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How to Set Up Remarketing in Google AdWords [Tutorial] – Behavioral Targeting on The Display Network

May 4, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

Remarketing in Google AdWords

This week I decided to write about Remarketing in AdWords, which seems to be a confusing topic for some marketers.  Over the past month or so, I’ve received a lot of questions about both the concept and execution of Remarketing.  Let’s start with a quick introduction.  Remarketing is a new feature in AdWords that enables marketers to target people browsing the web (across Google’s Display Network) that have already visited their websites.  You can target these people with custom messaging, since you already know they visited your site (or specific sections or pages on your site).  It’s a form of behavioral targeting and can be a powerful way to “re-market” to specific visitor segments.

For example, if you run an e-commerce website that sells sneakers, you could target people on Google’s Display Network that visited specific sections of your website, such as the section containing running sneakers or cross trainers.  To clarify, you could provide specific advertising just for that visitor segment (and your advertising would run on other websites, not on Google.com).  Essentially, this is your second chance to get those visitors back to your site to act, so your messaging might be different than the first time you are in front of them.  It’s also worth mentioning that remarketing can potentially creep some people out, depending on the execution.  For example, an ad that says, “We know you visited {enter your website here}. Come back or we’ll tell everyone!” will probably creep prospective customers out.  Just because it’s possible doesn’t mean you should do it.  :)

Update: I’ve received a lot of emails from marketers that have used this tutorial to successfully launch their first remarketing campaigns. That’s awesome, but I’ve also received a lot of questions about how to use custom combinations to set up advanced targeting scenarios. My readers have spoken, and I have listened! I’m happy to announce a new blog post covering how to set up remarketing campaigns using custom combinations (so you can target an audience, less any visitors that converted). It’s a common scenario that marketers run into, and now you have a step by step tutorial that builds upon the post you are reading now.

Setting Up A Remarketing Campaign, A Step by Step Tutorial

Although Google has provided several articles in the AdWords Help Center about remarketing, I still don’t think there was a great example of walking advertisers through the setup (step by step).  Since it can definitely be a little confusing while you are setting up your first remarketing campaign, I’m going to provide the necessary steps below (with screenshots) of how to set up a remarketing campaign.  After the tutorial, I’ll provide some key takeaways, so you can be off and running.

Without further ado, let’s set up a remarketing campaign:

  1. Develop Your Remarketing Strategy:
    I don’t recommend jumping in and creating a campaign until you clearly understand what you are trying to achieve.  For example, who are you trying to target, what do you want to say to them, and what is the ultimate goal?  In its simplest form, remarketing enables you to target people that visited your site in the past (or visited certain pages or sections of your site).  Then you can “remarket” to them while they are browsing the web (across Google’s Display Network).  You can target them with either text or display advertising.  For this tutorial, we’ll use a fictitious e-commerce website that sells sneakers.  Let’s say that we just launched a new trail running sneaker, specifically designed for running outdoors.  We are driving prospective customers to a landing page for the new sneakers via a number of channels (paid search, email marketing, etc).  To keep this simple, our goal is to remarket to anyone that visited that landing page to get them back to the site.
  2. Let’s first add an audience by creating a remarketing list.  A remarketing list is essentially the visitor segment you want to target on the display network.  For our example, this includes any person that visited our landing page for our new trail running sneakers.  When you create a new list, you will receive a new snippet of code that needs to be placed on the landing page.  This snippet will “cookie” visitors that are viewing the landing page (in order for you to remarket to them later on).  Note, if you target a section of your site versus just a page, then you need to add the snippet to every page in that section.  The same goes for creating a remarketing list that contains all site visitors.  For that case, you would need to add the snippet to all pages on your site.
  3. In your account, click the Audiences tab and then click the “Add Audiences” button.  If you don’t see the audiences tab, then click the arrow located on the right hand-side of your tabs.  You’ll be able to “show” the audiences tab by selecting a checkbox.
  4. Finding the Audiences Tab in AdWords:
    Audiences Tab in Google AdWords

  5. Once you click the “Add Audiences” button from within the audiences tab, you will see two sections, one that says “Select An Ad Group” and then one below it that says “Add Audiences”.  Don’t select an ad group at this point (you haven’t created the campaign and ad group you will use for remarketing yet) and click the link for “Create and Manage Lists” to create a new audience (this link is in the “Add Audiences” section near the bottom of the page).
  6. Creating a new remarketing list:
    Create a New Remarketing List

  7. You will be presented with a new page.  Once you are on this page, click the “New Audience” button and then click “Remarketing List”.  Enter a name for your audience, a description, the membership duration (cookie length), and then select the radio button for “Create a new remarketing tag”.  The membership duration is how long you want the cookie to last for users that visited our landing page.  You can keep 30 days for our example.  Click “Save” when you’re done.
  8. Adding Details For Your New Remarketing List:
    Adding details for a new remarketing list.

  9. When you click the save button, you will see your new audience displayed in a table.  Chances are you only have one remarketing list (since we have only created one in this tutorial.)  If you have created others, they will also be listed.  There should be a column that says, “Tag/Rules” which contains a link that triggers your new snippet of remarketing code.  When you click the link, you can copy the code that needs to be added to the landing page.  You can place the code snippet before the closing body tag in the landing page </body>.  Again, we are only adding it to one page, but if you wanted to target visitors of a section of your site, you would need to add the snippet of code to all pages within that section.
  10. Triggering Your New Remarketing Code Snippet:
    New remarketing snippet of code in AdWords

  11. Congratulations, you have created your first audience (based on the remarketing list you just created).  Now you need a campaign and ad group that targets that new audience.  The new ad group will contain the ads that will be displayed to your visitor segment (the people that viewed our landing page and are now browsing the web after leaving our site).  Go back to your campaigns tab to view all of your online campaigns (you can click the “all online campaigns” link in the upper left-hand corner of the page you are currently viewing.)
  12. Create a new campaign and append “Remarketing” to the name of the campaign.  It’s not necessary to do this, but will help you quickly identify the remarketing campaign in the future.  Make sure the campaign only targets the display network.
  13. Selecting Display Network Only Under Campaign Settings:
    Selecting Display Network in Campaign Settings

  14. Create a new ad group and give it a descriptive name like “Trail Sneakers Remarket”.  Do not add any keywords to this ad group (since they aren’t necessary).  The ad group will only contain ads that will be presented to the visitor segment you are targeting.  This will be possible once you “connect” your remarketing list to your new ad group.  Set a proper display network bid in your ad group settings (based on your knowledge of your current campaigns and ad groups).
  15. Now create your ads that will bring visitors back to your site! Be creative and provide messaging with the understanding that these people were already on the landing page for our new sneakers.  This is your second chance to get them to convert, so you should tailor your message knowing this.  For example, you probably don’t want to provide the same core message that you would present to a new prospective customer (one that never saw the sneakers before).  Maybe you could provide additional selling points for the new trail sneakers, or maybe you could provide a special offer, discount, or other incentive to get them to come back.  As always, you can test various ads to see which ones perform the best.This is also where you can go overboard and creep people out (like I mentioned earlier).  For example, “You liked our sneakers enough to visit once, come back or else!”  If you creep people out, you’ll hear from them alright (just not for the reasons you want!)  :)
  16. What About Visitors That Converted Already?
    You might be wondering if your remarketing ads will show up for visitors that did convert already. For our example, your ads will still show up. You would need to set up a “custom combination” if you want to exclude visitors that converted. I cover custom combinations later in this post, but the topic is bit more complex so I plan to cover that functionality in a later post.

  17. Once your ad group and ads are created, it’s time to connect this ad group with the remarketing list we created earlier.  To do that, make sure the new ad group is active by clicking on the new ad group in the remarketing campaign (as you normally would to edit settings, ads, keywords, etc.)  Click the “Audiences” tab after selecting your new ad group and then click “Add Audience”.  You should see the audience we created earlier in the list.  Click the “add” link located to the right of the audience list.  Then click “Save” to finalize the connection.
  18. Finding The Audiences Tab And Add Audiences Button In Your New Ad Group:
    Adding an audience from within an ad group

    Connecting Your New Ad Group With A Remarketing List:
    Connecting a remarketing list to an ad group.

  19. You’re done! You have successfully set up a remarketing campaign.  You can check back to see how many people are being added to the remarketing list by visiting either the ad group you connected the list to or by visiting the Audiences tab at the account level.  You will see the number of users added to the list in the “number of users” column for each audience.

Now that you know how to technically set up a remarketing campaign, let’s run through some key takeaways.  Depending on the site at hand and the strategy you develop, you will probably end up testing various scenarios to see how remarketing works for your business.

Remarketing Key Takeaways:

  1. When using remarketing, you can target all site visitors, specific sections of your site, or even specific pages.  If you are new to remarketing, you might want to start by remarketing to any person that has already visited your website.  Once you get the hang of it, then you can develop more complex remarketing strategies.
  2. You can also remarket to visitors based on actions they take on your site.  For example, visitors that did not convert on your site.  You could remarket to people that added items to their shopping cart, but never purchased the item.  How about people that just signed up to learn more about a specific product or service?  Some of these scenarios require that you set up “custom combinations”, which enables you to combine remarketing lists using Boolean operations (AND, OR, or NOT).  I can probably write an entire blog post about custom combinations, so I’ll save that for another day.  That said, you can read more about custom combinations in the AdWords Help Center.
  3. In addition to focusing on specific areas of your site or specific actions visitors take, you can also remarket based on channel or campaign.  For example, you could remarket to visitors from your email marketing campaigns.  Or you could remarket to paid search visitors, or just paid search visitors from specific campaigns.  As I explained above, I would start with more general remarketing campaigns and then get more granular and complex once you get the hang of it.
  4. Don’t forget to take advantage of the visitor intelligence aspect of remarketing.  Your ads will be presented to people based on something they did on your site in the past.  You can provide tailored messaging based on that intelligence.  But as I explained earlier, be careful not to cross the line and creep people out.  And that’s very easy to do by the way.

It’s Time to “Remarket”

I hope you now have a better understanding of what remarketing is and how to set up a campaign in AdWords.  As you can see by what we’ve covered in the post, remarketing can be a powerful way to provide targeted ads to people that were already on your site (via both text and display advertising).  Just be careful with your messaging… I’ve already seen some companies use remarketing and creep people out from a privacy standpoint.  There’s definitely a fine line between effective marketing and turning off prospective customers.  Now go ahead and join the behavioral targeting revolution.

GG

Related Post: How To Set Up Remarketing in Google AdWords Using Custom Combinations

Filed Under: google, SEM

Mobile Visitor Trending and The Impact On Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Campaigns

March 29, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

The impact of mobile visitors on paid search ROI.

All you have to do is look around you right now to see the power (and promise) of mobile technology. Everyone is holding some form of mobile device, whether that’s a smartphone like an iphone or blackberry, or a feature phone (which is a marketing term for a standard cell phone with relatively basic functionality). And as mobile devices gain traction, more and more people are accessing the web via mobile browsers to research information, buy products, sign up for your services, contact local businesses, etc. It’s becoming hard to ignore that fact.

Based on what I explained above, here are two important questions to ask yourself:

1. Do you know how many mobile visitors are browsing your site?

2. Are those mobile visitors able to accomplish what they need to do on your site (and what you want them to do)?

Some Examples of Mobile Trending

Let’s take a quick look at mobile trending since January of 2009 for three sites that I control. Although the percentage of total site traffic still isn’t staggering, the trend is clearly on the rise (and especially over the past six months).

The Increase in Mobile Visits Since January 2009:Trending of mobile visitors since January 2009

Trending of mobile visitors since January 2009

Trending of mobile visitors since January 2009

Note: To view mobile trending, I used a regular expression in Google Analytics to include only screen resolutions under 320×480 (which is a smart method of filtering mobile visits documented by Craig Hordlow on iMediaConnecton). Although Google Analytics added mobile tracking in October of 2009, that doesn’t give us enough data (due to the timeframe). You can filter mobile visits a number of ways, but I like the screen resolution method when looking back in time.

How This Impacts Your Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Efforts

If more people are visiting your website via mobile devices, and you are paying for some of that traffic, how does that impact your ROI? I’ve provided three points to consider below with regard to mobile visitors and paid search.

1. SEM Targeting (Along With Other Campaign Targeting)
There are times that search engine marketers do a great job mapping out campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and ads, but still the campaigns aren’t driving the ROI that they were expecting. For some of these campaigns, unintended mobile visitors could be dragging down your return. I recommend checking your campaign settings to see if you are targeting mobile devices and then checking the user experience for those visitors. You might find that those visitors have a horrible user experience when visiting your website (such as your site design breaking when it renders on mobile devices). For example, if you have a nifty JavaScript-based hero image that’s not rendering properly or a slick flash element that cannot be displayed (with no alternative content). Heck, your navigation might not even be showing up. From an analytics standpoint, you can typically identify a serious issue by checking the bounce rate for any given ad group in SEM. If you see a high bounce rate, then you would obviously want to dig deeper to learn more. For example, you might see a bounce rate of 85% or higher for certain ad groups. While checking your campaign settings, you might just find that mobile targeting is turned on, and more importantly, that your site isn’t ready for it. This is why I typically recommend setting up separate campaigns targeting mobile users versus mixing mobile and desktop targeting (but that’s for another blog post).

In case you are wondering what a broken site looks like in a mobile browser, I’ve provided screenshots of sites not rendering or working properly below:

Visitors Won’t Be Able To Get Very Far If They See This:

JavaScript inhibiting the proper display of a website on mobile browsers.

Unless You Are Selling Blank Boxes, This Won’t Suffice:

Tiffany's content not rendering on mobile browsers.

The Screenshot Below Might Look OK, But I Added Three Products To My Shopping Cart & The Site Wouldn’t Actually Add Them…

Mobile e-commerce not working on mobile browsers.

A Note About The Google Content Network & Mobile Applications
The Content Network can be a very powerful driver of traffic for your website, however, it also presents some challenges. For example, if you are targeting mobile devices across the content network, then your ads can show up on mobile applications too. Given the widespread use of some mobile apps (across iPhone and Android), you might end up with a lot of traffic via mobile visitors. If your site cannot handle those visitors, you’ll be throwing away a lot of money…

2. Obstacles to Conversion
Based on what I explained above about sites not rendering properly, you can imagine the impact on conversion. Actually, there won’t be any conversions from mobile visitors. :) But let’s say your site does render ok and mobile visitors are able to browse your website. That’s great, but can those visitors accomplish what they want to on your site (and what you need them to do in order to convert?) When I’m helping clients with analytics, I often talk about conversions and events, which are actions that are important to your company. These actions provide value and do not represent meaningless numbers. For example, revenue, downloads, requests for more information, contacting your sales department, subscribing to your RSS feed, etc.

So, if you are focusing on outcomes (conversions, events, etc.), then you probably want to make sure that mobile visitors can reach those outcomes. For example, if you run an ecommerce website, can visitors purchase from your site? If you focus on lead generation, can visitors contact you via the site, if you want people to download your ebook, can they submit the form that gets them to the download page? The quick way to understand how your site performs across mobile devices is to test it directly from those devices. You might find some interesting things as you traverse your site on a mobile device…

Excellent Examples of Providing Content Targeted for Mobile Visitors:

Amazon.com provides one of the best mobile shopping experiences on the web: You can read more about Amazon.com and Mobile e-Commerce in a previous blog post of mine.

Mobile e-Commerce and Amazon.com
Mashble Provides a Mobile-Optimized Version of the Site Content:

Mashable's mobile-optimized content..
Best Buy Also Provides a Streamlined Shopping Experience for Mobile Visitors:

Mobile e-Commerce on Best Buy's website.

3. Video and Rich Media for Mobile Visitors
Online video is booming and it can definitely be an important component to your content development strategy. However, be very careful if your content relies heavily on video (when it comes to mobile visitors). Most of the visitors from mobile will not be able to see that really cool video on your landing page, and worse, that video element could end up breaking your page as it renders. I’m not saying to exclude video from your campaigns. You should just understand your audience and the targeting capabilities available via SEM. Then you can plan accordingly. For example, you can create a landing page for mobile visitors, you could redirect all mobile visits to a mobile-ready section of your site, etc. The worst thing you could do is spend $10-$20K on a killer video only to have it inhibit the very thing you are looking to do…convert visitors.

Your Next Mobile Steps
Mobile is rapidly growing and you should expect more and more visitors from mobile devices as 2010 progresses. If you are running paid search campaigns, understand the targeting capabilities available and adjust accordingly. Work with your development team on testing and refining your landing pages and site content to ensure they are mobile-friendly. You never know, you might be able to implement some minor adjustments that can make a big difference conversion-wise.

Just look for that 95% bounce rate and then dig deeper. :)

GG

Filed Under: google-analytics, mobile, SEM, web-analytics

Say Cheese Please – How The Right Marketing Campaign About Lactose Intolerance Could Add $1.8 Billion To The Cheese Industry Annually

February 2, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

Marketing lactose free cheese in the United States.Hi. My name is Glenn Gabe and I’m lactose intolerant. That’s right, me and about 40 million other Americans. Although it’s not the worst thing that can happen to you, it’s definitely a bit of a downer. I was 32 when I figured out that I was lactose intolerant, and that’s also when I learned how much of a nuisance it was to exclude certain foods from my diet. And those foods were some of my favorite things to eat, including milk, cheese, pizza, ice cream, to just name a few. Cheese, in particular, is in so many foods and meals that you eat on a regular basis, that it’s almost impossible to avoid. Now, that’s assuming that I really do have to avoid cheese. More on that shortly.

What is Lactose Intolerance?

For those of you not that familiar with lactose intolerance, here’s a quick rundown. Lactose is the sugar found in milk. Lactase is the enzyme that your body produces to break down lactose. Lactose intolerant people don’t produce enough lactase to break down the lactose they ingest. And if it’s not broken down, it causes problems (to varying degrees). For most people the symptoms aren’t horrible, but can be more of an annoyance. Since milk is a core ingredient of cheese, you would think that cheese would cause serious problems for lactose intolerant people. Not so fast…

Cabot is Sharp (And I Mean Smart)

I was making lunch about a month ago when it happened. I’m typically stuck using some flimsy science cheese for my sandwiches or choosing from the anemic selection of lactose free cheeses available. That day my wife ended up taking out her favorite cheese, which is Cabot Extra Sharp Cheddar. By the way, that’s like dangling a gourmet sandwich in front of a person that’s been stranded on an island for 5 years. :) After a quick glance at the cheese, I wiped the drool from my face and went back to my science project, I mean lunch. That was until my wife glanced at the side of the Cabot packaging. She noticed a small message on the side of the package that read “Lactose FREE”. Huh? I dropped my sandwich on the floor and ran over. Was this a mistake? Are they messing with me? I checked to make sure I wasn’t being punk’d and then I started doing some research.

Cabot’s Packaging Promotes Lactose Free Cheese:

Cabot Labeling Showing Lactose Free Cheese.

After doing some searches, I couldn’t believe what I was reading… It ends up that MOST aged cheeses are lactose free. From what I gather, the aging process yields cheese with either very low amounts of lactose or 0 grams of lactose. That includes cheddar, swiss, romano, provolone, etc. Needless to say, I was ridiculously excited. I’m not sure if all the cheeses listed have 0 grams of lactose, but most have such a low amount that they cause no problems for lactose intolerant people.

Where Were The Cheese Companies?

Then it hit me…why in the world aren’t cheese companies promoting this? Is there some reason they don’t want people to buy more of their cheese? Why didn’t I know about this? And why doesn’t the greater lactose intolerant community know more about this? I know quite a few people that are lactose intolerant, and I’m convinced that few of them actually know what they can and cannot eat! While doing my research, most of the search results were to forums and question and answer sites where people like me were asking questions about lactose free foods. Almost none of the major players in cheese ranked for the topic. Finlandia did have a page about how its cheeses were naturally lactose free, which is great, but I think more needs to be done…

The Revenue Implications of Smart Marketing

I couldn’t help but think of the massive revenue impact of effectively promoting this message to targeted people. How could cheese marketers get the word out via a number of channels?

A Target Market of 40 million lactose intolerant people…

I don’t know about you, but a target market of between 30 and 50 million lactose intolerant people provides a pretty darn good opportunity. And the fact that many of those people are dying to eat the foods they once loved (like cheese) makes it even a stronger opportunity. If cheese manufacturers or the cheese industry, decided to launch a thorough marketing and education campaign, I can only think they would strike gold. Simply getting the word out that most cheeses are low in lactose, and many are lactose free, could be a windfall for the cheese industry. There’s actually nothing to sell… your target market wants to eat cheese. They just can’t eat it (or so they think). A well-crafted campaign combining TV, Viral Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Search Marketing, Blogger Outreach, etc. could be huge for the cheese industry. It could be a cheese extravaganza!

Here’s an example of how simple it could be given the desperate eating state of most lactose intolerant people are. Jim and Laura work together:

Jim: Hey Laura, you can’t eat cheese, right?

Laura: Yes, unfortunately I’m lactose intolerant… Are you rubbing it in?

Jim: No, I just saw a video on YouTube explaining that most cheeses are low in lactose and many have no lactose at all… You should check it out.

Laura: WHAT?? Get out of my way! {She tackles Jim to get at his computer, clicks play on YouTube and shoots out the door to the store to buy 16 blocks of aged cheese.}

Revenue Lift: Now That’s A Lot of Cheddar

Let’s do the math. If you reached even 25% of lactose intolerant people in the United States, and they ended up spending an additional $15 per month on cheese, then you are looking at a lift of $1.8 billion per year. That’s a lot of cheddar, pun intended. :)

40 million lactose intolerant people in the US

25% = 10 million people

10 million x $15 per month = $150 million per month

$150 million per month x 12 months = $1.8 billion per year in additional revenue

Moving Forward

If I ran marketing for a cheese company and I was looking for ways to increase revenue, I would launch a killer campaign that engages the lactose intolerant market. Why try and get a .5% lift from the people who already buy and eat cheese when you can get a much greater lift from people that are dying to eat cheese, but just THINK that they can’t.

Now that would be sharp. :)

GG

Filed Under: SEM, SEO, social-media, viral-marketing, wom

Exploring AdWords Geotargeting – 4 Points About Location Targeting in Google That Are Often Misunderstood

January 5, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

Why many new bloggers and Twitter users get frustrated and drop off the social media grid.I receive a lot of questions from local businesses about how to best geotarget their paid search ads in Google. AdWords actually provides some robust ways to target your ads by country, region, state, city, and there is also an option for choosing a custom location to target. For example, you could create a polygon on a map to choose a very specific area to target. But just because those options are available doesn’t mean that everyone using AdWords understands how location targeting actually works. I’m going to explain four points in this blog post that seem to confuse advertisers (plus one bonus topic). My goal is to arm you with the right information about geotargeting so you can understand the best ways to structure your campaigns and drive outstanding results.

Here are four points (plus a bonus topic at the end) about location targeting in AdWords that you might not realize are in effect while prospective customers are searching for your products or services.

Query Parsing

Some advertisers are confused when they geotarget a specific location and end up seeing visitors from outside that area. I hear questions about this often. Some advertisers believe that there must have been a glitch in AdWords that showed their ads to untargeted searchers. What’s actually happening is that Google uses query parsing to detect when a search is local in nature. So, if you are geotargeting New York City, but someone in Alabama searches for New York Hotels, Google might show them your ads targeted for New York. Again, that’s even if you are targeting people only in New York. You should keep this in mind if you plan to geotarget your campaigns, but also want to reach people outside that area for specific keywords.

Query Parsing in Action

(Click the image below to view a larger version:)

Query parsing in AdWords.

IP Address

If Google can determine your location via IP address, then you might see ads based on that location. So if your IP address shows you are from Princeton, New Jersey, and you search for bakeries, then you might see ads for bakeries in the Princeton area. Notice that the query bakeries did not have a local qualifier (such as a city or town). Google has continually refined the way that it handles queries that it deems local in nature. You might have noticed a big change in March of 2009, when the 10 pack of local listings (now 7 pack) was triggered via non-geo keywords. Prior to that, queries with geographic qualifiers would trigger local listings (such as bakeries in Princeton, NJ). Now they can be triggered via broad terms (if Google believes it’s a local search). Keep this in mind when building your keyword lists for geotargeted campaigns.

Local Ads Based on IP

(Click the image below to view a larger version:)

Local ads triggered via IP Address.

Google Country-Specific Search Engines

This point relates to the Google domain you are searching on (and Google has over 100 country-specific domains). When people are searching on Google, they will see ads based on the Google domain they are using, such as google.co.uk, google.ca, google.co.jp, etc. So, if you are located in Canada, but are using Google UK, ads will be UK-focused. If you are in Japan, but you are using Google.com (US), then your ads will be targeted for the US. This is important to understand if you will be targeting people in several countries. You would want to structure your campaigns so they are extremely targeted for the locations (and languages) you are focusing on.

Google Domain Driving Ads

(Click the image below to view a larger version:)

Ads displayed based on Google domain.

Location Targeting on the Content Network

If you are running campaigns on the content network, then geotargeting does work and come into play. This essentially means that your ads will show up on sites across the content network (or via specific placements) when visitors to those sites are within your targeted locations. So, if you are targeting Washington DC and your ads show up on about.com, then your ads should only show for visitors from the Washington DC area (or on pages that Google deems local in content). The latter point is similar to query parsing when keywords are involved. For example, if you are reading information about Princeton NJ, but you are outside of the Princeton area, you might still see geotargeted ads for Princeton. Since your ads are contextually targeted on the content network, queries are not part of the targeting process (because there is no query to target). For example, visitors aren’t searching to trigger your ads across the content network. Instead, Google is analyzing the page at hand and determining if your ad matches the content on that page. Note, there’s a difference between a query and a keyword. :)

Geotargeted Ads on the Content Network

Geotargeting on the Content Network.

Bonus: A Quick Note About Local Extensions (A Form of Ad Extensions)

Wouldn’t it be valuable to include your address in your text ad when it’s extremely relevant to the person searching? That’s a leading question, isn’t it? :) Location extensions enable you to do this and they are very easy to set up. If you are a business owner with a Google Local Business Center account, then you can attach your business address to your ads. Note, your listing must be validated in Google Local Business Center for your address to show up. When you use local extensions, your business address will show up below your traditional text ad as seen in the screenshot below. If you don’t have a local business center account, then you can manually enter up to nine addresses that can be used as local extensions. Check out the AdWords help center to learn more about local extensions.

Local Extensions in Action

Query parsing in AdWords.

Be Prepared to Target

I hope this post clarified some of the nuances of geotargeting in AdWords. As a paid search advertiser, it’s important to understand how Google uses location targeting so you can build your campaigns to maximize your results. From query parsing to Google domains to IP detection, there are several factors that can trigger your ads beyond the locations that you think you’re targeting. Now aim for the bullseye and target away. :)

GG

Filed Under: adwords, google, local-search, SEM

Announcing The “Search a Small Business” Holiday Giveaway from G-Squared Interactive

December 7, 2009 By Glenn Gabe

The Search a Small Business Holiday Sweepstakes from G-Squared Interactive.The holidays are always a great time to reflect upon the past year in online marketing. Looking back at 2009, it’s interesting to analyze how various companies utilized new technologies and marketing channels to increase sales and engage prospective customers. I feel fortunate to be in a position where I get to speak with many marketers from a wide range of companies (both large and small) to learn which tactics they are using to grow their businesses. I think it’s been an amazing year, with Search, Social Media, and Mobile attracting a lot of attention from a wide range of companies and organizations.

However, looking back on my conversations and projects over the past year, it’s hard to ignore the lack of resources available to ultra small businesses. These small businesses unfortunately don’t have the time or budgets to tackle online marketing the way larger companies can. They also happen to be a critical component of our economy, so it just doesn’t seem right.

Ultra-Small Businesses & Online Marketing

To me, ultra small businesses are companies run by one or two individuals, employ less than ten people, generate under $500K per year in revenue, and move at light speed to keep their businesses moving. Ultra small businesses are critically important for our economy, but tend to be overshadowed by news from larger brands and companies. As article after article is written about multi-billion dollar powerhouses, the small business owner remains somewhat anonymous. Yet, those very business owners in aggregate employ millions of people and are an important part of the framework of commerce in the United States.

This got me thinking. What could I do this holiday season to help a small business start 2010 the right way? Let’s face it, many small businesses don’t have the time to learn about the latest in online marketing and how to leverage those tactics to increase sales. But, just because they don’t have huge budgets and big brand names doesn’t mean they have to be left out in the cold!

The “Search a Small Business” Holiday Giveaway

So in the spirit of the holidays, I decided to launch The “Search a Small Business” Holiday Giveaway here at G-Squared Interactive. Over the next week, small businesses that meet the requirements listed below can simply send us an email to enter the contest. The winning business will receive a free online marketing audit, which includes an analysis of how their current website is performing. And more importantly, the analysis will provide recommendations for improving the website and various online marketing efforts. Insights from the analysis could include recommendations for improving Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Paid Search (SEM), Social Media Marketing, Website Optimization, and Web Analytics. The goal is to help the winning company quickly understand changes that can impact its business. The analysis will be performed by myself and Matt Leonard, an incredibly smart online marketer and good friend of mine that has agreed to help. For those of you on Twitter, Matt is @mjleonard and you should follow him now if you aren’t already. Together, we plan to arm a small business with key information for improving its online marketing efforts.

Please review the following requirements before entering the contest to make sure your business is eligible.

In order to be eligible, you must:

* Have less than 10 employees.

* Already have a website. Since this is an online marketing analysis, we need something to analyze. :)

* Be located less than 60 miles from Princeton, NJ and be a NJ business. This is because Matt and I will present the results to you in person at your office. I recommend you check Google Maps to see if you are eligible.

* Be willing to let us write follow-up blog posts about the giveaway and project. We would like to provide updates about how the winner is using the information provided in our analysis.

* Be willing to make changes! The analysis can only go so far. You will need to act on the recommendations in order to see an impact.

To read the official rules and regulations, please click here.

So let us help your business start off 2010 with the right online marketing strategies in place! Enter now by emailing us at smallbizmarketing@gsqinteractive.com. Be sure to include all of your contact information so we know how to get in touch with you, including your full name, business name, business address, number of employees, phone number, and website URL. We will be accepting emails for the contest from Monday, December 7th, 2009 through Monday, December 14th, 2009. We will announce the winner on December 15th on this blog (and directly contact the winner via the information they provide when entering the contest).

Happy Holidays!

Glenn Gabe and Matt Leonard

Filed Under: local-search, SEM, SEO, small-business, social-media, web-analytics

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