This week James Svoboda (@Realicity) guest hosted with a question set titled “PPC Location & Language Targeting.” The following is the transcribed Streamcap from the live chat:
Q1: How granularly do you segment campaigns by location and language?
- Depends on size of account & time allocated. The more granular the better. Often city specific campaigns, few language specific. – Luke Alley (@LukeAlley)
- Very granular for location as diff markets have diff advertisers. Language depends on the audience and objectives. – David lonergan (@LoonieGuy)
- For international campaigns, by country and language – even if they’re all English. Need good naming convention for filtering. – Melissa Mackey (@Mel66)
- We specialize in local search so every campaign is targeted by location but not by language, yet. – Nicole Mintiens (@Tregesy)
- As much as needed, but as little as possible (for management ease). – Robert Brady (@robert_brady)
- It is an Acct by acct thing. Each on is different and depends on needs and reach of client whether local, national or int’l. – Bryant Garvin (@BryantGarvin)
- Cities usually, by combining multiple locations to hit desired audience. Also depends on vertical. ecom is usually countr. I’ll often run 2 campaigns, 1 Geo-Targeted, and 2nd City Keyword targeted. That way I can reach a larger audience. – James Svoboda (@Realicity)
- Do you not use the new advanced targeting to target both Geo & location KWs in the same campaign? – Andrew Baker
- Not me. I cast a wider net for location keywords like “Minneapolis dentist” would geo-target the entire state. – James Svoboda
- Do you not use the new advanced targeting to target both Geo & location KWs in the same campaign? – Andrew Baker
- For international accounts by country/territory/language, then split out depending on performance of campaigns. -Andrew Baker (@AndrewBaker72)
- Do it quite a lot with locations for accounts where the head is super important. Not so much for tail accounts. – Richard Fergie (@RichardFergie)
- Anyone doing an English Text Ad & LP campaign targeting another language? – James Svoboda
- Starting to try targeting Spanish language in U.S. Apparently many bilingual spanish speakers don’t change settings. Have only done this when I have to increase reach somehow, not my default. – Luke Alley
- That is what we’ve got planned for a client in Canada. Some English some French searchers. – James Svoboda
- Definitely true! Always important when targeting int’l even if you are Eng only to include native languages! – Crystal Anderson (@CrystalA)
- Not yet..but im sure Quality Score might get affect for campaigns lyk this. – Manoj Pandey (@_MAN0J)
- Starting to try targeting Spanish language in U.S. Apparently many bilingual spanish speakers don’t change settings. Have only done this when I have to increase reach somehow, not my default. – Luke Alley
Q2: Do you make use of the advanced location targeting options? Why or why not?
- We use them at times, but usually volume = crickets. – Melissa Mackey
- I use the advanced location settings. Helps control what “Google thinks people are searching for” in relation to my location. Expecially the Exclude options. – James Svoboda
- Does Advanced options include location/search intent? If so, then yes. – Nicole Mintiens
- Occasionally yes for B2B niches. We would target eg English & Swedish searches w/ EN ad, if no localised content. – Chris Gutknecht (@ChrisGutknecht)
- Only when the campaigns require it. Usually start with it and then disable to increase audience. – David Lonergan
Q3: What are some unique geo targeted campaigns you have created?
- Opened 1 campaign location targeting to Mexico, but kept KWs “Texas XYZ” to tap into searchers who wanted to cross the border. – James Svoboda
- For some Nat’l advertisers broken out high cost/performing Geos into own campaigns and neg targeted in main for control. – Bryant Garvin
- Extremely detailed geo-targeting in densely populated areas when locations fall in similar cities/proximity (i.e. LA Area). – Nicole Mintiens
- Good point. Population density is important as it equates to search volume, which affects return on time spend managing. – James Svoboda
- In the UK geo-targeting is truly awful & I use w/ caution, easy to miss targets, creative use is required > target exchanges. – Andrew Baker
Q4: How accurate and/or beneficial do you find the location and language targeting options to be across the paid platforms?
- Location is always a mixed bag because of using IP addresses. But with Mobile can be much more precise. – Bryant Garvin
- Just like keywords matching, I wish this was standardized. Maybe eventually? – James Svoboda
- Depends on the market. I find the US is really good for Geo-T while Canada is not so good. – David Lonergan
- Still flakey as a lot of mobile users will hook into their wi-fi or hot spots rather than 3G so the same issues. – Andrew Baker
- This issue is going to be big for G+ by connecting the same users to multiple devices. – James Svoboda
- Really we have no choice but to accept location and language settings as is. Is there much else we can do? – Luke Alley
Q5: When bidding on specific town or city keywords (ex: “boston dentists” or “austin texas lawyers”) what is your preferred campaign setup and/or keyword match type(s)?
- Both – Lisa Sanner (@LisaSanner)
- 2 campaigns: 1 broad terms geo to the city/location; 1 to rest of country excluding location w/geo-modified KWs. – Melissa Mackey
- Solid strategy. Also exclude duplicate city locations from other regions. Portland Oregon not Portland Maine. – James Svoboda
- If budget is acceptible, have 2nd city level geo-targeted campaign with more general keywords like “coffee shop”. – James Svoboda
- Dependant on location & niche might have to run BMM campaigns / ad groups due to Exact LSV KWs. – Andrew Baker
- Don’t forget mall or neighborhood kws. They work well too, especially for mobile. – Lisa Sanner
- Excluded locations. Not always entirely accurate, but it helps. – Elizabeth Marsten (@ebkendo)
- Q5.1 How do you ensure you aren’t spending too much time adding location specific kws & text ads that will receive few impressions?
- I usually just copy ad copy from one to the other & concatenate the KWs. Then optimize as results dictate. – Melissa Mackey
- I usually build a catch-all ad group to test search volume on new keywords without not proven volume like location keywords. – James Svoboda
- I think sometimes that just happens. Difficult to tell volume at times. Use Adwords Editor? – Luke Alley
- FYI- If AdWords Keyword Tool does not give you any volume, it usually means that it will be a Low Search Volume keyword. – James Svoboda
- I do 17-20 nested if then excel functions with concatenation and “LEN” checks built in for ad copy/KW creation. – Bryant Garvin
Q6: When utilizing location specific keywords, what are some proactive moves you make to ensure ads are seen in correct location?
- Negative out other areas that have same location name (better late than never). – Chris Kostecki (@chriskos)
- Use advanced targeting settings to control ad serving. – Luke Alley
- Use Advanced Location settings to exclude states with dup cities (Portland OR, Portland ME) or just the city itself. Also, negative keywords… -maine and -me to remove searchers in other areas loking for the other location. – James Svoboda
- Clients do cross channel audits, especially when overlap in same DMA. These show issues. PPC usually looks better than others. – Lisa Sanner
Resources
- Google AdWords Editor (version as of today’s PPCChat 9.8.1)
- Microsoft adCenter Desktop
- http://www.google.com/ads/answers/
- PPCChat Member List (Twitter)
- adCenter Feature Suggestion
- Bing Keyword Research Tool
More PPC Chats
Don’t forget to stay tuned for the next #PPCchat on Tuesday at 12 noon Eastern, 9 am Pacific and 5pm in the UK. Same Chat time, same Chat channel.
Participants
Check out the PPC Chat Twitter list to see and connect with all current and prior participants.
- Matt Umbro (@Matt_Umbro)
- James Svoboda (@Realicity)
- Paul Kragthorpe (@PaulKragthorpe)
- Andrew Baker (@AndrewBaker72)
- Bryant Garvin (@BryantGarvin)
- Chris Gutknecht (@ChrisGutknecht)
- Chris Kostecki (@chriskos)
- Crystal Anderson (@CrystalA)
- David lonergan (@LoonieGuy)
- Elizabeth Marsten (@ebkendo)
- Lisa Sanner (@LisaSanner)
- Luke Alley (@LukeAlley)
- Manoj Pandey (@_MAN0J)
- Melissa Mackey (@Mel66)
- Nicole Mintiens (@Tregesy)
- Richard Fergie (@RichardFergie)
- Robert Brady (@robert_brady)
The Following Streamcap was made possible by viewers like you.
This is a guest post by Paul Kragthorpe; working for WebRanking, a Pay Per Click Agency in Minneapolis, Minnesota, #PPCChat Streamcap Grabber, Search Marketing Blog Author. Connect with me @PaulKragthorpe, and Google Plus.
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Tags: geotarget, geotargeting, language, location, Pay-Per-Click (PPC), ppcchat, targeting
