One of the barriers Google is trying to overcome is the perceived high cost of advertising through Google AdWords. Understandably, figures such as $54.91 cost per click (CPC) (https://www.wordstream.com/articles/most-expensive-keywords) would scare most people away, but a very small percentage of advertisers ever have to pay this, and their million pound plus budgets can absorb it.
To help small businesses use Google AdWords, Google have some great targeting tools for local businesses or national business with small budgets to specify exactly where in the country their adverts should be shown. This is ideal if your budget doesn’t quite stretch to £50 per click, and/ or you focus on a specific city or region. It is easy to take advantage of Google’s geographic targeting options to lower your CPC and increase conversions. Here is how.
For the purposes of this walk though I am going to set up a campaign for an independent antiques dealer with a shop in Derby and another in Nottingham. The keywords I am bidding on are variations on “antiques store”, and “antiques store [city]”
I won’t be going through the steps on how to create an account, campaign or Ad group, Google have done a great job of that here.
Getting started
Click on the campaign you want to use for geographic targeting and then the Settings tab.
Underneath “Targeted locations” click on “Edit”
Here you can either start typing…
Or you can click on “Show map”.
Either way you’ll still have the same options to choose from. I’m going to click on “show map”. If you originally chose to target all countries and territories or all of the UK, delete them from the list. Because the antiques stores are based in Derby and Nottingham, those are the first two places I am going to add.
Although the stores are based in the city centres, that doesn’t mean only people who live within the city boundaries will want to come. Looking at the map, there is a massive catchment area nearby as well. Click on “Nearby” to get suggestions on more areas you can target.
Alternatively, you can choose to target a radius.
Type in the central point and then how far out you want to reach. E.g.
Once you are happy with everything, click on “Done”.
Additionally, Google has three targeting methods and two exclusion methods. To see these, in “Settings” click on “Advanced location options”.
The default setting is, in my opinion, the best one. Here people using your target keywords within your specified location AND using it in their search will be shown your advert. For example, if I bid on the keyword “Antiques store” and have targeted Nottingham, someone in London searching for “Nottingham antiques store” will see my advert.
If you want to just show adverts to a geographic region regardless of the keywords used, choose “Target using physical location: Device-based location signal”. If you want it to be based exclusively on the keywords used, choose “Target using search intent: Location terms in user queries”.
My campaign is now set-up to only show adverts to people searching for my products within reach of my stores, or who are searching specifically for the products I sell in the area I am based.
Comments
Please remember that all comments are moderated and any links you paste in your comment will remain as plain text. If your comment looks like spam it will be deleted. We're looking forward to answering your questions and hearing your comments and opinions!