The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
June 2008, Volume 7, Issue 6

Google AdWords Geographic Exclusion: The Missing Link

by Melissa R. Schaeffer, Client Services Manager, iProspect

Google has long offered geographic targeting with their Adwords program. The feature allows marketers to target the best city, region, or population for their specific needs on a campaign by campaign basis. For example, a marketer could use it to launch the hottest new pair of ski boots in Denver, or the latest pair of sunglasses in Los Angeles. Ultimately, it helps advertisers stretch their dollar by allowing them to display ads for broad, expensive, high traffic keywords in specific markets that would otherwise be unaffordable on a national scale.

Short comings
But despite its cost–savings benefit, geo–targeting has been lacking in one area; namely, the ability to provide accurate data on user behavior within specific designated marketing areas (DMAs). Because geo–targeting focuses on major cities/regions/populations — as clusters — marketers have not been able to drill down and assess their campaign's performance in a particular area.

For example, let's say an advertiser runs a national campaign selling ski vacations, and would like to know if users in Miami are converting. Unfortunately, geo–targeting can't provide that information because certain regions or areas are grouped together. And if the advertiser tries to get around the situation by creating a separate campaign that targets Miami only — it creates overlap — and both the national campaign and the local campaign will display ads to the Miami audience. Since there is no way to control which campaign shows ads in Miami without pausing the national campaign, the marketer won’t be able to determine how many people in Miami like to trade in the sun for the slopes.

The situation has left marketers clamoring for a solution as the present void can adversely impact their marketing decisions and a whole lot more.

The missing link
Fortunately, Google has answered their call, and has added geographic exclusion as an option for paid search campaigns. In essence, it's the missing link marketers have been waiting for. Now they have the ability to remove regions from a larger geographic area, or to "negatively target" areas within a larger region or a national AdWords campaign. Thanks to this new feature, now our ski vacations marketer above can remove the Miami region from the national campaign, and then launch a local initiative and truly control the ad copy and landing pages viewed by the local audience — without the overlap. Then he’ll be able to gather accurate data on the campaign’s performance in the region.

And Google's geographic exclusion can help you in various ways too. Now you can customize your campaign by offering a specific experience to a DMA in the form of targeted ad copy and landing pages while still running a national campaign. Or, you can test keywords, ad copy, and landing pages in a DMA without risking your entire national campaign. Lastly, it can help you compare marketing strategies. For instance, you could track the influence of offline advertising on online advertising in a specific city/region without interference from a national campaign.

Overall, this new feature is the missing link paid search marketers have been waiting for. Now they can exclude specific regions from a national AdWords campaign so they can test them independent from a national campaign and gather valuable information on these markets.

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The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article: June 2008, Volume 7, Issue 6

Google AdWords Geographic Exclusion: The Missing Link

The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
June 2008, Volume 7, Issue 6