Google Targets Search Ads on Hstory

This is a little freaky:  For years, direct marketers have known that one of the best predictors of buying behavior is called recency.  Recency means that how recently a customer has purchased often dictates how likely they are to buy again in the near future.

Now Google is taking the concept of recency one step further by upgrading its Adwords platform so that paid search ads are served up based not only on what the user is searching for now -- but also what they have searched for recently.

Imagine searching for fly fishing equipment on Monday, and on Thursday when you are searching for airfares, Google serves up ads for Montana hotels, Montana vacation packages, etc.  Amazing.

clipped from www.clickz.com A few weeks ago, Google began delivering ads based not only on the current search, but also on the searches immediately preceding it, and sometimes a combination of more than one recent query, according to Nick Fox, Google's group business product manager for ads quality. Fox told ClickZ this week that the feature, which has no official name, aims to capture a more robust understanding of user intent and thereby deliver a better ad.