Marketing News & Articles
Google Adwords should allow city-level geo-targeting in India
By Manoj Aravindakshan
One of the great advantages of running a pay per click (PPC) search marketing campaign, particularly Google Adwords, is the great flexibility that these advertising platforms provide. There are numerous targeting options, which allow a marketer to reach his target audience as precisely as possible. One of the most important of these targeting options is obviously geo-targeting: by country, state/province and city.
However, as of this writing, Google Adwords does not provide the option for city-level targeting in India (among other countries). This is certainly a major dampener for marketers and digital marketing agencies like us for whom a broader country- or state-wide targeting simply does not make sense. For example, a marketing campaign for a new property development in Mumbai, particularly a not-so-high-value development, is seldom likely to be targeted at audiences in Bhubaneswar, Kolkata or even Kolhapur (even though there may be exceptions).
For PPC campaigns that are run on limited budgets, the lack of city-level targeting options results in a huge drain on the limited spend available. Search marketing agencies working with clients- particularly small-businesses- have a great challenge explaining to them that the origin of clicks and “leads” from locations other than their target geography is often beyond their control.
Obviously, there are a few things that agencies can do to try and overcome the limitations: be it in the keyword selection or trying to clearly communicate the location focus in their ad creative. However, these can only reduce the number of ‘wasted clicks’ and spend, and not prevent wastage completely.
We’d like to believe that it is only a matter of time before Google Adwords allows city-level targeting in India too; however, we hope this feature comes in sooner rather than later. It will be immensely beneficial for both advertisers and search marketing agencies like us. What’s more, I am sure it will increase the spend on Google Adwords by a number of small businesses too.
Manoj Aravindakshan is the Managing Director of On Target Marketing Solutions, a Mumbai-based digital and search engine marketing company. To discuss how you can maximise your return on online marketing spend and benefit from running an effective Google Adwords campaign, contact us using the form to the right. Or, give us a call on 91-22-64506796.
Read some more articles on PPC search engine marketing :
Google Adwords campaign management: Competitor brand name bidding tips
Targeted Landing Pages for PPC campaigns
