Targeting your online display campaign geographically
Geo-Targeting can really improve your ROI
What is geographic targeting?
Geographic targeting identifies and defines the geographies you want to target, and then places your banner campaign in front of consumers within that geography.
When you advertise offline you may choose to advertise only in certain locations. You could achieve this by advertising in the local newspaper or in a series of local newspapers, on billboards in a certain county, and so on.
When you are advertising online it is easier to define the geographies you want to target.
How does geographic targeting work online?
The internet knows where you are. Your computer is connected to a network and is assigned a numerical label to differentiate it from the other devices in the network. This numerical label is called an IP address and it serves to identify your network's router and locate it. This provides a decent idea of where they are located.
For the purpose of geo-targeting for an advertising campaign this level of accuracy will usually be sufficient enough.
You could also follow the traditional offline methods and choose targeted local sites like a local newspaper on-line ñ or use a company that specialises in providing localised consumer data information.
How do I know what locations to target?
Don't spread your campaign too thin. Take a look at how much money you are willing to put into your campaign and only target as large an area as you can afford. It's better to have a big presence in smaller area, than barely any presence in a huge geography.
Likewise, ensure that you are targeting enough people ñ a campaign targeted to a very granular area will reach a saturation point very quickly.
With these two points in mind think about what your target audience looks like. Remember:
- Don't advertise to people who are too far away for you to sell your product or service to
- Use geo-targeting in conjunction with other layers of targeting (demographic, etc) to make sure you are targeting the right people.