Google Adwords offers a range of audience targeting options to ensure that your ads reach the ideal customers. These range from type of business to industry, to demographic targeting (the last of the 3 being through bidding adjustments) and can be combined together for optimal results.
Audience targeting is an integral element of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Understanding which audiences work best for your business will help maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of your ad budget.
Service-Based Business with a Local Service Area
Google offers an array of audience targeting options to business owners so their ads are only shown to potential customers. These can range from geographical location and age filters, to keywords and more. Furthermore, business owners have the freedom to determine when their ads appear for maximum impact.
Service area businesses usually do not operate from a physical storefront but instead travel to their clients’ homes or locations to complete services or deliver products. Examples include HVAC contractors, plumbers and landscapers – just to name a few!
To ensure your business is correctly classified as a service area business, it’s essential to set up your Google My Business (GMB) profile correctly. Doing this is an essential step in getting noticed online and can significantly boost the visibility of your company on search engines.
Service-area businesses do not need to display their address in the ‘business location’ field of their GMB profile, unlike other local businesses that must. This can be particularly advantageous for home service businesses that operate from residential or mobile addresses and don’t have a physical office with regular ‘office hours’ but still provide delivery services directly to clients’ homes.
To ensure your business is classified correctly as a service area business, set up your GMB profile with an extensive list of service areas your company serves. These should be listed by city and zip code, with no more than two-hour drives from where you are situated.
Once your business has been classified as a service-area business, make sure to add its website URL and social media handles in the “Website” and “Social media” fields of your Google My Business profile. Establishing an online presence for these types of companies is another essential element in their digital marketing mix; having one will help customers locate them on Google Maps.
Once your business has become established as a service-area provider, you can begin targeting those who are actively looking for your products or services using Google’s In-market audiences feature. These customers have demonstrated interest by searching for items similar to what you offer and are likely to convert when presented with your offering.
Ecommerce Brands
No matter the size of your business or brand, Google Adwords offers 
audience targeting options to help reach your desired customers. These include keywords, product and brand search campaigns, in-market audiences, customer match and similar audiences.
Keywords are the search terms people use to locate products like yours, making them crucial elements of any ad campaign. To guarantee they receive qualified traffic that converts, keyword analysis and optimization should be conducted prior to launch.
Branded search ads are an effective way to display your brand name and website URL when someone searches for products you offer, as well as tracking sales on your site. These campaigns utilize Google’s ad network to show your ad to shoppers based on keywords they used to locate similar items on other sites.
To run these campaigns, you’ll need to submit a product data feed with your brand name and products. You can either run these ads manually or choose an automated smart shopping campaign which populates ads across various networks like Google Search, Display, YouTube and Gmail.
Smart Shopping campaigns are ideal for brands with a lot of inventory who need to quickly get their ads in front of shoppers. Google’s AI can test various ads and then place them on networks most likely to drive conversions at an affordable cost.
Retargeting is another effective ad campaign type for ecommerce stores. This method utilizes your existing email list to reach customers with Google Adwords ads that retarget them on mobile devices and desktops. Retargeting ads have been proven to drive high returns on ad spend, so don’t overlook this option.
Facebook also provides several remarketing campaign types you can use to reach new users who haven’t clicked on any of your ads yet. By tagging Facebook users with UTM tags and then targeting these people when they search using top-of-the-funnel keywords, you can increase the likelihood that those Facebook clicks will convert into customers.
National Brands and Franchises
Google Adwords offers several audience targeting options to choose from, the most popular being remarketing. Remarketing allows you to display ads to people who have previously visited your website or engaged with social media pages. Furthermore, the ad tech pros at Google have created other helpful tools like detailed demographics and in-market or life event targeting for added convenience.
National brands and franchises need to find ways to connect with the right people at the right time, and Google offers plenty of solutions. Remarketing or retargeting ads group feature is particularly impressive; it allows you to create targeted campaigns that show ads only to specific users based on their online behavior. With this technology, national brands and franchises can reach consumers who have an interest in your brand or products/services – these are ideal customers to focus marketing and advertising efforts on. Navah Hopkins provides a helpful e-book entitled How to Market Your Business With Google Ads that provides more details about this ad strategy: https://www.ca
Non-Profit Organizations
If your nonprofit organization is searching for a way to boost its search visibility and attract new donors, Google Adwords could be the ideal solution. This program is free and has been available to eligible organizations for over a decade.
Nonprofits can leverage Google’s audience targeting options to ensure their ads appear only to those likely to find their services and programs beneficial or valuable. These include geotargeting, keyword selection, and ad copy customization.
Utilizing the correct keywords will enable your ads to stand out among search results and drive traffic to your website. It’s essential that these words be pertinent to your organization’s mission.
In addition to keywords, your nonprofit must also select the ideal landing pages for their ad campaigns. These pages should reflect the key objectives of your campaign and be designed to convert potential donors into actual contributors.
Landing pages that align with your ad campaign’s conversion goals give users an overview of how they can get involved and support your cause. These pages should be mobile-friendly so people can access them from their phones, tablets, and other devices.
Targeting your ads to specific geographic areas can be effective if your nonprofit primarily serves a local community or country. For instance, a nonprofit that offers humanitarian aid in Indonesia might use geotargeting to display its ads only to users in the United States.
Ad copy is essential for your nonprofit’s success with Google Adwords. A professional ad copywriter can craft the ideal ads to increase your nonprofit’s search visibility and attract more website visitors.
Another strategy for increasing your organization’s reach with Google Adwords is employing multiple sitelink extensions. Each extension links to a different page on your website, which can be beneficial both for SEO and user experience.
Add call, location and message extensions to your ads for additional impact. These features give people the ability to contact, text or email your nonprofit organization – perfect for fundraising efforts and maximising ad budget efficiency.
