When WebProNews spoke with Nick Fox back in August, he indicated that the future of paid search could be without keywords. At the recent SES Chicago, WPN sat down with Mona Elesseily of Page Zero Media who shared with us how this development would impact advertisers.
Up to this point, Google has used keywords as a proxy for relevance. In the future, however, the search engine hopes to allow advertisers to state their desired outcome and then, use its machine-based learning to produce that desired result. In other words, Google would essentially take the necessary information and put the ad in front of the most relevant audience.
Why is all this important? According to Elesseily, it’s important because query length is increasing, new and unique search terms are increasing, and searcher sophistication is increasing. All these elements make it hard for advertisers to keep their keyword lists fresh.
Incidentally, not all of the advertising community supports this new development. Elesseily said that some advertisers believe it’s too broad of an approach and don’t like the idea of putting that much trust in Google.
Although Elesseily doesn’t believe keywords will go away, she does believe the future of paid search is changing.
What are your thoughts regarding paid search without keywords?