Target Problem-Spaces, Not Keywords: The New Paid Media Mental Model

For two decades, paid media strategy has revolved around keywords. You identify the words people type into search engines, you bid on those words, you win clicks.

Answer engine advertising requires a different mental model. You're not targeting strings of text—you're targeting the problems buyers are trying to solve.

Why keywords don't translate

When someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity a question, they're not thinking in keywords. They're describing a situation, asking for advice, comparing options, or trying to understand something.

The query "best CRM for mid-market B2B companies with complex sales cycles" isn't a keyword—it's a problem-space. And the content that wins citation in that context needs to genuinely address that problem, not just contain those words.

What is a problem-space?

A problem-space is a cluster of related buyer questions that share:

• Similar underlying problems
• Comparable evaluation criteria
• Connected decision contexts
• Related buying triggers

For example, "how do I measure marketing ROI" and "what metrics should I report to my CFO" might be different questions, but they often represent the same problem-space: proving marketing's business impact.

How to map your problem-spaces

Start with questions, not keywords

Use these sources to build your question library:

1. Ask ChatGPT and Perplexity directly: "What questions do B2B [your category] buyers typically ask?"
2. Mine sales calls and support tickets for recurring questions
3. Look at Google's "People Also Ask" for adjacent questions
4. Monitor industry communities and forums

Cluster into territories

Group questions that represent the same underlying problem. Aim for 30-40 territories you can credibly own.

Map to ICP and intent

For each problem-space, document:

• Who asks these questions (role, company size, industry)
• When they ask them (buying stage, trigger events)
• What they're trying to decide (evaluation criteria)

The strategic shift

This isn't just a tactical change—it's a strategic shift in how you think about demand capture.

Keywords capture explicit intent. Problem-spaces capture the context around that intent. And context is what answer engines use to decide which sources to cite.

Practical implications

1. Stop optimizing for keyword density. Start optimizing for question-answering clarity.
2. Build content clusters around problem-spaces, not keyword groups.
3. Measure citation share by problem-space, not keyword rankings.
4. Design creative assets that address problems, not just contain keywords.

The bottom line

The brands that win in answer engine advertising will be those who understand their buyers' problems deeply enough to be genuinely helpful. That's not a copywriting trick—it's a strategic capability.

Start mapping your problem-spaces now. The work compounds.