How strict is Google with regards to geographic descriptors?

My client wants to say he's everywhere, but is this okay?

[ThatAdamGuy]

I'm helping an entertainer friend with AdWords campaigns. He has, indeed, performed all over the world, and several times in a great many cities across the U.S.

Since he enjoys traveling and doing gigs all over, he'd like to bid on keywords like "Hire San Diego Entertainer" and "Book Boston Magician." However, especially when combined with other words to create a few thousand phrases, I'm concerned that Google may become, um, annoyed or disconcerted by the extensive geographic targeting, especially since my friend literally cannot be everywhere at the same time.

Okay, and I admit it... I'm annoyed, too at the possibility of entering in the extra thousands of combo phrases. So basically, I'm looking for unbiased feedback on whether you think such fine-pointed targeting is a Good Idea or not.

Thanks in advance for your advice :)

[GeekyChic]

Google wont mind.... we sell tons of products and we have pretty much every phrase possible covered. You might want to use broad so you won't have to waste your time thinking of all the possible keywords, beside people stick with use 1-3 words for searches. Consider using negative keywords too so you'll won't show up for irrelevant keywords or phrases.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

I agree with GeekyChic on this one. This should not be an issue, ThatAdamGuy.

However, if you do find that Ads and/or keywords are disapproved, then just respond to the email that you received and detail what your thinking is.

We're always willing to be convinced that we were mistaken, in the face of an compelling explanation!

;)

AWA

[ThatAdamGuy]

> You might want to use broad so you won't have to waste your time thinking of all the possible keywords

The scary thing is... we're talking thousands of keyword phrases even *WITH* broad matching. I'm such a glutton for punishment, I've divided the campaign words into:

where action = hire, get, find, etc. (10)
where region = every major city + variations/nicknames (150 or so)
where thing = widget, widgeter, wodget expert, wiveting... (40 or so)

and my keyword arrangements are:
[action] + [region] + [thing] 60,000 keywords!
[action] + [thing] 400 keywords
[region] + [thing] = 6,000 keywords

Ack! It all adds up. I honestly DO feel bad for the Google AdWords reps... their eyes must glaze over (I know mine do... can you see why I don't actively solicit this sort of work? :D)

Anyway, AWA and GeekyChic, thanks so much for your helpful responses (even though you've just created a bunch of new work for me ;)

P.S. -- Hmm... maybe I should just nix the 3-combo set. 60,000... eeeek! But some terms like "hire wodgeter" are just too generic and I envision people typing in "hire SF wodgeter" or "get widget entertainer in nyc"

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Hey ThatAdamGuy, maybe you should start small with just a couple of zillion combinations.

Then if it works, go for the hundreds of zillions? (In targeted Ad Groups of course!)

;)

AWA

[AdWordsAdvisor]

It just occurred to me that there's another point worth making, on the subject of how 'strict' the review process is.

If, off the top of my head, I had to summarize what the whole review process is all about in ten words or less, I'd say the goal is:

To show highly relevant, trustworthy, and useful ads to users.

All the Editorial and Policy guidelines are in support of this goal. I'm not trying to be exhaustive or definitive here, but just to offer a snippet of information to keep in the back of the mind while creating AdWords advertising.

AWA

[eWhisper]

I can't comment directly to your industry, but I have run several regional campaigns. At first, the numbers look daunting as you want to include everything.

Then you make 10k KWs, and 100-500 of them get hits, the others just sit there - maybe gathering a few hits a month - and others get absolutely 0.

This is one of the techniques I've used for these types of campaigns that usually takes a while to expand your KW list to more searched phrases while keeping your targeting and CTR/Conversion rates.

If you have a way of tracking ROI, I've found that broadmatch works well if you go for: action + thing + state (there are few cities people actually search for, if the cities are like NYC, Chicago, LA, then they are worth including - but on average, few people actually include their city compared to their state in a search).

This way you don't have to input 60k KWs, but you can probaly include a few hundred, get the same exposure - and most imporntantly, you'll get some ads/kws with decent CTR rates - a KW that only gathers a few impressions a year, can't get the CTR rates if you have competition.

Use regional campaigns for: action + thing - you can include phrase, broad, and exact search to check what types of numbers/conversions each brings in.

Track all the above to the KW level, especially looking at how regional campaigns work.

This will give you the necessary data to start expanding your KW lists for words that actually get hits, and the regional targeting for phrases, will help you move a few to national advertising for action+thing that will get you conversions and not just hits.

It's a bit slower/cautious using this type of method, as you wait for results before you expand lists, but it'll save you the time of making 60k KWs, and you won't jump directly into national advertising for words you won't get conversion for, which can save you a lot of money.