Benefits Of Keywordless Campaigns

Google Ads’ introduction of new “keywordless” campaign formats is rapidly altering how advertisers strategise their keywords for PPC.

This aligns with the evolution of how people are now searching on Google, opting for long-tail, complex queries rather than shorter, specific statements. Therefore, two people can have the same levels of intent, but their search queries can look significantly different.

This means that high intent searchers could be slipping through the cracks if advertisers are using traditional keyword strategies, such as exact match.

So are keywordless campaigns the answer to this latest evolution?

We’ll dissect the benefits of Google’s new, keywordless campaigns and what the future looks like for Google Ads advertisers and marketers.

What Are Keywordless Campaigns?

Keywordless campaigns are Google’s latest campaign types that leverage data and AI to target search queries rather than keywords. You can read more about the difference between keyword v. keywordless campaigns in our previous blog.
Google’s current keywordless campaigns are:

• Performance Max
• AI Max for Search
• Demand Gen

Although Google recommends using keyword and keywordless campaigns together as a “Power Pair”, we’ll look into the specific key benefits of keywordless campaigns for advertisers.

Key Targeting Benefits Of Keywordless Campaigns

Traditional keyword campaigns have been a preferred method for targeting specific, high-intent search terms. Comparatively, keywordless campaigns have been seen as targeting broader, mid-funnel queries.

However, as search queries become more long-tail and complex, advertisers can no longer rely on short, specific keywords to ensure they’re targeting all high-intent search terms. In fact, longer-tail keywords mean there is more room for variations, so exact and phrase match keywords could be letting high-intent queries slip through their targeting net.

So, how are keywordless campaigns plugging this gap?

Measure Intent Beyond Keywords

Traditional keyword-based campaigns rely on advertisers predicting the exact words a user will type to express their intent. However, the user journey has become more complex, with intent no longer defined by a single search query. Keywordless campaigns, particularly those leveraging Performance Max or Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs), move beyond this limitation.

They use a broader set of signals such as:

• User behaviour patterns
• Website content and landing page relevance
• Location
• Device
• Past interactions

This means advertisers can reach users who are in the “buying mood” or actively researching a solution, even if their specific search query doesn’t perfectly match a predefined keyword.

As keywordless campaigns leverage multiple data signals to qualify a search query, the system aims to match the underlying need or interest, which often results in better conversion rates and a more efficient ad spend.

Save Time With Guesswork

As we mentioned earlier, keyword campaigns rely on advertisers predicting the exact high-intent search queries. Keywords also demand constant manual optimisation and analysis, which can be incredibly time-consuming.

There’s also the risk that marketers are spending their time managing keywords that are missing out on high-intent audiences.
Keywordless campaigns reduce this manual effort and constant guesswork. For example, Performance Max campaigns rely on audience signals, which uses rich data, Google’s AI and bidding strategies to target the most relevant search queries. Rather than targeting a keyword, this campaign targets the intent.

DSA campaigns (Dynamic Search Ads) can also help reduce the guesswork with keywords, as they target based on website content. Instead of spending time researching, managing bids and monitoring search terms, the DSA leverages content from the website (or specific landing pages) alongside their AI and bidding strategies to understand which search queries to target.

This means marketers can spend less time painstakingly researching keywords and more time focusing on the strategy.

Targeting In Competitive Markets

Competitive markets can be costly for advertisers, making it difficult for businesses with tight budgets to get their ads seen on Google’s ad spaces. This happens because competitive keywords drive up average CPC’s (cost per clicks) as there are more advertisers bidding in the auctions.

For advertisers on small budgets, targeting competitive keywords can lead to their budget being eaten up quickly without seeing much of a return.

Although marketers can spend time researching more niche keywords that have a lower CPC, keywordless campaigns can provide a more efficient solution to help in competitive markets. As they target intent over a specific keyword, keywordless campaigns can find pockets of search queries that are not as competitive, but are still highly relevant and match the target audience.

As the way that people search on Google evolves with longer, more complex queries becoming the norm, this unlocks a huge variety of keywords that advertisers can target. This is a key opportunity to use keywordless campaigns to target those queries, determine if they match the criteria provided in the audience signal and bidding strategy, and bid if it does and back out of the auction if it doesn’t.

Do You Lose Control With Keywordless Campaigns?

When keywordless campaigns were first introduced into Google Ads, all marketers and advertisers had the same thought – “does this mean I’ll lose control of my campaigns?”

Prior to these campaigns, keywords were the nucleus of a traditional search campaign. They determined which queries to target, which to avoid and which queries to optimise towards with manual or automated bidding strategies. To this day, there is still a layer of apprehension with keywordless campaigns and strategies, especially for marketers accustomed to the granular control offered by keyword-based strategies.

However, this isn’t necessarily true. Keywordless campaigns, when implemented strategically, can lead to more tailored targeting.

How To Control Keywordless Campaigns

Unlike traditional search campaigns that target the keyword provided, keywordless campaigns leverage multiple signals beyond the keyword to reach relevant audiences, such as:

• Machine learning
• Google’s AI
• User search behaviour
• Intent signals
• Website content

This allows for a more dynamic and nuanced approach to targeting, moving beyond simple keyword matches to understanding the underlying why behind a user’s potential interest.

This doesn’t mean that keywordless campaigns don’t need input from marketers. In fact, they still require regular monitoring and optimisations to ensure that the algorithm is still aligned with the campaign goals. Marketers can do this through:

• Negative keyword lists
• Bidding strategy options
• Landing page content
• Ad copy
• Creative assets

Overall, keywordless campaigns can plug the targeting gaps that traditional keyword campaigns might be missing, but it doesn’t mean relinquishing targeting controls.

Can You Use Keywordless and Search Campaigns Together?

Yes! Not only can you use keywordless and search campaigns together, Google recommends it. For example, they recommend using Performance Max and Search campaigns together, calling it their ‘Power Pair.’

As Google enters an era where fully-automated keywordless campaigns are becoming more prominent in Google Ads, keyword-based strategies still remain a highly valuable component in marketing strategies. In fact, you can leverage the strengths of both campaigns to target high-intent search queries.

For example, marketers can build a search campaign that includes keywords that marketers know drive high-intent traffic that generates results. Then, marketers can use a keywordless campaign (like Performance Max or AI Max for Search) to supplement the search campaign. The purpose of the keywordless campaign can be to:

• Plug targeting gaps that the search campaign might be missing.
• Discover new keyword opportunities which can be harvested and plugged into the main search campaign.
• Understand high-performing audience segments that can be harvested for mid-funnel targeting.

Another key advantage of running both campaigns together is that each campaign is assigned its own budget, so marketers can stay in control of how much they want to spend on search and keywordless campaigns. This lowers the risk whilst still testing new strategies.

The Rise Of The Negative Keywords

As keywordless campaigns become adopted more frequently in Google Ads strategies, Negative Keyword lists have never been more important. Similar to traditional keyword campaigns, negative keyword lists play a crucial role with keywordless campaigns.

How Negative Keyword Lists Work

They help to avoid your ads showing for irrelevant, low-intent search queries. Irrelevant queries can appear in both keyword and keywordless campaigns. For keyword campaigns, they can appear via broad match keywords, where the targeting is too far away from the true meaning of the keyword – or the chosen keywords are not relevant to the product/service offering.

For keywordless campaigns, irrelevant terms can appear as a result of any of the signals that have qualified this query as a “good” keyword to bid for.

Low-intent search queries are users who are searching for what you’re offering, but they’re not yet in the market to make a purchase/enquire. This is also called “online window shopping.” They click on your ad, browse your website, but don’t take any action. This wastes budget in the long term, as the campaign has spent budget on the click, but isn’t generating a return.

Having tailored Negative Keyword lists work to filter out irrelevant and low-intent traffic so that budget is conserved for showing ads more often to high-intent traffic. For keywordless campaigns, it offers marketers an element of control, as they can use the Negative Keyword lists to train the algorithm on terms to avoid bidding for. This builds boundaries that the keywordless campaign can learn from and understand the ideal search queries in more detail.

Negative Keyword Lists Best Practices

It’s important to have rich Negative Keyword Lists to avoid wasting budget on search queries that don’t drive results. We recommend building out these lists before you launch any campaigns, so that the algorithms have a baseline to use to understand what to avoid bidding for.

As search trends shift throughout the year, we recommend reviewing your search terms and adding to these lists on a regular basis.
To keep these lists manageable, try splitting your Negative Keyword Lists out into separate categories, such as:

• Irrelevant Terms
• Low Intent Terms
• Competitor Terms
• Seasonal Terms

This provides more control and flexibility over your targeting, as you can run campaigns with different levels of filtering, but also makes these lists easier to manage.

The Future Of Keywordless Campaigns In Google Ads

As Google Ads evolves as various types of keywordless campaigns are introduced, marketers are becoming increasingly cautious over what this means for their role in the Google Ads space. However, as we continue to test these new campaign types, it’s clear to see that keywordless campaigns are only as good as the human expert that is managing them.

This means that both the human and AI need to work together in order for these campaigns to be successful.

Keywordless campaigns rely heavily on human input, who inevitably crafts the signals that the campaign learns from to target search queries. This means the richer the signals, the richer the results, which includes:

• Rich data in the account (including first party data)
• Strong landing page with a smooth UX
• Detailed Negative Keyword Lists
• Bidding strategies that align with business goals

Remember, AI is able to signal user behaviours, but it doesn’t understand the world beyond this, including business goals. That’s where human input is constantly required to ensure that the campaign doesn’t veer off course and become misaligned with top-level targets.

Benefits Of Keywordless Campaigns

The landscape of Google Ads is rapidly evolving to align with the new ways that people are searching on Google. Longer tail keywords are becoming the norm, leaving traditional keyword strategies with limited scope for targeting and more time spent trying to cover every variation that a user might type into Google.

Keywordless campaigns (such as Performance Max and AI Max for Search) look beyond the keyword and instead focus on intent targeting. By combining several signals together to understand the ideal customer, it then targets a variety of search queries to drive results, whilst also being broader with the keywords.

This doesn’t mean that keywordless campaigns will become the core of a Google Ads strategy. Instead, keyword and keywordless campaigns will work together. Keywordless campaigns are plugging the gaps of high-intent queries that traditional keyword campaigns might have missed out on.

There’s still a very clear requirement for expert human marketers to ensure these modern campaigns are optimised towards business goals and avoid wasting budget on low quality traffic due to a poorly setup campaign.

If you’re curious how Google Ads can drive growth for your business, book in a call with our expert PPC team today.