Friday, July 07, 2017

Geo-targeting tips and tricks

I found this article really helpful in thinking about how to target customers when first building out a digital marketing campaign. I think if you look at your campaign holistically in terms of each customer segment you're trying to reach, then think about how these 6 targeting tips can apply to each segment, you'll be at a really strong starting point on crafting your overall message.

The 6 tips include:

Think National reach or Hyper-location targeting. The example they give about rental car advertising for a company in Denver makes a pretty salient point. If you hyper target to Denver's locale, you're missing they key demographic of folks who are outside of Denver, traveling to Denver and who need a rental car. You might actually achieve higher conversion rates by omitting Denver and focusing on key cities across the US.

Average Household Income. This is an interesting way to subdivide a population. You may very well know that your product or service is priced at a premium and not everyone can afford your product. By tailoring your campaign to geo-focus on areas with higher average household incomes, you may be able to further sub-divide a large city or region and optimize your spend.

Target Competitor Locations. This was really interesting to me, but the logic is actually pretty sound. A lot of consumers these days are price sensitive and will look up prices while actually in the store to see if they're getting a good deal. By geo-targeting your competitor store locations, you're reaching an audience that has an appetite for your product. This obviously makes the most sense for mobile campaigns.

High Competition Cities and Regions. Similar to targeting your competitor's physical stores, you can target regions where your competitors have a significant brand presence. You should be mindful about how to penetrate these markets though. The theory is that you are trying to appeal to customers who have brand awareness of your competitors, but maybe not you; consumers who know you but are constantly flooded with your competitor's brand; or customers who know you, but due to proximity of your competitor might go there instead. You will have to find an extra incentive to reach these customers, however, as the ease just going to your competitor is tough to overcome.

Complimentary Behavior. This is also akin to targeting your competitor locations. If you target stores that offer complimentary products to what you offer, you are likely to get in front of future customers. An example would be if you sell winter gloves, maybe you geo-target shops that sell skis and boots, or alpine hiking equipment, etc... This is intuitive when you think about it, but easy to overlook as an option.

Apply Audience Lists. This last trick is really another way to augment the first 5 options. This simply means using the above tactics on a list of folks who have already visited your site and viewed your products. You're basically attempting to re-market your goods at a time or place when you know these customers are purchasing something.

I thought all these ideas were pretty smart, and maybe things most marketers do already, but if you use this list as a lens to view each customer type you have you can likely see some overlap between customer types and really focus your budget to maximize impact.



6 Ways to Use Location Targeting

No comments: