To research and understand the search intent of your users, you must flip a switch in your mind and become them. At the end of the day, you only want to research and advertise for search queries that result in conversions, sales and revenue.

Otherwise, you’re wasting money and making platforms like Google Ads more wealthy. Remember, in of itself, online advertising is a competition and a race to the bottom. And most advertisers are losing. Therefore, search intent research is paramount to success.

Here’s how to better understand search intent

As I previously wrote, you need to put yourself in the mind of your users. To do this, it’s important for you to know the 4 types of search intent.

1. 1. Informational intent: Most online searches are for information. This is the most popular search intent and common search query. And most online advertisers waste the majority of their budgets on informational searches… no matter if they are B2C or B2B. Informational intent keywords are broad and general, and cast the wide nets in hopes of getting lucky. Don’t settle for informational intent search queries… keep optimizing and researching against them.
   2. Navigational intent: Another common type of search intent is navigational intent. Essentially, when someone does one of these types of searches, they are looking to navigate to a website… for instance, they search specifically for a person’s name or a website URL. People who do navigational keyword searches, generally do not have the intent to buy a product just yet.
   3. Transactional intent: You want to hang your hat on researching & identifying transactional intent search queries. People who conduct transactional searches are ready to buy in the near future. They are in a comparison shopping mindset. These type of keyword searches are typically long-tail (4 to 5 word combinations) that may include a brand name, product name, or service name.

1. Commercial investigation: The final type of search intent is commercial investigation search queries. Now if you are advertising on Google Ads, you definitely need an AdGroup with a collection of phrase match commercial investigation keywords. Because like transactional intent, these folks are ready to buy a product or search today. These type of keyword searches typically include words like buy, review, near me, best, cheapest, free shipping, etc.

Here’s a couple useful websites I had bookmarked:

➜ Webstream Article on Three Types of Search Queries

➜ Webstream Article on Commercial Intent