This layer focuses on users physically located near popular kayaking destinations in Oregon who are geographically more likely to be interested in kayaking activities in Oregon.
This recommendation is standard for a business offering location-specific services or targeting local customers.
It ensures your ads are shown to people who are geographically relevant and more likely to visit your physical store or participate in kayaking activities in the area.
Layer 2: In-Market Audiences (Water Activities Equipment/Outdoor Recreation)
This layer targets users actively researching and considering purchases related to water sports gear and outdoor recreation.
This signals a higher purchase intent compared to users who simply have a general interest in these categories.
By layering this audience with the location targeting, you’re reaching people near kayaking spots who are also actively looking to buy relevant products or services, making them highly qualified leads.
Layer 3: Affinity Audiences (Outdoor/Water Sports)
This layer should be in its own Adgroup and then can broaden your reach beyond those actively researching purchases. It targets users with a general affinity for outdoor activities, travel, and adventure.
While these users might not be immediately ready to purchase, they represent a larger pool of potential customers who could be interested in kayaking.
This layer helps increase brand awareness and introduce your kayak company to a wider audience who share relevant lifestyle interests. Since this is a wider audience, it’s possible that this ad group would receive more of the traffic than the other ad group. After collecting data, if you need to dial this audience back, you can make bid adjustments to optimize or create a separate campaign for budget control.
By layering these audiences, the kayak store can reach a highly targeted audience (those interested in outdoor activities, located near kayaking spots, and actively researching related purchases) while also reaching a broader audience of potential kayakers through affinity targeting.
The diagram below further illustrates how this targeting plays together.
Segment “A”: Represents the audience reached where the location and the in-market audience overlap and both are targeted.
Segment “B”: It is likely, but not guaranteed, that a small sample of people will be in all audiences – the in-market, affinity, and in the location targeted. This would be an ideal audience.
Segment “C”: Represents the audience reached when both in the location and in the affinity audience list.
Diagram created by author, January 2025
How Do I Measure Success?
Now that we’ve explored an example layering plan, let’s get ready to evaluate the success of layered audiences.
Like most campaigns in Google Ads, focus on these key metrics:
Conversion Rate: Which audience combinations lead to the most conversions (sales, leads, etc.)? A higher conversion rate indicates a more qualified audience.
Cost Per Conversion (CPA): How much does it cost to get a conversion from each layered audience? A lower CPA means you’re getting conversions more efficiently.
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): For every dollar you spend, how much revenue are you generating from each layered audience? A higher ROAS indicates a more profitable audience.
Click-Through Rate (CTR) (Secondary Metric): While not a direct measure of success, a higher CTR can suggest that your ads are resonating with a particular audience segment.
Impression Share (For Targeting): If using Targeting, monitor the impression share to see if you’re reaching all available users within your targeted audience. A low impression share could suggest that your bids are too low or your targeting is too specific.
By analyzing these metrics for each layered audience, you can identify valuable segments, optimize your bids, and refine your targeting.
Final Thoughts
Audience layering stands as a cornerstone strategy for PPC professionals looking to maximize their advertising impact in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape.
By strategically combining audience signals, you create targeting precision that directly impacts your bottom line.
Successful audience layering isn’t set-and-forget. Your commitment to understanding and applying these strategies will directly impact your campaign’s success.
The power lies not just in the layering itself, but in your approach to selecting, measuring, and optimizing these combinations over time.
More Resources:
Featured Image: U-STUDIOGRAPHY DD59/Shutterstock