13 Reasons You Should Geo-Target PPC Campaigns

I manage an array of accounts and all of them target the city or state in the campaign. This targeting in technical language is called geo-targeting. Geo-bid modifiers is one great choice we can use but if we segment in this way –– the optimization moves on to the next stage. There's a control freak hidden inside each person who manages a paid search account. Geo-targeting lends that bit of control over our keywords, ads, landing pages, so on and so forth.

I go for segmenting by city. For instance, in currently all the 19 identical campaigns I am running, a distinct city within America is targeted in each. Along with a single catch all campaign which freezes out all the previous locations.

Although I know that targeting the way I am doing doesn't make sense in every account, I can give endless reasons to take them into account prior to deciding if it is right for you. Today I can precisely remember just 13.

Setup is easy

With the AdWords Editor tool the setup becomes a breeze.

Cut/copy/paste a campaign

Alter the location targeting

Keep your new geographic area out of the old campaign. 

If you want you can update the ads and landing pages.

My Services Change By Location

Services I offer target specific locations, and change by location.  Customizing ads and keywords in accordance with location make sense to me. Advertising something that consumer has no access to is futile. Right?

I exclude certain locations to avoid wasting money

It doesn't make sense to advertise in regions where a product isn't  available. Besides, some locations doesn't cover the cost of advertising. If I exclude these locations I save money.

Volume & performance can change due to factors like population size, competition within the area, and so on. So I segment by location in order to accurately allocate spend. 

My campaigns have similar budgets to start with but later on I reallocate additional funds to location where I find the performance is high. See the snapshot above. Because Houston is outperforming San Francisco I have doubled my spend in this area.

Tailored Ads Outshine Others

Segmenting by location has an advantage – you can tailor ads to match the region. The Ad copy that directly references the city often outshines others. See the table below – ads focused on city boosted click through rate by around 25 per cent.

Personalized Landing Page Boost Conversion Rate

Personalizing landing pages to specific area helps to boost conversion rate. I am a  Bloomington, Indiana native. For me an Indiana landing page holds relevance if I'm looking for a dry-cleaning service. 

Controlling keywords at the geographical level

Particular keywords do well in specific locations. Maybe because behaviors of people on the east coast differ from the west. But cost per clicks and competition can also have a role in it.

You just cannot use keywords that convert in San Francisco in Virginia. Simply because in  Virginia CPC is higher. Location specific evaluation of keywords helps me to manage my budget in a better way. If the same campaign encompass the keyword, bidding down in Virginia will implement it throughout the campaign.  Geo-targeting done by campaign means you're controlling keywords at the location level.

Collect As Much Info About Your Competitors As You Can

Keep tab on competitors activities. This is necessary to avoid overspending to remain in the same average position. Also to keep a consistent click-through rate and to ensure number of impressions remain steady. Find out ways to manage your competitors.

Don't Overbid In Low CPC Areas

 

A  lower cost-per-click is always profitable. Areas where competition is less implies that here the cost-per-click is lower. The table below shows a comparison of CPC by location.

In each campaign the keywords, average positions and average CPCs are the same.  Clicks & impressions in Orange County &  Phoenix are lesser in number than in Dallas & LA. However, I'm sure here the cost-per-conversions will be lower.

Better Control Boosts Overall Performance

Having different CPCs, customized ads, landing pages etc. imply that to beat our targets we require  different optimizations. Means there's no need to bid up or add varied  negatives depending on search query reports.

Results were surprising!

We work to get results. Right? I achieved tremendous success in Detroit. Plenty of leads were coming from this region, but traffic was thin. I got maximum leads from the New York area. It was obvious since NYC is a thousand times more populous than Detroit.

With budget under control clicks jumped by over 70% and the leads I generated in Detroit were quality leads.

Analyze on a daily basis

In the morning I log into my account to find out locations that are doing well and those that are not. Yep, number of campaigns is huge but so is the volume. If I notice Houston is excelling I increase my budget in this area. 

Location prompts reporting and further discussion

Location gives an opportunity to report and discuss ways to reach our goals. So it's not  products, keywords and metrics which we need to talk about all the time.

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