This presentation on geo-targeting using search engines explains how customers search for products or services from a specific location. This was given at Internet World by Ann Stanley on 1st May 2008. It includes case studies from Anicca Solution's clients and Interaction Media's clients; CopperHomes, Aspect Maintenance, Crest Nicholson and Westermans International.

1. Geo-targeting
How to target customers searching for
services or products in a specific location?
by
Ann Stanley
Presenting case studies from
Anicca Solutions & Interaction Media

2. About Ann Stanley
 Ann is working part-time with the digital team at Interaction
Media Ltd to provide additional consultancy to their clients
 This presentation includes 2 case studies from Interaction’s
clients and 2 case studies from Anicca’s clients
Personal profile:
 MD of Anicca Solutions Ltd
 18 years marketing experience (Chartered marketer)
 7 years online marketing experience
 Google AdWords Professional
 Developed and teaches on the EMDA Web Academy Program, also
at IAB, Search Academy and other events
 Business Link trainer on the East Midlands Business Steps program

3. Anicca Solutions Ltd
 Anicca Solutions was formed as a web development company in
2004 and became a full digital agency in 2006
 We are an East Midlands accredited supplier and carryout work
directly for Business Link
 We have collaborative partnerships with other agencies and
technology companies and carryout work for them on a sub-
contract basis
 We have set-up a new training company called PPC-School to
provide independent practical training around the UK
 The management team includes;
 Ann Stanley (MD) is responsible for providing online marketing consultancy and
training to clients. Ann is a chartered marketer and a Google AdWords
Professional
 Alex Fowler (Technical Director) is responsible for building clients websites and
developing and maintaining our own stable of websites
 Dawn Clode (Property Sales Director) is responsible for sourcing and selling
property to individual investors and commercial investors via our property portals
www.new-homes-direct.com and www.overseas-homes-direct.com

4. Anicca Solution’s Current Clients

5. Contents
 Introduction to geo-targeting
 Practical advice and case studies:
 Targeting local customers
www.CopperHomes.co.uk
 A service in a local area with local and national customers
www.Aspect-Maintenance.co.uk
 A national company wanted to target customers according to
location
www.CrestNicholson.co.uk
 Targeting international visitors
www.Westermans.com

6. What is geo-targeting?
 The ability to target specific customers by their location
using search engine marketing techniques
 Geo-targeting is controlled by a number of factors:
 The domain name of the search engine used, eg Google.fr or
Google.es
 The language preference set for your search engine
 IP address of the user – when the person searching is located
within the target area
 Query parsing – if the location is included in the search term –
even if the searcher is located outside of the target area

7. 3 methods of targeting customers
by location in the search engines
 Creating content on your website for location specific
keyphrases (organic results)
 Use geo-targeted pay per click (PPC), where you determine
where your ads will be displayed
 Use of local or business listings, where your ad appears next to
a map in the business directory or Universal Search
Focus of this presentation

8. Different ways to set
your PPC targeting
 Countries (default setting is UK if you are located in the UK)
 Regions or cities within a country
 Bundles of countries (eg continents)
 Customised
 Radius around postcode or address (eg 25 miles)
 Point to point shape on a map eg linking towns in a certain region
 Separate campaigns targeting a combination of the above

9. Who can benefit from using
geo-targeting?
1. Businesses targeting customers within a local or specific
geographical area
2. Businesses wanting to target local & national customers for a
service in one location
3. National companies wanting to have a local presence for their
chain of shops, showrooms or branches
4. Companies wanting to export or target international companies
(either in English or foreign languages)

10. 1) Businesses wanting to target local customers

11. Setting up a local campaign
 Geo-targeted PPC
 Target specific cities, counties or area served
 Separate campaigns may not be necessary for each location
 Estimates based on national campaign – select phrases based on more
data
 No need to include keyphrase combinations with the selected cities, as
Google does this automatically using query parsing (even when
searcher is outside of the area)
 May need to add keyphrase combinations for nearby locations and the
county terms
 Use local listings in each of the search engines
 Local listings with a map are now featured in the Universal search
results for the major search engines
 Optimise your company description for the important keyphrases
 Your local listing can appear higher than the natural listings

12. Selecting towns in a region

13. Selecting a specific area

14. Selecting a radius around a postcode

15. Local listings featured with
a map – Universal search

16. Optimise your local listings & a new
site can leapfrog over the organic results

17. Case study 1
www.copperhomes.co.uk

18. www.copperhomes.co.uk

19. Project
Service
 Buying property in the east & south midlands to avoid a
repossession or for a quick sale
Objectives of campaigns
 To support and replace local advertising with a limited budget
 To generate online enquiries and calls

20. Map of target areas

21. Source of traffic – top cities
Q - Why is there traffic from London when it is not in the target area?
A – Query parsing!

22. Searching in London –
ad does not appear

23. Searching in London - ad appears
when Northampton is added to term

24. 2) Businesses wanting to target local & national
visitors to a service offered in one location

25. How to get national & local visitors
for a local service
 Ideal for services within one area, such as plumbers or electricians,
where the client could be local or out of town
 Local PPC campaign - targeting general phrases (should be exact match
- so it is not found for locations outside the target area)
 National PPC campaign - targeting phrases in combination with specific
locations in the target region eg small towns, postcodes, boroughs (not
picked up by query parsing)
 Local listings – get multiple listings for all the locations within your
region

26. PPC Hierarchy for
Perfect Plumbers Ltd

27. Case study 2
www.aspect-maintenace.co.uk

28. www.aspect-maintenance.co.uk

29. Project
Service
 Property maintenance in the south east – targeting property
owners in the area and landlords across the country
Objectives of campaigns
 To achieve top 3 positions and maximum traffic levels
 To maximise the calls to the call centre

30. Structure of campaign
 Each maintenance service has 2 search campaigns:
 National campaign - displayed in UK with keyphrases in
combination with London or boroughs eg emergency plumber in
Wembley
 London campaign - displayed in London with generic phrases eg
emergency plumber
 Additional campaigns for:
 Brand terms
 Afternoon/evening – in case other campaigns have consumed all
their budget; with separate ad groups for each service
 Content network with demographic targeting (> 25’s); with
separate ad groups for each service

31. Structure of campaigns
& ad groups

32. Comparison of
national vs. local campaigns
Note the national campaign will include searchers in London who add
the borough or areas within London to their search term

33. Growth of traffic

34. Calls vs number of clicks

35. 3) Businesses wanting to have a local presence
across the country

36. How to have a local presence
- nationally
 Ideal for national companies with a chain of local shops,
showrooms or branches; eg retail chains, franchises, house or car
companies with local showrooms
 Allows budget to be split between group and regional companies
 Use geo-targeting with PPC
 For search terms including the location
 For generic terms without a location
 Use local listing in each of the search engines
 Create a local listing for each showroom or office

37. Being found for search terms
containing a location
 Have a specific campaign for each city; pointing to a landing page
for the local showroom or branch
 Have shared campaigns for counties and regions; pointing to a
landing page with all the showrooms or branches
 Campaigns can be displayed nationally as they are relevant to
people looking for the product or service within or outside of the
area
 Phrases can be exact and broad matched – as long as you pause
any poor performing phrases
 Create a template of phrases that can be altered for each location
(using find and replace)

38. Being found for general phrases
without a location
Two strategies
1. One national campaign
Display all phrases within one national campaign

Each ad group should point to subject-specific landing page

Share the cost between regions or get the head office to pay for these

phrases
2. Multiple campaigns each for a separate region
Country broken into a jig-saw of regions (eg county)

Multiple copies of the same campaign each targeted to a local area

Point to a landing page for the local showroom(s) or branch(s)

In this case the budget could be paid for locally


39. Case study 3
www.crestnicholson.co.uk

40. www.crestnicholson.co.uk

41. Project
Service
 Crest Homes is a national house builder offering new homes and
refurbished developments. They mainly sell in the Midlands and
South of the country
Objectives of campaigns
 To restructure the group campaign increasing the levels of traffic
but keeping to tight CPC and cost per conversion targets
 To implement Google Analytics to measure the success of the
campaign and understand user behaviour on the website
 To implement locations specific campaigns for individual
developments wishing to drive more traffic to their section of the
website (or micro-site)

42. Original structure
 One ad group per development, including
 Development specific terms
 Different locations
 Different property types
 Keyphrases
 Many keyphrases were in more than one ad group eg county phrases
 Many keyphrases were missing
 There was a poor quality score due to large mix of keyphrases within in one ad
group
 Some brand terms were included in the PPC campaign even though they were
found in organic results – these had great conversions but wasted quite a lot of
the budget
 CPC was limited to 21p - so CPC and cost per conversion was very good (helped
by large number of conversions from brand terms)

43. Structure of new group campaign
 Keyphrases
 Creation of templates of keyphrases in combination with the word “location”
 Use Google Editor to create ad groups for new locations – using find and replace
 Use of exact and broad match – but once started ensure that phrases with a low
CTR are paused
 CPC limited to 31p in order to achieve a low average cost per conversion, focus
on getting great quality score and high CTR
 Main campaign funded by group with national targeting, with separate ad
groups for:
Brand terms (only brand combinations where not in top 3 in Google)

Generic terms such as buy new home (without a location)

County specific – to a landing pages for developments in that area

Development/location specific ad groups – using keyphrases in combination with

local towns, cities or the name of the development (each with separate ad
group)

44. Structure of additional campaigns
 Development specific campaigns with national targeting
 Replace equivalent ad group in group campaign
 Add extra locations using template (in separate ad groups)
 Split some ad groups by type of property eg apartments separate from
house
 Increase maximum CPC to 61p to increase positions, CTR’s and share of
the traffic
 Budget set and funded by individual developments

45. Comparison with
Results from November
• During November 1/3rd of the conversions were from brand phrases that included “Crest”
• During January the same phrases were used (excluding the Crest phrases) – but with a larger
budget. This resulted in a lower conversion rate
• During February the phrases were expanded and the cost per click raised to achieve more clicks
• During February and March the conversion rate has settled down to 0.8%, although this varies
considerably depending on the development
• There has been a significant increase in CTR (due to better quality scores and pruning poor
performing phrases); this has allowed to gain more traffic at a similar CPC

46. 4) Businesses wanting to export or target
international clients

47. Target audience – English Language
 The language choice reflects
 the language that the search engine or third party site is written in
 The language selected by the user in their browser
 If you want to export (but do business in English)
 Choose English language
 Only bid on countries where you can export or do business
 Select different countries or regions (bundles of countries) with each
country/region in a different campaign
 It is OK to use the same keyphrases but add colloquial phrases and
different spellings (check using the keyword tool)
 Generally the UK and USA will have a higher CPC, so check you are not
paying too much or have very high positions
 Some countries browse but do not buy, so check your conversion rates

48. Target audience – Foreign Languages
 If you want to export and do business in foreign languages
 Only choose languages that you can do business in (either you have a
local agent or staff that speak that language)
 Have separate campaigns for each language & country combination
 Only use language and country combination that occur naturally (eg
Spanish in Spain, Europe, south America, north America)
 If you are targeting foreign languages then you need to target
keyphrases and have ad copy in this language (otherwise you will have
a poor quality score and low click through rates)
 Ideally take the searcher to a landing page in that language with the
contact details for a local distribution centre or agent (the rest of the
site can still be in English)

49. Selecting countries

50. Selecting bundles of countries

51. Case study 4
www.westermans.com

52. www.westermans.com

53. Project
Service
 Westermans sell refurbished welding and cutting equipment
for international trade and industrial clients
Objectives of campaigns
 To create separate campaigns for the 3 different types of
equipment to target different regions of the world
 To implement conversion tracking and Google Analytics to
measure the success of the campaign and understand user
behaviour on the website

54. Original Campaign structure
PPC campaigns and targeting
 The account was split into three campaigns for the main types of
machinery:
 Standard welding equipment
 Specialist welding equipment including orbital welders
 Plasma and cutting machines
 The three campaigns were set-up to be seen:
 in any country in the world
 in any language
 on any search engine or website in the search or content network (ie
partner sites that display Google ads).
PPC ad group structure
 Each campaign only had one ad group. This contained:
 keyphrases for all the different types of welding equipment
 one ad with generic ad copy
 one landing page to the availability page on the website

55. Problems with the way the
PPC account was set-up
 The account was impossible to manage and understand where the
traffic was coming from
 Lots of wasted impressions – ads were being displayed in English on
foreign language websites
 The lack of targeting gave low click through rates (CTR) and ‘quality
scores’ (because the ad was irrelevant for most people that saw it)
 More competitive markets such as the UK and Australasia were being
starved of budget – they also require a higher cost per click (CPC) to
get reasonable positions and traffic
 Only one ad group meant that all the different types of equipment had
the same ad, also resulting in low CTR’s and quality scores
 No data on conversion rates, cost per conversion and whether this
varied by location (or network)
 Use of content network resulted in cheaper cost per click but was this
converting into leads?

56. New campaign & ad group structure

57. Results

58. Map showing traffic sources

59. Top 20 countries
– note USA traffic is from organic listings

60. Westermans - Summary
 The original PPC campaign had a lower CPC due to the effect
of the content network
 Different regions and equipment types have very different
levels of traffic, CPC and conversion rate
 The UK consumes most of the budget – particularly for the
normal welding phrases; although the budgets are currently
limited due to capacity issues
 PPC is only contributing ~15% of the traffic to the site; due to
high levels of direct traffic, organic results and referrals
 New campaigns will be set-up to target language and country
combinations (starting with European languages within the
UK)
 We are developing a new website for Westermans with multi-
lingual functionality - to better serve their international clients

61. Geo-targeting summary

62. Key-points
 There are 3 main ways of geo-targeting using the search engines
 Location specific keyphrases within the website content and hope the site is found in
the organic results
 Geo-targeted PPC
 Local listings appearing in the business directory or Universal search
 All the search engines have local listings and some form of PPC geo-targeting -
with Google and MSN having the most sophisticated PPC targeting
 Most companies can benefit from having a combination of local and national
campaigns; targeting general phrases or those in combination with a location
 Results have shown a reduced cost per click and higher conversion rates due to
the campaign being more targeted – however this will vary between regions
(particularly for international campaigns)
 In order to get the most from geo-targeting - it is essential to have the optimum
campaign and ad group structure
 Use the free tools like Editor and Analytics – it can save hours!
 Use the PPC data to define your SEO strategy and then create location specific
content channels to increase your organic listings

63. THANK YOU!
ann@anicca-solutions.com