Find and convert customers actively searching for products like yours but don't know your brand yet
This is your step-by-step guide to launching and scaling cold Google Search campaigns—targeting high-intent search terms that PMax, Shopping, and Branded Search won’t fully cover.
Those 3 campaigns will cover 80% of all of the traffic that you can tap in to, but if you’re really greedy, then prospecting search is for you.
If you’re already running PMax and Branded Search, you may be wondering:
🧐 “Do I even need a cold search campaign?”
Maybe.
Maybe not.
But if you have the budget and capacity to scale, cold search is one of the best ways to capture additional high-intent buyers and expand beyond the limits of your existing Google Ads strategy.
Most Performance Max campaigns rely on your own data—they get smarter over time but can be limited in reach.
But cold search?
✅ It lets you actively target new, high-intent customers searching for products like yours.
✅ It expands your acquisition beyond what PMax automatically picks up.
✅ It gives you direct control over targeting specific, high-intent searches.
If you’re looking for more volume, better coverage, and another layer of control in your Google Ads system, cold search campaigns are worth testing.
Most brands run Performance Max and Shopping campaigns and assume they’ve covered all the demand in their market.
But here’s the issue:
🛑 PMax prioritizes what Google thinks will convert—which means it can miss high-value, top-of-funnel searchers.
🛑 PMax pulls from your existing data, so it won’t automatically expand to new customer segments.
🛑 Branded Search only captures demand from customers who already know you.
So what about all the potential customers searching for your product but who haven’t found you yet?
That’s where cold search campaigns come in.
When set up properly, they let you actively bid on valuable search terms that other campaigns ignore.
And the best part?
🔹 You control the search terms, bids, and ad messaging—so you can dial in what works.
🔹 You capture additional volume at high intent—without waiting for PMax to figure it out.
🔹 You scale profitably by doubling down on converting keywords.
If you’re serious about maximizing your presence on Google Ads, cold search is a powerful tool if you’re ready to scale and get the last part of the Google Ads inventory for your brand.
Happy Scaling,
Jordan, demandcaptur.com