Geotargetting cities

does it work for you?

[1Lit]

We've got a client who is a psychotherapist and would like to target a specific side of London. Have tried geotargetting by both using latitude/longitude and also selecting 'London' as target location, but neither seems to work. Have had problems with other clients too.

Can't see the ads on our computers. Google say it's because ISPs give people IP numbers which may be in different regions from where they are living.

Has anybody tried targetting specific geographic locations and, if so, got any tips?

[werty]

Usually the best approach is to create two ad campaigns.

One which uses the built in geo-targeting of google, I would use both broad and geo-targeted terms - london widgets, buy widgets in london, but because they are targeting based on IP you can also use terms like widgets, buy widgets, etc.

The second campaign use geo-vertical keyword selection only - london widgets, buy widgets in london, widget london, etc, and if you are familiar with the area I would use specifics such as neighborhood widgets and zip/postal code widgets.

[RonnieG]

werty,

On a city or locale targeted campaign, I always use the locale name as a campaign negative key word in the targeted campaign, so that all searches with that word go to the non-targeted campaign and ad. This not only eliminates duplicate key words between campaigns, but also helps identify where clicks and conversions are coming from.

[zoreli]

Hi

"Can't see the ads on our computers. Google say it's because ISPs give people IP numbers which may be in different regions from where they are living."

That is 100% true. I can see that in my stats. My ISP give me IP from other city. My web stats have the feature who is online, and I am seeing my self as visitor from other city.

That is because ISP have unused IP Addresses there and they give these IP Addresses when there are many people online.

Regards, Zoreli

[DamonHD]

Hi,

I tried a locally-targetted campaign (for my local pub!) which did not get any significant impressions at all, and then I widened the location successively to London and then the whole of the UK, compensating somewhat by putting the local (uncommon) town name in the phrases to match; your client could use names of the 10-or-so boroughs that might be in his/her catchement area for example...

There just isn't enough information in the IP address (at least in the somewhat fragmented RIPE space, and given the UK's large number of users of national ISPs) for G to do much better, IMHO.

Rgds

Damon

[Eurydice]

You say you used lat/long for London. Did you use a single point, or did you use (at least three) points to create a shape that covers West London? The later system is probably better for your project.

Yes, I've used geographical targeting quite a bit for a number of clients. And it's worked well, depending on the client and their market. For a bookkeeper, she has gotten new clients.

It may be possible that your client's market simply doesn't use Google to search for a psychiatrist. To make it simple: use geotargeting based on his office address and create a radius as large as possible (the farthest distance the clients will come to the office). That captures as much market as possible.