It's the first time I've seen this. I ran a search for "insurance", and a couple of Awords ads were the same as always (title, two line description, URL), but they had a fifth line:
New South Wales
That's one of the states in Australia. I live in the state of Victoria. The ads are for services that AFAIK are available for all of Australia
I've only seen it once. Has this happened in the USA as well?
When that appears in the ad it means the advertiser is targeting certain areas instead of the entire country.
If that is true, then:
a) If it is showing in New South Wales, it is a bit redundant telling someone in New South Wales that the ad is intended to be seen by them
b) Why am I seeing New South Wales ads in Victoria?
a) If it is showing in New South Wales, it is a bit redundant telling someone in New South Wales that the ad is intended to be seen by them
I couldn't agree with you more. Not sure why Adwords does this, but they do. In the US even cities are handled this way if you select targeting that way.
If I bought a campaign for only New York, LA and Chicago, then those cities will show up under my ads in those cities.
Here in Australia, many times when you do a search, especially when looking to buy something, a lot of american results show up too, which really is irrelevant.
Seeing "New South Wales" or "Sydney" displayed I imagine there's a good chance the user will instinctively click on it because it's obviously local. It's the same reason a .com.au address converts better than a standard .com for trying to sell down under. Familiarity.
-V
So maybe they use this "redundant information" as a safety belt, to increase their efficiency for targeting customers.
Here is bit of text quoted from an AdWords Support email on the subject:
The AdWords system displays the name of your target region or city (whichever is most specific) in your regionally-targeted ads to distinguish them from nationally-targeted ads.Because the name of your region or city is clearly displayed in the ad, users interested in the region know the ad is relevant to them. Conversely, users not interested in the region know not to click on the ad. Therefore, your ads will reach their intended audiences more effectively, and your clickthrough rate (CTR) will be protected from unwanted clicks.
And a link to some info from the FAQ:
Why does the name of a region appear underneath my ad?
[adwords.google.com...]
AWA
"Conversely, users not interested in the region know not to click on the ad."
So it is also being used as a failsafe mechanism. When a regional targeted ad appears for someone who is not from that region (using IP addresses is not perfect for working out where someone is located), that person knows that the ad isn't for them.
I use the 2nd biggest broadband supplier in Australia (Optus) from Melbourne, VIC. Yet I only see NSW and Sydney ads, even though that state is 500 miles away.
I'm guessing that a lot of regionally-targeted ads in Australia are being broadcast to the wrong states.
I use the 2nd biggest broadband supplier in Australia (Optus) from Melbourne, VIC. Yet I only see NSW and Sydney ads, even though that state is 500 miles away.
Robertskelton, although I am not an authority on Australian geography, or ISPs - most likely what this means is that Optus has given you an IP address that identifies you as being in NSW/Sydney.
AWA
