In Focus

Geotargeting in 10 Minutes

Kibibi Springs
Ad Networks Posted on April 10, 2006

The Inventory Question

Make sure that your ad network is giving you the reach your brand goals deserve.

Before launching a geotargeting campaign with your ad network, ask how much inventory is available in a given region (U.S., U.K., and/or Canada) and the number of web properties offered in their network.

You should expect your ad network to offer you information on these data levels:

Country Demographics
Region/State Company Name
City Proxies
DMA/MSA Language
Zip Code Time Zone
Area Code Longitude/Latitude
Domain Name Country-level AOL users
ISP NAICS Codes
Source: Digital-Element.net a provider of IP Intelligence technology

Note: approximately 25 percent of ad networks do not offer geographic targeting based off IP address. Though the industry standard for IP targeting typically ensures the same levels of granularity (country, state, DMA, city, zip code, et cetera), ad networks can only offer you the power of their network and are limited to the IP information available through their registered users.

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Comments

Dylan Bennett
Dylan Bennett September 28, 2010 at 7:06 PM

Geo-targeting is a truly awesome way to increase conversions. The main problem is so many people do it wrong. Here are a few examples.

Most countries other than the US use the format *CITY*, *COUNTRY* whereas in the US we use *CITY*, *REGION*. If someone from another country saw the region, they would most likely know that this person is not local and they are being tricked. So in other words: For the US use City, State and for rest of the world use City, Country.

Another thing is to make sure it all matches up. For example if you detect the user as being in the US, don't spell color 'colour' or use region specific idioms. Change the text based on the detected country.

Last but certainly not least: Do not just display the detected city and expect the user to believe it. If the user is from some tiny little village, do you really think they will believe that the person writing the website is from the same tiny village? You need to display a nearby city that is large enough to be believable. The only way I've found to do this is with Lambda GeoIP. You can display the nearest city of a certain population (specified by you). If you're a handy programmer and have access to IP to physical location data, then you could probably whip up something on your own as well. Just don't throw perfectly good customers out the window because of laziness.

Hope this helps