This post discusses the topic of geo-targeting your pay per click campaigns.
What is Geo-Targeting?
Geo-Targeting is the ability to set a target country(s) to which your ads will be served. This allows the advertiser to set which countries they are interested in gaining.
Why Geo-Target?
If your target or product is restricted to a particular location, then any clicks from outside of that place are of zero quality. You are paying for clicks that will never convert.
The solution to this is to use the tools supplied by all of the main search engines to target your desired countries.
How Do The Search Engines Geo-Target?
The search engines use a number of methods to ascertain your geographic location including:
- IP Address – these are often bound to particular countries.
- Local version of their search engines – if you are searching on google.co.uk rather than google.com, it can be assumed you are based in the United Kingdom
- Demographics from your account – if you are logged into your Google, Microsoft or Yahoo account when browsing, the search engine is able to grab demographic information from your profile
- Browsing habits – if enabled with your search engine of choice, your browsing habits can be analyzed and a tailored surfing experience can be supplied including advertising relevant to your preferred country.
Is there a Problem?
Yes, the geo-targeting filters of the search engines are not 100% effective and advertisers are paying for clicks from outside of their targeted zones. If you do not keep a close eye on your campaigns, you are probably paying for low quality clicks which will never convert to sales.
What Should I Do About it?
Monitor your campaigns for outside of Geo-targeted zones and report them as invalid to your search engine for a refund.
Spotting clicks from outside of your geo-targeted zone is fairly straight forward. For example if you are using Google Analytics, it is very easy to segment your clicks into paid and un-paid, then it is a simple process to see which countries your paid clicks came from.
If you take advantage of the click fraud network solution, you are able to set your geo-targeted zones within your click fraud network account. This will automatically detect any clicks coming from outside of your desired countries and present them in a manner with which you can easily request a refund.