“ZIP Code Targeting” with Google AdWords
Last month, Google announced, you can now target 5-digit U.S. ZIP codes in AdWords campaigns on Google Search and Display networks. ZIP code targeting can help you reach the same audiences as your direct mail campaigns, target specific service areas, reach more profitable customers, or optimize national campaigns at a more local level.
With over 30,000 US ZIP codes available for you to target, Google wants to make the location targeting selection process fast and easy when an advertiser is targeting a lot of ZIP codes. In the AdWords location targeting tool, advertisers will see a new tab called, “Bulk locations.” Under that tab, an advertiser will be able to enter up to 1,000 locations in a single country at a time.
“ZIP Code” Geographic Performance Reporting
To see how campaigns are performing at a granular level, ZIP codes now appear in the “Most specific location” column in the AdWords geographic performance reports. This is an excellent way to identify top and low performing ZIP codes and make campaign optimization adjustments accordingly.
Using the geographic data, an advertiser can analyze their AdWords campaigns by market, and then optimize their campaigns for higher ROI. The report will also allow advertisers to identify areas that their ad is showing in that are outside their geographic target. The advertiser can then go in and negative match those ZIP codes, potentially eliminating wasteful spending.
Finally, using the geographic data to identify the top-performing cities, an advertiser can then run separate campaigns that target specifically those cities. This allows the advertiser to increase their keyword bids in the campaigns to maximize ad impressions in those cities.
“Internet-Based” Advertising – Updates in AdWords
In response to clients’ feedback, Google’s been working to make these solutions even better: simplifying the process of getting started with re-marketing, giving advertisers more flexibility in managing their re-marketing lists and adding new ways to connect with their target audience.
Smarter, more flexible ways to manage re-marketing: Managing remarketing lists (or getting started with re-marketing) is even easier and more flexible than ever. Google’s upgraded the AdWords re-marketing tag so advertisers only need to place it once across their entire site. They can then define as many lists as they like in AdWords—for example, for pages where the URL contains the word “electronics.”
Reaching the right audience: Remarketing delivers great results, but Google thinks there’s even more they can do to help advertisers reach potential customers and connect with a wider audience. For example:
- Reaching similar audiences: In the coming weeks, Google’s gradually adding a new option to enable advertisers to show ads to audiences that are similar to those on their remarketing lists, but who may not have visited their site yet.
- Reaching the right audience with search ads: Google’s expanding a test they’ve been running for search ads. This beta allows advertisers to customize their search campaigns, based on their AdWords remarketing lists. Right now, it is only being offered a select list of accounts, but hopefully, it will be rolling out to all advertisers.