Adwords geo-targeting feature is a no-brainier for any local business or business that serves a specific footprint. It is also imperative for multinational companies to target the correct market and associate language for global advertising. However, geo-targeting can also be used in many ways that are less obvious too – here are 5 that you may not have thought of. These principals are written with a mind to paid search but can also be applied to display, facebook – pretty much any platform that allows geo-targeting.
- Isolating less profitable geographies – Say your eCommerce business incurs lots of damages or shipping issues to certain geographies (AK, HI?), or the cost of acquiring a customer for your bank are higher in certain states due to regulatory requirements. Consider eliminating these geographies entirely from your campaigns – remember, you can still serve these geographies, you are just saying, “hey, it’s not worth it for me to PAY for clicks in these place”. Or, consider eliminating the geographies from your main campaigns and isolating them in their own campaigns with a less aggressive bid structure or budget.
- Support your traditional media spend – running TV, radio ads or print ads? Consider developing specific campaigns that target only the geographic footprint where you are running traditional media. You can target the messaging to support the offers and taglines that your traditional media is pushing. Consider increasing your bids on these groups to profit from higher exposure saturation in those markets.
- Follow the News – Even if you operate nationally, there are geo-specific opportunities for most brands. Consider using special promos, ad messaging, landing pages and keywords to capture the cultural mood in a certain place at a certain time. For instance, there are record temperatures in Minnesota right now. A national air conditioner installer definitely could profit from creating a promo and supportive ads in a special campaign targeted just to Minnesota. But, you can get more creative with it too, a car brand could create a promo, landing pages and ad texts extolling the virtues of the awesome A/C on their cars. A newly released movie campaign could use messaging, “Get into a cool dark theater and watch XYZ movie”.
- Hide From Your Competitors – Don’t want your competitors to know what you are up to? Consider eliminating their town from your ad footprint if it is not a particularly important market for you.
- Smart Growth – Ever notice how certain companies release their products one market at a time? This is an intelligent growth strategy. If you are a newcomer to a vertical with a limited budget, you are better served focusing all your ad dollars on certain markets. Say you can only reach 100,000 people in a month based on your budget constraints. If those people are across the entire US, your awareness if pretty diffused. However, if those 100,000 are all in one city, you can reach a level of awareness saturation that means you have touched a higher number of influencers; word of mouth, water cooler conversations, buzz and social sharing all start to take hold and you get more bang for the same ad dollars. As your revenues and users grow, grow your footprint and budget accordingly.
Any other ideas of how to use geo-targeting to advertise smarter? Put them in the comments!
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