Definition

Formally known as Display Select Keywords (DSK), Audience Keyword targeting is a blurring of the line between Search and Display.

Here, Google targets people on the Display Network who, by their search behaviour, have indicated an interested in your keywords. This means that a person may have searched for your keywords but be on a Display Network page that is unrelated to your keywords, and Google will still show an impression. Because of this, Audience Keyword targeting is broader than Contextual Keyword targeting, but because of the active search signal, can still generate potentially more relevant targeting.

Audience Keywords is actually the ‘DSK’ add-on for ‘Search Network with Display Select’ campaigns.

Intentional Tip

• We call this kind of targeting “following the cookie” (ie. following the user – no matter which page they are on). When following the cookie, there is no point attempting to improve results by negativing Display placements because it is not the placement we are targeting. Similar to Remarketing, as long as you are targeting the right person, you are not concerned with what website they visit (the clear exception here being Content Exclusions).
• Because Audience Keywords factor in Search signals, this type of targeting typically represents the bottom of the Display Network funnel