Facebook does it; Twitter does it; and now Google may do it too. The Wall Street Journal reports Google is talking to advertisers about targeting search ads to consumers’ email addresses and other first-party CRM data like addresses and phone numbers.
Facebook’s Custom Audiences and Twitter’s Tailored Audiences already allow advertisers to upload their customer data and target ads to people already in their databases. While concerned about users’ privacy, increasing competition from Facebook makes it likely that Google will follow suit.
Citing anonymous sources, The Wall Street Journal reports Google as saying first party ad targeting could become available later this year or early next year.
For Google, it may be too good an opportunity to let slip. Not only will the company be able to monetise non-commercial queries, but there will likely be increased competition and higher cost per click prices for search queries with commercial intent.
Why should you care?
In a well-run search campaign, ads will already be highly targeted to consumer search queries. And Google’s Retargeting List For Search Ads (RLSA) lets advertisers segment and target different ads to search users who have already been to their website. But search ad targeting will go to a completely new level if companies are also able to customise their ads and bids to the leads and customers already in their databases.
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Jeremy and Mark are two of the partners behind SureFire Search. Despite their deceptively youthful appearances, both have worked in search marketing for many years. To put that in context, Google didn't even exist when Jeremy started.
