an informed purchase decision.By appealing to Shoppers' information-gathering need, you can often convert Shoppers to Buyers orat least capture their information for when they are ready to buy. An effective means of doing this iswith email capture immediately followed up with limited-time promotions.

Buyers

In contrast to Browsers and Shoppers, Buyers are ready to buy now. They might be looking for aspecific product, or just for the first product that seems to meet their needs. Their search forinformation has largely been completed, and they spend less time on the search engine and moretime on vendors' websites.

Phrases with four or more words or phrases that refer to specific products, SKUs, or model numbersare used by Buyers to find what they want quickly.

Aggressive emotional or impulsive appeals often work with Buyers because the logical part of theirbrain has already been satisfied through prior research. Often they just need the slightest push tobuy from you. An effective strategy is to tempt them with promotional offers as well as cater toinstant gratification: "fast shipping," "high quality," "low price," and so forth.

The following chart provides examples of different keyword types in the Visitor Intention Model:

Not Sure of the Category?

Not every keyword phrase falls neatly into a single category, so try split-testing multiple ads. Thebest performers will often tell you the category to which the keyword belongs. And if your split testsdon't determine a clear winner, then try experimenting with negative matching to eliminate adimpressions for clearly off-target search queries.

Another powerful technique is to use organic search results to guide your paid search ad copy.Although the organic search results generally cater to a different demographic, in many cases thetop results will give you a strong indication of what searchers are looking for. Try incorporatingthese factors into your ad copy as well.

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