Life Event Targeting & Display Ads by Google.

Google Ads has always been a great way to reach a wide audience—but advertisers often learn quickly that not everyone converts the same and it’s very easy to waste a lot of ad spend on people whom might not be your target audience. People are complex and finding your ideal audience is more than just the sum of their keywords or demographics. Back in 2017, Google introduced the ability to target users based on their recent or upcoming major life events—and advertisers rejoiced!

Well, recently Google’s doubled down on this tactic and recently released even more life events to target your customers online and expanded this targeting option to the Display Network. In this post, we’re sharing what you need to know.

Google’s new life events

When Google first introduced life event targeting, it allowed advertisers to target user whom were about to our recently experienced three kinds of life events: college graduation, marriage, and moving.

Today, Google’s introducing four new major life events for advertisers to target within their campaigns.

1. Purchasing a new home
2. Business creation
3. Job change
4. Retirement

Let’s talk about each of these major life events and how this affects your Google Ads accounts.

1. Purchasing a new home

Buying a house is one of the biggest purchases you’ll make in your life. But it can also takes of research, planning, and browsing online before you make that big purchase. Real estate advertisers know too well that it can be difficult to convert searchers in their industry and it can be tough to find users ready to make the big move—and this new targeting is a dream for these clients.

Beyond buying a house, this audience will also likely be in the market for a mortgage and financing, insurance, moving services, new furniture, and all the comforts they’ll need to fill their new home. Savvy marketers from many industries may want to target this audience while they’re all ready to make big purchases.

You can also target current homeowners or renters within your campaign’s detailed demographic settings. By layering these audiences together, you can segment users between first time homeowners and those purchasing a second or new home.

2. Business creation

B2B advertisers will rejoice over this new targeting! Starting a business is no small feat and certainly not just one action. People who are starting a new business need more than just a great idea—they’ll need loans and funding, they’ll need an office or storefront, legal and tax help, new bank accounts, accounting services, payroll services—and, of course, they’ll need help marketing themselves online with Google and more.

3. Job change

Another major life event now available for advertisers to target is for users who are about to or recently changed jobs. Many brands already know the power of a well targeted ad in recruiting top talent, and this certainly will help companies find talent ready for their new challenge.

Beyond just providing these professionals with their new career opportunity—a lot goes into a job hunt. From resume writing services, new interview attire, travel, and often relocation services, these prospective job candidates are likely in market for a lot of different products & services.

Then, of course, once they’re in their new positions, they’ll do what all new employees look to do—change the status quo. B2B advertisers have a second shot to sell their products, software, or services to these fresh faces in these companies.

4. Retirement

Targeting recent or so-to-be retirees is destined to be a gold mine for advertisers seeking to get in front of that audience. Retirement planning is a growing market these days, so financial advisors will need to take note of this audience.

Beyond simply preparing their finances, many of these retirees will also be looking to invest in additional insurance, purchase those golf club and hobby gear they’ve been eyeing, and finally take that vacation they’ve been aspiring to!

Google expands life event targeting to the Display Network

For the past two years, Google’s life event targeting options were limited to Gmail and YouTube ad campaigns. In its newest update, Google also enables advertisers to target their display campaigns to users going through any of these seven major life events!

This change is sure to be revolutionary to advertisers looking to optimize their display campaigns and target a more relevant audience online. With over 2 million websites reaching over 2.5 billion internet users, you’re bound to find millions of people experiencing these life events across the Google Display Network. These audiences can be layered with existing audiences like remarketing or in-market audiences to help you better refine your ad’s targeting to find the right user at the right time.