Who the Hell Does Google Think You Are?

Google Understands Your Buyer Persona

My work in digital advertising has mainly come in the social media space. Ask me how to promote your tweets, boost your Facebook posts, or find a very targeted audience on LinkedIn, and I can help. Google is another story though. My experience with Adwords display network, search ads, and re-marketing is admittedly limited. To make up for that I spent the last week in Google analytics and Adwords classes hosted by LunaMetrics.

The team at Luna knows their stuff. It took a few days, but the knowledge I gained over the last week has helped me see digital advertising from a whole new perspective.

An advertiser's ability to target using Google may not make someone feel as confident on the surface compared to a tightly targeted ad campaign on LinkedIn based on relatively precise professional demographics. However, with a little work -- and a little bit of code -- a good digital marketer can make Google work like magic.

Just what does Google know? Who the hell does Google think you are? Well, it turns out they know plenty. And it's more than just what you're searching for: from the sites you visit, to your interests, your income segment, and even your gender.

Are you a parent or not? Google has a good idea.

Do you like baseball and action adventure movies? Google knew that I did.

Google uses your searches and web activity and starts to devise a profile about who you are. Advertisers can use this information and make their campaign targeting more precise and efficient.

This system isn't perfect though. Share your browser with someone else and search under the same login, and Google might miss the mark. Do a lot of shopping for your mom (like one of the guys at LunaMetrics), and Google may think you're a middle aged woman. Constantly delete your cookies? Google will lose track of you.

A well thought out, strategic, and highly targeted Adwords campaign can be a powerful thing for marketers looking to build funnels or to enhance  the visibility of even non-Google originated ad campaigns.

So who does Google think you are?

Click the link here and share your profile. We're especially interested in hearing about where Google missed the mark.