Geo-Targeting & Paid Search: How to Reach Your Customers
- Can you only sell your product or service in certain geographic areas?
- Are certain locations more profitable than others?
If the answer to either one of these questions is yes, then there are some specific search marketing tools for you. One of the benefits of Search Engine Marketing is that it’s easy to selectively advertise in very specific regions. 360Partners has found that properly setting the geographic targeting for a campaign can cut spend by 25% and increase margin dollars by 40% or more.
Setting up the correct geographic targeting inside each search engine is one of the fastest ways to prevent wasted media spend. It also is one of the most challenging aspects of a search marketing account. Geo-targeting is never 100% accurate, but it has become an imperative part of search engine marketing.
Despite the importance of geo-targeting, many marketers make these common mistakes.
- Spend money in places that do not bring in revenue - It sounds so simple, but if you don’t sell your product in Arizona or Michigan, don’t advertise it there. 360Partners has found that most companies can improve in this area. Geo-targeting helps ensure that the only people clicking on your ad are people located in an area you serve.
- Bid the same amount in all geographic locations - Each location in which you run a search campaign will convert at different rates and will have a different level of local marketing competition. Adopting a strategy that assumes all locations perform equally leads to lost opportunities and wasted spend.
- Fail to personalize campaigns - Search Engine Marketing is centered around relevance- presenting the right message at the right time for the right person. This also means the right location. Many companies miss the opportunity to customize their landing page and user experience based on where a searcher is from.
- Fall into the “Canada trap" - When setting up a new campaign, Google’s default geo targeting settings are to show ads in both the U.S. and Canada. Advertisers that do not or cannot conduct business in Canada end up wasting precious ad dollars. This often over looked setting is one of the easiest ways to quickly cut down on wasted media spend.
The solution to these problems lies in correctly using geographic targeting inside each of the search engines.
Target your ads to the areas where you sell your products
Controlling the locations where your ads are shown helps to stop wasting money in areas where you do not conduct business. Depending on the search engine, there are different levels of geographic targeting. Most engines allow marketers to select geographic targets ranging as broad as by country down to as specific as a zip code. Obviously, the more granular you target, the more precise your advertising can be. Google is generally more advanced than Yahoo or Bing by providing an interactive map which allows for customization of any geography type.
For example, a local pizza delivery restaurant might want to advertise only inside of its delivery zone, or a tutoring company might want to advertise inside of a specific school district. Both situations are easily accommodated with the mapping tools inside of the search engines.
Set up different campaigns depending on specific location performance
Smart marketers know that certain geographic locations are more profitable than others. 360Partners has found that geo-targeting provides the opportunity to focus your marketing spend to take advantage of your most profitable regions. Doing regular analysis of account performance in each region and setting up a subsequent strategy allows for better account performance. Bids can be set at different levels related to the regional performance of each campaign.
A sports store that specializes in ski gear will most likely have a much better conversion rate in Colorado than in Texas. Because of this, campaigns targeting Colorado can probably afford to have higher bids than those campaigns targeting Texas. In this case, performance in Colorado would warrant a higher ad position and more traffic from that area.
Geo-targeted campaigns should utilize geo-targeted keywords, ad copy, and landing pages
Different locations can potentially create a need for individualized ad copy and landing pages; this could be related to regional customs, language and dialect, weather and so on. Using geo-targeting to localize SEM campaigns can increase relevance to the potential customer. This includes having keywords, ad copy and landing pages all customized to a specific geography.
For example, a company selling umbrellas may want to emphasize their product’s rain blocking ability in Seattle and its sun blocking ability in Arizona. By utilizing keywords, ad copy and landing pages that reflect the unique geographic location, marketers create a personalized user experience. This results in higher conversion rates and greater profitability.
360Partners Case Study
A few months ago, 360Partners started working with a client who has suppliers in several thousand counties spread out across the U.S.. This company makes money by having prospects fill out an information request about a specific product and then selling that information to one of their suppliers. At the time, they were selling a very low percentage of their leads because their ads were running all over the U.S. - both in places where they had partners and in areas where they did not. Also, their leads sold for different amounts depending on the specific county the prospect lived in.
When 360Partners took on the account the team did a thorough geographic analysis. This analysis combined with a set of off-the-shelf mapping tools allowed us to create specific geographic coverage territories. Along with accurately targeting the correct locations, 360Partners prioritized the counties based upon lead value in each county. By setting up separate geographic-targeted campaigns based upon potential revenue per county, 360Partners was able to bid more aggressively in certain counties and lower in others.
The result of the mapping exercise was dramatic. The client now is able to sell 60% more of their leads by turning wasted media spend into targeted profit. Additionally, 360Partners was also able to optimize the account geographically based upon revenue, bidding higher in areas with more potential for revenue intake.
If you would like to learn more about using geo-targeting when setting up a search marketing account, 360Partners would be happy to sit down and further discuss our insights. We also provide a free evaluation of your current search engine marketing campaign in which we can suggest further improvements. Contact us at sales@360partners.com.
