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Keeping Your PPC Campaign Regional & Relevant
June 21, 2007
In the past few years there has been a lot of noise about local targeting, how important it is, and how each individual engine is going to offer the best solution since the invention of the internet. It has been particularly interesting to see all of this noise now come into 'focus' as several similar yet distinct songs.
I for one have been happily awaiting the arrival of local targeting for everyone agrees that it can be particularly effective in getting the word out about the various good and services that we all offer. In the PPC realm though I have noticed several distinct issues that eventually formed my basis for creating and managing regionally targeted campaigns and I'd like to highlight them for you.
How Do People Search?
As with anything else in the SEO/PPC world people search by typing in keywords and so any good campaign must begin with this. With local/regional campaigns though we need to add special importance to keywords that contain any of the official or even unofficial 'local' names for the particular area that we are targeting. I find it particularly useful to separate these keywords from the general one's before going on to the next step.
How Do I Organize?
I like to setup two separate campaigns, one for the general terms, and one for the terms that contain the local names attached. For the general campaigns I have begun using the ISP targeting feature to more narrowly capture any searchers in the target area who happen to be using generic terms. For the other campaign I do not turn on the ISP targeting feature so that we can reach even those who happen to be out of the target area, but are still searching for our item within that specific area.
In theory this sounds simple enough but to make it actually work while following all the rules, I've encountered a few tips that help guide me in this:
1) Make sure there are NO duplicate keywords in either list. The engines do not accept more than one ad for fear that someone with deep pockets would buy up all of the top spots.
2) Make sure to group keywords tightly by location. This will assist in your evaluation of results and, as stated in #4, help you with discerning your target audiences search preferences.
3) Create ads that make good use of the regions names. (I.e. The Best Hot Dogs In South Florida). Test out the different names, like South Florida, Ft. Myers, The Gulf Coast, etc. These could all be ways that people search and research has proven that people respond to seeing their area name in the ads.
4) Pay particular attention to the other, more subtle details of the campaigns like, the click patterns throughout the day and which engines people use in different parts of the area that you are targeting. You will soon be able to compile some data about the search habits of people in your area because of the keywords that you have grouped together.
With these tips in mind I've been able to navigate the local search waters with much more ease and have found the results to be typically better than the general 'shotgun' approach. Good luck with your local search campaigns!
All posts by Brent Sharp
posted by Brent Sharp at June 21, 2007 02:04 PM
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