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What is Geotargeting?

Geotargeting is about the location-based switching of advertising, content and services. This important sub-area of targeting in online marketing, also known as geolocation, is intended to address the users of a specific region. This is achieved, for example, via the users IP addresses.

  • Enables advertising with a regional reference
  • Reduces dispersion and increases the conversion rate
  • Uses IP addresses, GPS, databases and algorithms

This is why geo-targeting makes sense

In different geographical regions, users may have different requirements for advertising (banners, clips etc.). With the relevance of the search results, the conversion rate also increases. Therefore targeting makes sense, especially geo-targeting (or also called geolocation). Usually, the respective IP address of users is located for this purpose, so that location-based advertising can be played out. Advertisers therefore only address potential consumers in a specific and desired region. The location-based advertising that this enables has also made geo-targeting on the web interesting for regional retailers. Geotargeting thus helps smaller companies to keep up with the big players on the market on the Internet. Geotargeting is therefore also an important segment of geomarketing. For SEOs, geotargeting is particularly important in the area of local SEO. Web pages can be optimized in such a way that they rank well to combinations of keywords with place names and the like. In addition, the pages can be marked so that the appropriate output is always provided for locally specified search queries. Not only notes in the source code are helpful here, but also content with as many regional references as possible. An example is the Google search function, provided the search has a regional aspect. If the users location is determined automatically, Google enriches its search results with local search hits. On the other hand, a general location will not show regional search results from Google Maps etc.

Geotargeting in practice

Geotargeting has its limits, however. If it is to work properly, it must be possible to determine the exact location of the user. However, for users who surf via VPN or proxy server, it is not possible to localize exactly. This means that advertising with a regional reference cannot always work exactly. However, geo-targeting is not only used for the exact addressing of target groups when advertising on the Internet. Payment providers also sometimes use geotargeting to additionally check their payment transactions online, whereby the corresponding location of the user is compared with the stored data. In the same way, market research also uses various geodata to limit the demand for certain products regionally or locally. Advertising campaigns via Bing Ads or Google AdWords can be further specified with the help of geo-targeting. Anti-phishing programs, which are intended to prevent Internet fraud, use geotargeting to uncover inconsistencies and the like. News station portals also use geotargeting to limit the display of certain content regionally for legal reasons. Many online shops also use this type of targeting to show their visitors the appropriate language version or the nearest branch, for example. Smartphone applications are used to advertise companies, shopping centres and restaurants that are located close to the user (Location Based Services). Tailor-made” advertising is then also possible here, because after all, in such cases, longer distances no longer make sense for the consumer. One of the most well-known platforms that offers and uses geotargeting is Facebook. On it, ads can be placed by anyone who wants to advertise via this social medium. Facebooks geotargeting has undergone a successful development, because ads can be displayed location-based without any problems. There is even the possibility to select special postcodes etc.

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