Understanding how people search – and aligning their search intent with the stages of the marketing funnel – is critical to crafting a powerful, long-term PPC strategy.
This article will:
Break down the different ways people approach search.
Illustrate how these align with various funnel stages.
Offer practical tips on planning a keyword strategy that captures intent at every stage.
With these insights, you’ll be better equipped to target high-value audiences, reduce ad spend waste and achieve sustained growth in your paid search campaigns.
Understanding how people search
People approach search in three main ways. They:
Look for the exact name of the product or service.
Search for what they think it’s called.
Explore related terms.
To build an effective, long-term advertising strategy, align these search types with the stages of the sales funnel, ensuring each stage captures user intent and guides them through their journey.
Example:
The exact service: “Podiatrist near me.”
What they think it’s called: “Foot pain doctor near me.”
Related term: “What are treatment options for foot pain.”
Remember, even high-intent, bottom-of-funnel searches can include incorrect terms. For instance:
The correct term, high intent: “personal injury attorney near me.”
The wrong term, still high intent: “car accident attorney near me.”
The top of the funnel can still be high intent, but it depends on the user’s long-term goal.
Examples of high-intent, top-of-funnel search terms include: “What to do after a car accident” and “What are the car accident laws in Tennessee?”
These terms indicate a strong intent to solve the searcher’s problem and find answers. However, they are still at the top of the funnel when it comes to hiring an attorney.
Although they may ultimately need a personal injury attorney after a car accident, they are in the initial research phase, exploring their next steps. Typically, top-of-funnel keywords have a lower cost-per-click (CPC), but a larger budget is needed to test these keywords, as they don’t always convert into leads or sales immediately.
Bottom-of-the-funnel, high-intent keywords are typically the most expensive since they convert much faster after clicking on a search ad.
Dig deeper: How to optimize for search intent: 19 practical tips
Targeting keywords based on the stage of the funnel
In longer sales cycles, adding top-of-funnel keywords can be effective for reaching potential customers early in their journey. This makes your bottom-of-funnel keyword targeting stronger than competitors who focus only on bottom-of-funnel terms.
When combined with other campaign types – such as Display, Video, Performance Max and Demand Gen – this creates a powerful, long-term strategy that targets all stages of the funnel.
In “Key PPC ad strategies for home services,” I referenced home remodeling as part of a long sales cycle. A remodeling company could target “kitchen remodeling ideas” to get ads in front of people at the top of the funnel rather than only targeting “kitchen remodeling company near me” at the bottom of the funnel.
In shorter sales cycles, testing top-of-funnel keywords alongside bottom-of-funnel keywords can help uncover lower-cost opportunities, reduce cost per lead and improve return on ad spend (ROAS).
Adding related search terms – typically top-of-funnel – is often tested with larger budgets to increase overall volume once specific bottom-of-funnel keywords are already targeted.
Dig deeper: How to implement a full-funnel PPC marketing strategy
Testing automation with search intent
With new automation technology from Google Ads and Microsoft Ads, you can experiment with AI optimization by using broad match keywords and automated bidding.
This allows you to test the same top- or bottom-of-funnel keywords as broad match, revealing additional variations and insights.
Unlike before, the updated broad match now considers user intent and previous search behavior, reducing the need to test numerous keyword variations simultaneously, especially for top-of-funnel keywords.
Watching keyword trends for your industry
Perform ongoing keyword research and competitor analysis, not just during the initial setup of your search campaigns.
Industry trends can shift quickly based on current events and market changes, so regularly monitoring new keyword trends is essential.
Use third-party tools to see what competitors are bidding on, review Google Trends and explore Google’s Keyword Planner to identify relevant keywords that aren’t yet part of your ad campaigns.
Structuring search ad campaigns for optimal results
For a smaller budget, focus on specific, bottom-of-funnel keywords that directly match your services or product, like “personal injury attorney near me.”
If you have a larger budget, consider testing a broader range of keywords in separate search campaigns, including related top-of-funnel terms that target people who may need your services in the future.
With these broader keywords, it’s essential to monitor campaigns closely and regularly add negative keywords, as search terms can sometimes stray from the intended user intent.
In addition, conducting negative keyword research before launching a campaign can help reduce wasted spend right from the start.
This is similar to initial keyword research, but here you’re identifying terms that might appear in Google or third-party tools yet are irrelevant to your ads.
This step is particularly important when testing related search terms or using broad match keywords.
Dig deeper: The Hagakure method for Google Ads management
Don’t forget the foundations of search campaigns
When testing a range of keywords in different stages of the funnel, following search campaign structure best practices is critical.
Avoid testing Display Network targeting within your search campaigns, as these are best kept separate.
Structure your ad groups around specific keyword themes to ensure that keywords align closely with both the ad copy and the landing page.
Avoid putting all keywords into one giant ad group, but also avoid over-segmenting them into too many ad groups, like SKAGs (single keyword ad groups).
If you want to experiment with more top-of-funnel keywords, you can:
Include related terms in existing ad groups.
Set up new ad groups.
Or create a separate campaign for them.
Generally, it’s best to run tests in a separate test campaign to keep budgets distinct, ensuring that experiments don’t pull budget away from your primary keywords.
Matching your ads to search intent
Top-of-funnel keywords and related search terms perform best when paired with ads tailored to users’ informational intent.
For example, if someone searches “kitchen remodeling ideas,” an effective ad might say, “Looking for kitchen remodeling ideas? Get inspired here.”
This ad should link to a gallery or ideas page, rather than a hard-sell service page.
Any call to action to book an appointment can be placed further down the page, recognizing that the user may not yet be ready to hire a remodeling company.
Similarly, for an attorney, if a user searches “what to do if you are in a car accident,” the ad might say, “In a car accident? Here are your next steps.”
This ad should lead to a landing page that provides a checklist, tips, and guidance for individuals recently involved in an accident, with a soft mention of attorney services near the bottom of the page rather than a prominent CTA at the top.
Using a variety of keywords aligned with searcher intent and funnel stage can significantly optimize and expand your search ad campaigns.
Dig deeper: Setting PPC goals: How to tailor KPIs and metrics for each funnel stage