When embarking on an Adwords campaign, it is important to add locations to target as well as exclude the ones you would like to avoid. This will mean that you can narrow the targeted audience and it can reduce Cost per Click (CPC) as well as helping to increase conversions.
If you want to streamline your Adwords campaign and squeeze some extra value out of the process, by choosing locations to geo-target, this can improve your Return on Investment (ROI). There are several ways to choose locations for geo-targeting:
- City, country, region
- Post code
- Radius around a point (your business or offices)
- Location extension targeting
The adverts that are served up through Google are based on location cues that include the physical location of the searcher, the search terms used and the domain being viewed.
Who was where when they clicked?
Within Adwords, the user location report entitled ‘Where your users were’ allows you to see the cities where searchers were when they converted and to see how much that click cost per conversion. The campaign first needs to be up and running for about a month to collect enough useful data but once the data is in – you can make some informed decisions about the locations you can target. Find the locations where the conversions cost less but where the clicks are high, for intelligent location targeting.
Google Adwords allows you to optimise your click costs across your campaign by bidding higher or lower for devices, times and locations, so why not increase a bid for a cheaper but promising location, say – by 20% to start with, to display your adverts in a higher position? The differences in price from some of the prominent locations (like Central London) showing conversions, can be significant and so there is a real cost-saving in this consideration.
There is also the option of using the advanced setting ‘People in, searching for, or viewing pages about my targeted location’. Adverts can be shown to people who type in the name of the location within their search, have viewed content about a certain location, or have chosen the location in their search preference settings.
The word is the key
You can geo-target an area with keywords too, for instance ‘Laptops Essex’. You can set location-specific keywords to show across the entire United Kingdom, so anyone searching for an area specifically will be shown the advert, regardless of their location in the UK.
This method is useful for businesses that have a regional or localised presence. It would be best to limit the targeting to this area through keywords but not geo-targeting. It’s worth realising that there may be good leads and new interested audiences that are not in the local area but intend to move there, or who have no qualms in travelling there.
Geo-targeting is worth keeping on top of – as it is possible to make use of analytical information, it draws in promising new customer populations and of course, it ultimately saves money by giving you more return for your investment.