Audience research
Part of Build a repeatable audience research method for UK paid search
Seven ways PPC agencies customer interviews sharpen paid search
Seven ways PPC agencies customer interviews sharpen paid search, covering consent rules, question design, coding findings and turning themes into campaign changes.
What to take away
- Teams usually start with questions about their own service instead of recording what the customer actually said and why they chose it.
- Interviews must follow UK data rulesconsent, purpose limitation and a lawful basis under the UK GDPR, plus PECR where calls or messages are involved.
- A workable set is five to eight interviews per audience segment, run to a script, recorded with permission and coded within a week.
- Findings feed ad copy, landing pages, negative keywords and lead quality scoring, not just a slide deck.
- Interview work sits inside the wider PPC agencies audience research guide for England, which covers sampling and segmentation.
1 Set an inclusion rule before you recruit
Define who counts as a customer this round: recent buyers, a spend band, a sector, and whether you want England only or the wider UK. State the geography openly, because rules differ in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in some regulated sectors.
Customer inclusion rule
- Recent buyers
- Spend band
- Sector
- England only or wider UK
- Screen from CRM then panel
- Short screening script
Recruit from your own CRM first, then a panel. Keep a short screening script so every participant meets the same bar.
2 Get the data handling right first
The ICO's direct marketing and privacy and electronic communications guidance sets out consent, lawful basis and the rules for calls and messages. Settle the lawful basis before you dial. Record only what you need, and tell participants how long you keep recordings.
Data handling before dialling
- Settle lawful basis
- Follow ICO consent guidance
- Record only what you need
- Tell participants retention time
3 Ask about the decision, not the product
Good interviews reconstruct a choice: what triggered the search, what they compared, what made them hesitate. Avoid asking whether they like your service. Ask what they typed, what they read, and who else they spoke to. Silence is useful; let them fill it.
4 Use paid search data to pick the sample
Pull search terms, device splits and lead quality scores, then interview across the range rather than only the best accounts. A team paying £400 a month for example may describe a very different decision from one paying £4,000. Segment before you recruit. Competitor angles are covered in PPC agencies competitor research in England.
5 Run the session to a repeatable script
Opening and consent
Confirm the purpose, the recording, the opt-out and who will see the notes. Ten minutes maximum. If they withdraw consent, stop and delete.
Core questions and closing
Move from context to comparison to objections, then ask what they would tell a colleague. Close by asking permission to follow up.
6 Code findings within a week
Tag each transcript against a fixed set of themes: trigger, alternatives, proof needed, price reaction, friction. Two people should code independently and reconcile. Count how many participants raised each theme, and keep the quotes that explain it. Store the coded file where the media team can reach it.
7 Turn themes into campaign changes
Each theme should map to an action: an ad group, a headline test, a landing page block, a negative keyword, a lead scoring rule. If a theme has no owner, it will not ship. Set a review date and check whether the change moved click-through or lead quality.
Where lead generation is the objective, LinkedIn's lead generation ads overview describes how form-based capture works on that platform, useful when findings point to a longer consideration cycle. Before paid social creative goes live, check TikTok's advertising policies because format and content rules differ from search.
8 Keep a standing interview rhythm
One round per quarter beats a single large project. Re-interview a few customers after onboarding, then again after three months. Track whether the reasons for buying change as the account matures. Feed the pattern back into the brief you give copywriters and the questions your sales team asks on calls.
Common questions
How many customer interviews are enough?
Five to eight per segment usually surfaces the main themes. Beyond that, new interviews tend to repeat what you have already coded, so stop when two sessions add nothing new.
Do I need consent to record a call?
Yes. Tell the participant what you are recording, why, how long you keep it and how to withdraw. The ICO guidance linked above is the reference point for consent and lawful basis.
Can interview findings change ad copy?
They should. Themes about proof, price and risk translate directly into headlines, sitelinks and landing page sections. Give each theme an owner and a test date.
Does this apply outside England?
Data protection law covers the whole UK, so the consent and recording rules are the same. Sector-specific advertising rules can differ in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, so check before you recruit there.
