Hosted by Julie F Bacchini, this week’s PPCChat session was focused on “Geographic Targeting for campaigns”.\u00a0 This discussion was inspired by Google\u2019s change in location targeting which were announced last week.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For my HVAC client, the geography is vital. If someone’s house isn’t in the service area then he can’t help them.\u00a0@robert_brady<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n The clients I’ve worked on have all had geographic requirements. Most SMBs just don’t have the budget for national ad campaigns, even if they have the ability to serve the whole country.\u00a0@ferkungamaboobo<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Very important, some accounts are even structured around Geo campaigns.\u00a0@NathanK_TX<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Geographic targeting is very important for a lot of accounts I work on\/have worked on.\u00a0@NeptuneMoon<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Extremely important, conversion rates, shipping rates differ by locations, offers differ, etc… @lchasse<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Most of our clients are national\/international, but often will have special promos going to just certain geos.\u00a0@Mel66<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Highly important, because conversions rates vary dramatically per location for my clients that offer localized services.@ThatSearchGuyNL<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n It varies from account to account. I\u2019ve worked with events recently and that\u2019s obviously HUGE. Was recently in a Lead Gen account where campaigns were structured by the Zips that would pay the client more. Thought it was fascinating! Most stuff is national though.\u00a0@markpgus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n We focus on brick and mortar stores as well as dealing with Dealer\/Store territories. So, super important for us.\u00a0@Jturnerpdx<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Previously was very important – used to have two clients who would bid across postcodes, and more broadly with city\/town names appended on the keywords.\u00a0@scright<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n For most accounts, targeting is national and the rest isn’t that important. When it comes to physical stores and customized ads, precise location data suddenly becomes crucial.\u00a0@bloomarty<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n We operate a number of clients with brick and mortar locations, restaurants, hospitals and urgent care clinics. Granular geo targeting is the life blood.\u00a0@JonKagan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Geographic targeting is very important for all the accounts we work one. All of our clients, right now, sell products\/services to specific cities\/provinces so targeting outside of that would be a waste.\u00a0@adwordsgirl<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Depends on the client, but it\u2019s usually part of just about every campaign. Everything from actual, specific targeting, to excluding markets due to shipping constraints, etc.\u00a0@CountXero<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Wow, tough question. Really depends on the client. I have clients in Ireland, U.S., Germany and the most important settings used are the locations they serve I suppose.@lchasse<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n People In and Searching For My Targeted Locations, with negatives on problem international stuff as I saw it.\u00a0@ferkungamaboobo<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n I almost always used “People In My Targeted Locations” as my geo setting in Google Ads.\u00a0@NeptuneMoon<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n People in your targeted locations.\u00a0@Mel66<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n People in my targeted location.\u00a0@heyglenns<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Used “in and interested in” until 2014 when we saw it taking too many liberties, then switched to “in only”.\u00a0@amyppc<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n It really depends on the campaign and client. Mostly I do people \u2018In Your Targeted Locations\u2019 but for certain campaigns that have to do with housing or events \u201cPeople in or searching for your locations\u201d.\u00a0@Jturnerpdx<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n No surprise here, the non-default advanced location targeting setting. -> ‘people IN my target location’ . Simply because the use location report shows it’s the best option if you optimize for ROI.\u00a0@ThatSearchGuyNL<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n “People In\u201d If you\u2019re using \u201cPeople Searching For\u201d this change shouldn\u2019t be too big of a deal for you. It\u2019s not that I think targeting people “Frequently In” the GEO is bad… I just want to control it. Let it be an option (and only at lower CPCs please).\u00a0@markpgus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n I tend to use the people in the targeted location setting because the products\/services our clients sell are specific to locals.\u00a0@adwordsgirl<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n I am very keen on the GMB+Radius efforts. Years ago I got to pilot the zip code+4, but then the government got involved and it got ugly.\u00a0@JonKagan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Not really a preference, but a decision based on the goals of the campaign.\u00a0@CountXero<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Time to get crazy with the negative locations.\u00a0@robert_brady<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n I expect to have to build out more geographic exclusion lists (town, zip code, etc.) just like I have to with keywords now. Also will have to look at geo reporting more frequently.\u00a0@NeptuneMoon<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Yep, similar to the close variants search terms versus the real exact match. Some ‘non-exact’ user locations will probably perform great, some will probably perform terrible.\u00a0@ThatSearchGuyNL<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n I don’t expect much of a change for most advertisers. The bigger the area you’re targeting, the smaller the issue becomes. Maybe it’s different in the US, but in Europe most people target nationally anyway.\u00a0@bloomarty<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Probably not? My gut says that the vast majority of folks aren’t regularly traveling outside of a normal business radius – places where people travel further have larger business radii. May become more difficult in “state-only” businesses like attorneys?\u00a0@ferkungamaboobo<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n I just expect if we are seeing increased ad exposure to areas we are not targeting, we will need to create negatives. In Google’s eyes, this increases exposure, which they believe is good. For us it just means paying closer attention.\u00a0@lchasse<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Honestly\u2026 I think it will be ok. I know it\u2019s less than ideal, but there are good use cases for getting someone that works in the GEO but is at home outside of it. Now local services? That sucks. For most other things, the ads can be effective. Remarketing will be.\u00a0@markpgus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Yes I do us similar targeting on all the different platforms that I work with (Bing, Facebook). Don’t have to worry about targeting with Amazon.\u00a0@lchasse<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n About as much as the exact-match change. I’d imagine it’ll be frustrating when I notice it (especially for lawyers, HVAC, etc.) but not a HUGE amount of budget will be effected. Still a pain though!\u00a0@DarthSamK<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n I think this is going to mean I am going to be building a fair amount more in the negative location list.\u00a0@Jturnerpdx<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Google Ads is built on the ability to precisely target. More often than not, marketers don’t know how to correctly leverage that. But for those that do, removing the option is a real loss. (As with “in only” geo targeting.)\u00a0By offering “in only” location targeting, Google Ads was able to function as a de facto “geofencing” tool. Seems that geofencing is lost with the update.\u00a0@amyppc<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Jon you can add EDU to that list too.\u00a0@dotcentrex<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n It’ll probably be the same thing as keywords where we would have to build out negatives\/exclusions. Yay. More tedious work!\u00a0@adwordsgirl<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n I\u2019m actually excited about this change. People don\u2019t live in a bubble, they move around, especially in major cities. People without vision see this as a money grab for Google, but it\u2019s really a smart idea.@CountXero<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Depends on budget and goals. Social I often don’t tend to go as granular as search in breaking out by geo.\u00a0@timothyjjensen<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Very similar on Bing which makes sense. Less similar on Social Advertising, we’re typically casting a wider net there so a little more lax but depends on the account. Typically see more room for testing when it’s not so conversion-forward advertising like Google Ads.\u00a0@DarthSamK<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n For same client, we try to emulate it between platforms. That being said, Google is better than Bing’s, so they end up different.\u00a0@JonKagan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n I use GEO targeting more in social. A lot of local stuff I\u2019ve worked with don\u2019t have much Brand\/Category Awareness. Gotta GENERATE THAT DEMAND!\u00a0@markpgus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Facebook and Bing.\u00a0@adwordsgirl<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Absolutely. It depends on the client, but with our \u201cgrocery store brands,\u201d we do some creative geo-targeting to help us prove ROI by blacking out certain markets to compare sales. @CountXero<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As others have mentioned, geo exclusions are crucial to help keep irrelevant people from slipping through. Also exclude search terms with irrelevant locations.\u00a0@timothyjjensen<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Exclusions come to mind, but for small targets you’ll need to be equally granular with exclusions. No fun…\u00a0@bloomarty<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Geo Adjustments & Exclusions are a monthly optimisation for me due to former clients needs drilling it into my routine. Even with a tight targeting approach things can slip through.\u00a0@scright<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Running geo reports for clients, so we see where the traffic is coming from and then make adjustments (negatives) from there. Just need to make sure a geo report is part of your data set for customers.\u00a0@lchasse<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Simple Exclusions. Tell me if there is something magical I don\u2019t know about please\u2026. @markpgus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Informally, it really comes down to the client, vertical, and objective.\u00a0@JonKagan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Watch the user location report like a hawk, and if perforamnce sufferts -> start automating adding location exclusions using.\u00a0@ThatSearchGuyNL<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Exclusions & Bid Adjustments, that’s about it though.\u00a0@DarthSamK<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n I do frequent audits of our accounts and looking at geo is part of that.\u00a0@adwordsgirl<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n It usually requires going beyond just \u201csettings\u201d and really understanding the target audience (like a good media planner is supposed to do). Los Angeles Metro is a complicated place for geo-targeting unless you mix in other factors, like HHI, etc. @CountXero<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yes, and I think this is sometimes a point missed for businesses that aren’t necessarily hyper-focused on particularly geo areas. You can still see vastly different performance by geography and should pay attention to it.\u00a0@timothyjjensen<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n I look at that info maybe monthly.\u00a0@adwordsgirl<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n I’ve always found Analytics better for finding and diagnosing issues.\u00a0@ferkungamaboobo<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n I look at location data, but I feel like I will be looking at it more often now for Google Ads campaigns…@NeptuneMoon<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n On broader campaigns yes – I want to see what the best postcodes are, the best cities in the country to be able to adjust to those. Maybe build out new campaigns specifically for key areas.@scright<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n What others are saying! GEO optimizations don\u2019t need to be JUST for local businesses. Sometimes New Yorkers really want to request a Software Demo while Alabamans don\u2019t!\u00a0@markpgus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Yes, I have it built into reports as a general rule. Their changes mean paying much closer attention to the data now. Now that you cannot depend on not getting traffic outside where you can serve customers.\u00a0@lchasse<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Yep, we do a bi-weekly settings QA, which includes checking geo’s that generate impressions.\u00a0@JonKagan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Absolutely. The data we seen on search for this is usually very helpful in a larger business understanding, but with platforms outside of search, this is usually a big source of wasted spend.@CountXero<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n For the most part yes, but we’ve seen abnormalities in Canada when you do Canadian Postal Code targeting.\u00a0@JonKagan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n I’m usually a town or two over. For Facebook, I still get a lot of ads for Louisiana. In general, I have a VERY low opinion of how ad companies geolocate (which is why very small-target geofencing doesn’t make any sense to me)\u00a0@ferkungamaboobo<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Nope, I’ve run tests and tend to be located in NYC, even though I’m 100 miles north of there. It does concern me, and it’s important to point out to clients that geo data is never 100% accurate.\u00a0@timothyjjensen<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Correctly in their definitions sure, but it’s rustles my jimmies when I see traffic coming from Germany for a UK only campaign. Normally because Google felt there was intent because the brand is called like “Something England”\u00a0@scright<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n I am never where Google thinks I am. Off by how far, varies. For national or regional campaigns, no big deal. For more local ones? Very big deal.\u00a0@NeptuneMoon<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Yeah Google is fine. FB is the big offender on this one. I haven\u2019t updated where I live in like 9 years\u2026 I regularly get ads from local businesses in Portland\u2026 I\u2019ve lived in Utah for over 2 years now\u2026@markpgus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Absolutely not. I get served ads from Toronto (I haven’t been there yet), Montreal or other Canadian cities all the time.\u00a0@adwordsgirl<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n We gotta work with the tools we have, and we’re limited to using available settings. So to an extent we’re forced to trust platforms to target the way we set them up. At the same time, manual oversight is still required to keep faulty targeting from slipping through.\u00a0@timothyjjensen<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n At the machines’ current level of understanding of geography, I do not trust machine learning to figure out geo anything for me.\u00a0@NeptuneMoon<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Google, No, I don’t trust Google to correct low performance if a high number of clicks is coming from a bad location. Facebook, sure, I really do trust giving Facebook a broad data range and learning over time.\u00a0@scright<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Depends what you mean. If I could display an avg CPA to Google and they said \u201cHey let us target more broadly, but we will at least get you the same volume\/CPA.\u201d I\u2019d say, LET\u2019S DO IT ALL DAY LONG. Sadly we are the ones testing their experiments with real dollars\u2026@markpgus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n All things considered, we have SUCH limited data about the types of people interested in our ads. Be very careful of concluding “Californians enjoy X but Texans like Y” based only on limited location performance data.\u00a0@amyppc<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n If you mean using ML to locate a user, I don’t see how that would work. But using ML to figure out whether an ad is relevant to a user because of location (among a gazillion other factors), that’s already what’s happening.\u00a0@bloomarty<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n I don’t think ML is smart enough, right now, to understand it. So, no, I wouldn’t trust it.\u00a0@adwordsgirl<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n I\u2019m all for machine learning sorting this one out further. I\u2019ve always felt humans suck at thinking this targeting through properly.\u00a0Q2: In Google Ads what historically has been your preferred geo targeting setting? Why?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Q3: Do you expect the change in the way you can target geography in Google Ads to impact you or your clients? If so, how?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Q4: Do you use similar geo targeting on other platforms? Why or why not? Which are similar or different?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Q5: Do you have any practices you employ to try to keep geo targeting limited to where you actually want it (on any platform)?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Q6: Do you regularly monitor location data for your campaigns (on any platform)?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Q7: Do you find that you are geo located correctly by search engines, web sites or social platforms? If not, does that concern you as an advertiser?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Q8: Is geo targeting something you would trust machine learning to figure out for you? Why or why not? Does your answer vary by platform?<\/strong><\/h4>\n