News broke Tuesday that Google had unveiled a new offering now known as Custom Affinity Audiences. To get to the bottom of what this means for the world of online business, WebiMax’s Director of Content Development, Andrew Schetter, sat down with Ken to gather his thoughts.

Schetter: Affinity and in-market audiences were rolled out by Google over the past two years, what impact do you think that has had for advertisers?

Wisnefski: This provides advertisers with the ability to narrow their focus down on which specific targets they want to focus on. This enables advertisers to more effectively utilize budgets and have different buckets to advertise to different segments. I am confident that this sort of drilled down impact is in many ways a response to Facebook’s ability to target specific audiences – because they are able to garner so much information about them. Over time, Google is using this more and more to effectively target who advertisers are really trying to reach. It’s a bit of a continual strategy for these platforms to make sure they can offer similar capabilities.

Schetter: Google announced on Tuesday that they are now offering Custom Affinity Audiences, how can advertisers take advantage of this?

Wisnefski: While this is very new, the goal here seems to be an even more drilled down variable for advertisers to utilize. The more focused they can be on a specific target, the more success they can have. While admittedly, scenarios like this lower the potential of people you will reach, the targeting is immense and will justify a greater cost based on the nature of how well you can define the target.

Schetter: How does the Custom Affinity Audiences feature compare to other popular Google features like engagement ads?

Wisnefski: These are more related to systematic preferences and trends, which ultimately can make the scenario more time effective. The scenario Google provides in their explanation of Custom Affinity Audiences discusses people who are in the market to purchase a new car. This is a great example as a lot of research often is often conducted before purchasing a new vehicle. With the additional targeting, savvy advertisers can attempt to sway the audience to look more closely at their brand offerings.

Schetter: How will reporting regarding Custom Affinity Audiences help businesses better their online services?

Wisnefski: I feel it will allow them to understand the value of their product in the market more effectively. Gone are the days of “branding” were companies focused on the brand alone…now there are more drilled down analytics that can flat out tell you that people aren’t buying your products. This is true even though you are able to directly target people that are actively looking to purchase products like yours!

Schetter: Should all businesses consider utilizing Custom Affinity Audiences?

Wisnefski: I feel that much of this is likely geared for larger ad budgets initially because smaller budgets might not provide enough of a cross section to see the value. However, anytime you can target your audience with more effectiveness, you can leverage your ad spend and see better results, so the answer definitely is yes, all businesses should consider this.

Schetter: How can businesses stay ahead of the curve when it comes to Google offerings and their online marketing efforts?

Wisnefski: Great question. It’s not easy. Google, Facebook and other prominent marketing platforms continue to roll out new and innovative product offerings. To stay on top, I constantly look for news related to the new offerings by visiting the main platforms website’s directly and reading industry related publications.