Unlock New Relevant Traffic on Performance Max with Search Themes

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In the ever-evolving world of digital marketing, the overarching goal for any business—whether fresh on the market or established—is to continually capture relevant, converting traffic. As Bobo Digital, a dynamic digital marketing agency based in Adelaide, Australia, we understand the critical need to stay on top of the latest tools and strategies to help our clients succeed. One promising feature available through Google Ads is the use of search themes in Performance Max campaigns.

Today, we are diving deep into how you can unlock new, relevant traffic to your business with this revolutionary feature and the multiple benefits it offers to your marketing strategy.


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What is Search Themes in Performance Max?

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Search themes is a new beta feature integrated into Google’s Performance Max campaigns. This tool allows you to better guide the platform to serve ads on placements that you may not be reaching yet. By adding information about your business that you expect will perform well, search themes empower you to target more accurately and expand your reach.

Introduced as an optional feature, search themes supplement the natural capabilities of Performance Max, leveraging your business URLs, assets, and existing data to match you with the right queries. But then, what exactly makes search themes such a significant addition to your digital marketing toolbox?

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How Does Search Themes Work?

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The operational simplicity and profound impact of search themes lie at the heart of its adoption. By indicating the queries you know your customers are already searching for, search themes become an additive layer to your Performance Max campaigns. These queries enhance what Performance Max would naturally match you to, based on your existing URLs, assets, and more.

In essence, search themes act as a guiding beacon, ensuring that your ads are visible to users who are actively looking for what you offer, but may have otherwise been missed due to limitations in previous targeting models.

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What Are the Benefits of Search Themes?

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The benefits of implementing search themes are manifold and directly address common challenges faced in digital marketing. Here’s how they can spell success for your business:

- Expand Your Reach on All Channels: With search themes, your ads can appear on a broader spectrum of Google’s channels, thereby increasing your visibility to potential customers. This inclusive approach means you’ll reach clients not just on search, but across all of Google’s vast network.

- Fill in Gaps in Your Campaign Coverage: Often, businesses find that their campaigns may be missing out on certain keyword niches or user queries that are highly relevant. Search themes enable you to plug these gaps effectively.

- Optimise Performance Faster: By providing additional, crucial information to the Performance Max campaign, you'll ensure a swifter ramp-up and optimization period. This means quicker results and better alignment with your overall campaign objectives.

- Reach Customers Across Channels Based on Users' Search Behaviour: Unlocking insights around your customers’ search behaviours allows you to tailor your marketing messages more precisely. Doing so increases the likelihood of conversions by matching user intent more closely.

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How Do Search Themes Affect Your Keywords in Search Campaigns?

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In the context of your existing Search campaigns, search themes will maintain a prioritisation level equivalent to your phrase match and broad match keywords. This ensures consistency and avoids potential conflicts while maximising the exposure and effectiveness of your marketing spend.

Are Search Themes Required for Performance Max?

An important element to note is that search themes are not a compulsory component of Performance Max campaigns. They are optional, providing you with the flexibility to use them as per your campaign strategy and requirements.

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Can I Remove Search Themes After Using Them?

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Absolutely, an imperative aspect of digital marketing is flexibility and adaptability. If you find that certain search themes are no longer serving their intended purpose or wish to trial different ones, you can easily remove them. This user-friendly feature ensures your campaigns remain agile and responsive.

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How Many Search Themes Can I Add?

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Search themes are added to asset groups, with the capacity for up to 25 search themes per group. This ample provision grants you the breadth to cover a wide range of relevant queries, ensuring comprehensive coverage and substantial campaign effectiveness.

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How Do Search Themes Interact with Brand Exclusions and Negative Keywords?

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Maintaining control over your brand's presence is crucial. Search themes will respect your brand exclusions within Performance Max and adhere to account-level negative keywords. This ensures that while you expand your reach, you continue to protect your brand integrity and focus on the most relevant traffic.

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What Are the Results Driven from Search Themes?

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The deployment of search themes drives users to specific landing pages you’ve signalled through Final URL expansions, page feeds, and URL contains settings. By fine-tuning where potential customers land, you increase the chances of conversion significantly.
 
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How Can I View the Search Categories That My Ads Matched To?

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Google Ads provides transparency with search themes through extensive insights into your search categories. You can view the matched categories at both the campaign and account levels, along with associated conversion data. This aids in understanding the performance and tweaking your strategies accordingly. Moreover, you can filter these insights by custom date ranges, download them, or access the data via the API, making data management and strategy modification seamless.

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What is Coming in Early 2024?

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Looking ahead, Google has announced enhanced search term insights and additional guidance around search themes to be rolled out in early 2024. These enhancements are set to provide marketers with deeper analytics and understanding of the impact search themes have, enabling more informed and strategic decision-making.

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Unlocking the Future of Digital Marketing

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Harnessing the power of search themes in Performance Max campaigns positions your business to capture untapped, relevant traffic effectively. At Bobo Digital, we champion using cutting-edge tools that offer significant improvements for our clients. As digital marketing evolves, so should our strategies and adoption of dynamic features like search themes that deliver measurable results.

Ready to explore how Performance Max and its included search themes can significantly enhance your digital marketing efforts? Connect with us at Bobo Digital and let us help you unlock new dimensions of success for your business.