We have all heard that old real estate cliche: location, location, location, right? Why, because location makes all the difference in buying and selling a house. Well, the same is true for digital marketing. Whether it is Search, Display, or even Social, using location as part of your marketing efforts can make all the difference. Even though the internet has allowed us to connect all over the world, some businesses may be bound to their geographical locations. And that is where geo-targeting comes in. Geo-targeting is the solution to help you use location to reach the right audience.

What is Geo-Targeting

Geo-targeting is simply location targeting. More than that, it is using location data to reach consumers with ads based on their location or behavior with a location. This marketing tactic can be used on search engines, social media, and even websites using state, city, or zip codes to target your ads or even exclude someone.

Why use Geo-Targeting in Marketing

Geo-targeting allows you to reach customers where they are, but more importantly, you can target the areas your business serves. You can target by state, city, or even zip codes. If you have a local bakery that only delivers to the surrounding area, you would not want to show ads to anyone outside your delivery area. The right placed ad based on location will provide customers with the correct service and keep them coming back.

PRO TIP: For newer or emerging e-commerce businesses, focus your first ad campaigns on geographic areas that have found the most success through non-paid means. This area is often physically closest to your HQ/office location.

1-Become locally relevant

Geo-targeting allows you to reach customers where they are, but more importantly, you can target the areas your business serves. You can target by state, city, or even zip codes. If you have a local bakery that only delivers to the surrounding area, you would not want to show ads to anyone outside your delivery area. The right placed ad based on location will provide customers with the correct service and keep them coming back.

PRO TIP: For newer or emerging e-commerce businesses, focus your first ad campaigns on geographic areas that have found the most success through non-paid means. This area is often physically closest to your HQ/office location.

2-Find the right audience

At one point and time, you could place a print ad in the local paper and know that you would reach people in your local area that could visit your business. But now in the digital age posting ads without location context will be less successful and less relevant. So if you have a store in Columbia and you only want to reach customers in the surrounding cities and not waste efforts nationally, you can use geo-targeting to make that happen.
Another way to use geo-targeting to find the right audience is, using a customer's past location or places visited to help to predict interest or intent.

PRO TIP: Historical data would help to build different audience types or lookalike audiences. Load in your previous purchasers or email subscriber data into FB custom audiences and create a 1% or 2% lookalike off of this data to prospect new customers.

3-Create efficient ads that drive conversions

Geo-targeting allows you to understand customers in real-time or past locations to send the right message at the right time. The idea behind that is the more relevant ad you can create, the higher your chances are of converting a potential customer.

PRO TIP: Think of seasonality, especially if you work in fashion, when creating ad content specific to a geographic area. Customers in Chicago may still be thinking about boots in March, while your Florida customers might be moving onto open-toe sandals.

4-Better customer experience

Looking beyond advertising, geo-targeting can also help improve the content you deliver and create a more genuine experience for your user.

PRO TIP: Use Unbounce to create unique landing pages that serve based on area and conduct 50/50 split tests regularly. Creating a customized landing page for customers in California might be drastically different than a one for customers in Virginia.

Geo-targeting can be an underrated targeting tactic, but it is a great way to make sure ads are only shown to those who can convert. And it will help you increase the relevancy of your ads. So the next time you target your potential customers, remember location, location, location, and let geo-targeting help you get in front of the right people.

Why You Should be Using Geo-Targeting