Using geographic targeting to reach your target market
Businesses all over the world use geographic targeting for their PPC campaigns to get new leads and strengthen their strategy. You might understand the importance of PPC advertising, but do you know the importance of geographic targeting?
Here at Embryo, we are a leading International PPC Agency. In fact, we believe that people are just as important as data. That’s why it is important to understand your target market and the people you are impacting.
Understanding your target market is crucial when it comes to any PPC campaign. In this blog, we will cover what geographic targeting is, and how you can use it to find your target market.
So, let’s have a deeper look at the importance of PPC and geographic targeting.
The importance of PPC advertising and how to find your target market
PPC (Pay Per Click) advertisements are a crucial part of any marketing campaign. They are essentially an advertising technique where advertisers will pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked.
PPC ads usually appear on search engines such as Google and are a great way for businesses to get more clicks and sales.
One of the main things with PPC ads is to properly target and segment your audience. Not every single person online is going to be an ideal customer for your business, but PPC ads make it easy to target the right segment of the market.
One of the most important things to consider when planning a PPC campaign is: who are you targeting? You might be familiar with the fact that your target audience are a specific group of people that you want to reach with your marketing.
Your target market, however, is who your product or service is intended for. For example, if your target market is small businesses, your target audience might be local service-based business owners.
You can try to understand your target market by understanding specific characteristics of the people or businesses who are most likely to buy your product or service.
Here are some pre-campaign steps you can take to help research your target market:
- Find out your target audience’s interests.
- Think about their purchase intent – are they looking to purchase new products or just upgrading?
- Consider subculture – what sort of music does your customer consume, or what sports teams do they follow?
By creating a more specific image of your audience, this allows you to be more specific about your ads and really allows you to understand who you are targeting.
What is geographic targeting?
Now you’ve got more of an understanding of PPC and target markets, but the burning question you probably have is: what is geographic targeting?
Geographic targeting, also known as geotargeting, is a paid advertising strategy that is designed to target an audience in a specific area.
It refers to the practise of pinpointing specific locations with paid search advertising. This approach can enable businesses to close in on specific users, based on certain attributes and demographics. This can overall lead to a more personalised user experience whilst avoiding wasted clicks.
A geotargeted PPC campaign can be hugely beneficial and worth the time and effort. If you use location-specific aspects in your ad copy, then this will successfully resonate with your audience.
Google Ads offer a range of different criteria that help to target audiences by location. These can include:
- Countries – you can target entire countries with what you sell or your services.
- Areas within a country – more specifically, you can target cities and even postal codes.
- Multiple locations – this feature can target a group of locations, sometimes even 1000 locations within one country.
- Radius of location – you are able to select a distance radius around a specific location.
If an ad continues to effectively appeal to your users, it will look better in the eyes of Google, which will help to improve the quality score of your ad. PPC ads are all about getting clicks and driving traffic. The more clicks you have, the more products or services you will sell.
Getting your PPC ads in front of your target market can be tricky. That’s why Pay Per Click advertisements are crucial when it comes to the battle for your consumers’ attention.
Hopefully this blog has taught you all you need to know about geographic targeting. If you can align your brand with your local audience, then you will be in tune with their needs, wants, and preferences.
We hope you can go away from this with more confidence in your PPC ads, and feel ready to put geographic targeting to good use. Click on some of our blogs below for more PPC knowledge.
FAQs
Answered by Callum Leonard
Is it possible to be too location-specific?
Yes, if the location is too refined there will be a lack of demand. The best way to approach is to utilise radius targeting. Extend this if you feel like you are being too niche with location.
How does using geolocation impact finding new and potential customers?
There are two options for geolocation targeting: one is ‘physically in’ and ‘in presence in’. For example, a search for ‘properties for sale in Manchester’ shows an interest but they don’t necessarily have to be there. Location targeting is important to prevent enquiries from areas that you cannot service.
How do I determine the best locations to target?
This is dependent on your internal business goals. for example: commute times, delivery costs, and supplier distance.
Are location filters specific to each ad?
Location targeting is specific at a campaign level not for each ad. This can be individual postcodes, towns, cities or a location radius.
