Why online advertising is so effective – Part 4: Geo-targeting

In this last installment in this series, we’re looking at geo-targeting – the ability to choose the location of users who will be shown our ad.

Up to this point, all of our criteria (age, gender, interests, platform) to narrow our audience to our target market have remained global. I won’t say that there aren’t any, but I sure can’t think of a single brand or product that would benefit from advertising in every place on earth, which makes it a huge waste of money.

Geo-targeting in general, lets you specify a continent, country, or city where users have to be in order for your ad to be shown. All of the platforms we’ve talked about can do this. Better yet though, some platforms allow you to get even more precise, and, some let you deliver ads based on user movement. (I’m not naming names here because there are continuous improvements.)

So, for example, we can now target people who meet our other criteria, and who live in a certain city or within a specified distance from our business location. We can also target those who don’t live, but are travelling in our location. And, we can mix and match criteria. Here’s a great example of a precise target: a man, aged 46 to 55, who has visited several auto dealers’ websites in the past month, and recently visited a car dealership in your city. Time to reel them in to your dealership with a great offer!

This targeting ability not only means advertising to the right audience, it also allows us to show our ads when they will be the most relevant to our audience. You can target travellers looking for restaurant or neighbourhood locals for a salon special. You can even set up different ads for different criteria – enticing locals to come to your physical store and a different add for online shoppers across the country; or different ads based on age, gender, interests, etc.

Being able to get the right message, to the right audience, at the right time, is what makes digital advertising so effective. If you want to put this power to use for your business, just give us a call.

Continued:
Why Online Advertising is so Effective – Part 1
Why Online Advertising is so Effective – Part 2
Why Online Advertising is so Effective – Part 3
Why Online Advertising is so Effective – Part 4