Geotargeting and Geographic Data
Geotargeting for Local Advertising is a powerful technique that has become increasingly popular due to its ease of implementation and proven effectiveness in driving relevant traffic. By focusing on specific geographic locations, businesses can tailor their marketing efforts to attract customers more likely to make a purchase, leading to higher campaign value and better return on investment.
How Geotargeting for Local Advertising Can Increase Your Business Traffic
Geotargeting for local advertising can increase your business traffic by targeting specific geographic areas, allowing for more personalized and effective marketing campaigns.
Most digital advertisers seek solutions to attract customers to their stores, whether it’s to increase foot traffic to specific locations, highlight in-store sales with redeemable coupons, or promote specific products available in their store.
Customers often cite convenience as a critical factor when deciding whether to purchase online or in-store. In the physical world, convenience might mean a store’s proximity. In the digital world, convenience can mean easily recalling a brand that meets their needs online and navigating its website smoothly.
In our post-pandemic environment, customers are returning to physical stores, and retailers will need targeted PPC ads to boost their traffic. Geotargeting allows business owners and digital marketing specialists to personalize their paid media ads by including local references on landing pages, creating a tailored experience for potential customers. While various variables must be considered when advertising, targeting specific geographic areas can be highly effective.
By tracking campaign performance by location, you can measure trends in local areas, allowing you to maximize your ad spend return.
Reaching Geographic Audiences in Google Ads or Local Service Ads
Understanding the potential of geotargeting for local advertising is crucial, especially as customers increasingly seek immediate solutions and nearby options.
Let’s look at what Google says about its local searches to understand the potential of location targeting and local Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads better. According to statistics, 75% of people who find local helpful information in search results are much more likely to visit the physical stores shown in those results.
Nearly three-quarters of people who search for local solutions on their smartphones visit a related business within a day of their search, and 28% of these searches result in a purchase.
Google has seen a significant increase in searches for terms like “open now,” “near me,” and “close by” since the COVID-19 pandemic, reflecting changing customer desires for more immediate results and solutions due to limited travel spending.
Online platforms and devices, such as mobile phones and tablets, have increased local searches by allowing quick solution searches. Reaching potential customers with the right message at the right time can rapidly grow your business!
Integrating Geographic Targeting for Effective Local Advertising
There are various ways to effectively geotarget and reach more potential customers.
Reaching Geographic Audiences in Google Ads or Local Service Ads
When setting your desired audience based on location in Google Ads, you have two options:
- People in the targeted locations or those showing interest in them.
- People located in or regularly visiting your targeted locations.
Google Ads recommends the first option, though you should always review it based on your business and campaign.
The option to target interested people is particularly useful. Someone researching a trip might come across your store, visit it, find a product they like, and become a repeat customer.
With recent changes, Google Ads does not allow brands to target people solely within a geographic location (for now). However, there is a way around this. To block ads from showing to people outside the region, exclude all other areas from the campaign display. This way, you still reach the desired market.
Geotargeting in Facebook Ads You can easily set up location targeting on Facebook by going to your Facebook page, clicking the blue “Promote” button on the left, selecting “Promote Your Page,” and choosing to edit audience selection.
This sets the audience for your entire page. If you go to Facebook Ads Manager, you can select geographic location under “Audience” at the Ad Set level. Typically, when launching a campaign and choosing a primary goal, such as brand awareness, another targeting option is location.
Location Targeting in Microsoft Advertising Microsoft Advertising (formerly Bing Ads) allows brands to advertise on Bing, AOL, Yahoo, and others. You can add geographic targeting to a Microsoft Advertising campaign by clicking “Campaigns” at the top of the page, opening a campaign, and clicking “Settings.” Then click “Edit location targets” next to Locations, select the areas to target (or exclude), and choose whom to show your ads to. Like Google Ads, you have options:
- People in the targeted locations.
- People searching for or viewing pages about your targeted locations.
- Both of the above.
Integrating Geographic Targeting Across all the platforms mentioned above, you can use additional factors to create the ideal audience. Using geographically targeted ads does not mean you can’t use other qualifiers, such as search intent, device, interests, and demographics. Integrating geotargeting for local advertising with other factors like search intent and demographics can enhance your PPC ads’ effectiveness.
You can also use geographically retargeted ads to show ads to people in a specific area who have previously visited your website. This type of PPC ad can be very effective when used correctly.
Once you start a geographic ad campaign, you can begin reviewing location data to see who viewed your ad. Based on this data, you may want to adjust or change the campaign’s targeting. It’s another opportunity to understand your audience and learn what works in your marketing.
Use Local Terms Wherever Possible
Including specific areas in your search query, such as “web design in Pardubice,” helps you appear locally. Customizing your ad for a local audience strengthens your connection with the customer and increases conversion chances.
There are several ways to achieve this. First, you can use dynamic keyword insertion to seamlessly insert the names of target locations into Google ads. This allows you to customize ads based on people’s searches. If someone searches for “web design Pardubice,” they will see an ad containing “web design in Pardubice.” However, if they enter similar terms, like “web design Prague,” your ads can change to refer to “web design in Prague.” See how useful this can be?
I also recommend using a local landline phone number to support your geo ads. Get a local number for your business, as this has a significant impact on generating phone leads, as people are more comfortable calling a local area code.
Finally, when writing your ad copy, consider the local perspective. Mention the location, weather, local events, and other “inside” things to show a specific group of people in the area that you are truly a local business.
Conclusion
Geotargeting for local advertising is a powerful tool that can lead to significant increases in foot traffic and online conversions.
There are many ways to create geographically targeted ads. The benefits are numerous, and there are many techniques to achieve this. Keep the following in mind:
- Geotargeting is popular because it’s easy to implement and proven to work, like all targeted marketing techniques.
- Geotargeting can facilitate traffic through exclusive offers, local time-limited deals, and differentiation-focused campaigns.
- Geotargeting ads can be created manually, through PPC platforms, and using coding techniques like server redirects.
- Targeted ads are not new. We often consider target demographics by age, gender, or shopping habits. However, there is significant potential in targeting markets based on their location.
To stand out in paid search, ensure you understand your audience and plan this understanding into the campaign structure as part of your overall marketing strategy.
