Are You Properly Using Social Geo-Targeting?

Ray Bennett — February 28, 2017

In the world of social media marketing, geo-targeting is a big thing and for good reason. The best marketers have realized this and are actively pursuing their target more directly. For example unless you have a good reason, if you send ads to everyone on every social media platform, all you will have to show for it is an empty budget and minimal conversions. Sure your ads will have been seen by tons of people and you may have acquired lots of engagement but it may be the wrong type of engagement. Luckily social platforms offer you the ability to geo-target. Implementing things like twitter geo-targeting can be very useful in ensuring that you get the best results possible.

What is geo-targeting?

Geo-targeting is a way to specifically target an audience or demographic based on their location. The correct implementation of geo-targeting practices will enhance the success rate of your ads by displaying advertisements for your products or services only to potential buyers in the areas you select.

For example let’s say you are planning a social media event for small businesses in Chicago but you only want to target River North small businesses. Social Media geo-targeting allows you to do that. You can also dig deeper and improve targeting based on interests, gender and more to really fine tune your social targeting.

If you’re considering using geo-targeting for an account, consider this checklist to decide if it’s right for you:

Introductory Beast Geo-Targeting Checklist

Evaluate your business:

Geo-targeting is not always the best option for businesses. As great as it seems to get hyper-specific it may not always be the best idea. For example it’s best for ecommerce businesses to target the entire USA, unless they see better engagement in a specific area (more on that soon). On the other hand local brick and mortar businesses may have a limited service area and it’s more appropriate to target by state, city or zip code.

In the example both businesses have different service areas. You should always target where your customers are and adjust based on performance. You can evaluate performance in many ways such as using Google Analytics.

Using tools such as Google Analytics:

The reality is some areas will do better than others or have opportunities for improvement. Let’s say you are a national company like Chipotle and you check your sales on Google Analytics. Upon checking the information you come to find out that Chicago is killing it but Green Bay could use some help. You may want geo-target both areas with specific campaigns and promotions to maintain success or increase sales.

Regularly checking on analytics is essential for maintaining success and capitalizing on opportunity. This information helps you to know what actions to take nationally or locally from messaging to campaign creation.

Bid optimization according to geography:

Once you have evaluated Google Analytics you can identify the more desirable and less desirable geographic areas. Once you do this you can adjust bids accordingly. By raising your bid for more desirable target locations, you increase your exposure in that area, while lowering your bid in other areas keeps your reach broad at a justifiable cost.

Use your budget effectively to make sure you are spending on the most beneficial areas.

Don’t Stop at Geo-Targeting

While geo-targeting is a big aspect of social media marketing success especially for small businesses, it shouldn’t be used alone. Finding the proper keywords, age, interests and more should be just as important to ensure a fruitful campaign.

Mix it up as there is no one surefire way to guarantee ultimate success.

Remember social geo-targeting like Facebook and Twitter geo-targeting is a big deal but should only be used in the right context. This topic goes much deeper, be on the lookout for future blogs with more advanced techniques.

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