How to improve your targeting: Targeting lists & targeted marketing

As soon as we run online adverts for our clients, one thing has already been done beforehand: the target audience has been precisely defined. The groups of people reached via Google Ads banners are not chosen at random, but are the result of a targeting process.

Target marketing involves dividing your target market into segments and focusing on specific key segments that best define the target customer most likely to be suited to your product or service offering.

Targeting is therefore key to attracting new business, boosting your turnover and contributing to the success of your company. It also helps keep costs down, as it targets only those people who are potential customers and excludes those who consider our advertising banners to be of little interest to them.

Example: 

A physiotherapy practice in Munich offers not only traditional therapeutic services but also home massage treatments. The practice is now free to advertise this service via a newspaper insert that is distributed to everyone who receives the relevant newspaper. Similarly, once the physiotherapy practice has identified the target market for its services, it can reach the desired audience through a Google Ads banner campaign, a leaflet distribution targeted solely at residents in a specific area, or a Facebook advert aimed at customers in a specific geographical area, thereby increasing the return on investment for marketing – and attracting more customers.

Social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram offer sophisticated options that enable businesses to target users by market segment. For example, a hotel might target married followers of its Facebook fan page in Munich and the surrounding area who would like to spend a spa weekend with their partners, whilst a patisserie might prefer to target singles living within a 3km radius of its shop.

Below, we outline the most relevant targeting points, which we will work through with you to ensure your advertising is successful in the long term.

Demographic segmentation

The demographic grouping is based on measurable statistics, such as:

• Gender
• Age
• Income level
• Marital status
• Training
• Religion

Demographic segmentation is generally the most important criterion for identifying target markets, which is why knowledge of demographic information is crucial for many companies.

A drinks retailer, for example, would be well advised to base its marketing activities on the findings of statistics which suggest that men drink more beer than women and that beer is the drink of choice for people under 50.

Geographical segmentation

Geographical segmentation involves segmenting the market by location. One example of this is residential addresses. However, depending on the scale of your business, the following may also apply:

• Neighbourhood
• Postcode
• Area code
• City
• Province/State
• Region
• Country (if your company operates internationally)

Geographical segmentation is based on the idea that consumer groups within a particular geographical area may have specific product or service needs; for example, a private winter maintenance service might focus its marketing activities on a particular village or a sub-division of a local authority.

The relevance of combining geographical and demographic segmentation

The importance of targeting when drawing up a budget for any kind of advertising campaign is clearly illustrated by examples that require a combination of geographical and demographic segmentation.

Let us take, as an example, the marketing strategy of a car dealership that specifically wishes to sell a family-friendly SUV from a luxury manufacturer. The target customer group therefore consists of people who have a certain level of income and have children. It follows that advertising the vehicle in a residential area where the population consists mainly of low-income singles over the age of 50 would not be a worthwhile investment. Furthermore, based solely on the factors of income and family status, it is possible to identify regions and neighbourhoods where such campaigns will reach the desired target group.

Psychographic segmentation

Psychographic segmentation divides the target market according to socio-economic class, as well as personality or lifestyle preferences. The socio-economic scale ranges from the wealthy and highly qualified at the top to the uneducated and those with low levels of education and low incomes at the bottom of the social hierarchy. These groups are also assigned corresponding values, beliefs, interests, etc.

Separate from this, but falling within the scope of psychographic targeting, are distinctions between target groups who prefer an urban lifestyle as opposed to a rural or suburban one, or those who are committed to animal welfare or have a strong interest in environmental issues.

Psychographic segmentation is based on the theory that the decisions people make when purchasing goods or services reflect their lifestyle habits or their socio-economic class. Consequently, it is possible, for example, to identify links between certain supermarkets and income, educational attainment and family status. — Here, too, various targeting aspects are combined.

Technical targeting

If a client decides to run online advertising, further segmentation criteria – in addition to those mentioned above – are required in order to narrow down and reach the target audience as effectively as possible.

Keyword targeting

Any veteran of online marketing is familiar with keyword targeting. You select a keyword and your advert appears in response to relevant search queries on a search engine and, if set up, on related websites where that keyword is present. This type of targeting is available both on Google Search itself and on partner sites (websites that use AdSense).

Keyword targeting has several sub-options. These are known as match types. When you enter a keyword, select an appropriate match type. They range from broad to exact to negative.

Broad match: This uses all word combinations that include the keyword. The keyword ‘red pumps’ will appear in search results for ‘red shoes’, ‘blue pumps’ and ‘dangerous red pumps’. You can adjust this by placing a + before specific keywords to ensure they are included. ‘+red +pumps’ would therefore not include ‘red shoes’, as it does not contain the word ‘shoes’.

Phrase matching: In this case, all results that contain the exact phrase are displayed. The keyword ‘red pumps’ will appear in search results for ‘red pumps’, ‘where to buy red pumps’, ‘I love red pumps’ and other search queries.

Exact match: This option only covers searches containing the exact keyword, without including any additional terms; in other words, the keyword ‘red heels’ will display adverts for the search term ‘red heels’ and nothing else.

Negative match: Any query that does not contain the keyword is relevant to our selection. This is best used for additional keywords. For example, the keyword ‘red heels’ with the modifier ‘-ugly’ would display adverts for queries such as ‘red heels review’, but not ‘ugly red heels’. A list of negative keywords is useful for targeting a narrow, relevant audience.

By default, Google will take slight variations in keywords into account. Essentially, ‘red pumps’ and ‘red pumps’ would be the same search query.

Location-based targeting

With location targeting, you can show your adverts only in response to searches originating from specific areas. It also allows you to exclude specific areas. For example, you can specify that your adverts are only visible to users in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. You can also set up a global advert and ensure that it completely excludes Asia.

There are virtually no limits to how precisely you can refine your search. You can specify countries, states, provinces, cities, counties, postcodes and even parliamentary constituencies. Once you’ve selected a location, Google will offer suggestions for other locations. You can choose whether to include, exclude or place each location ‘nearby’. The ‘nearby’ setting essentially defines a loose boundary around the location, so that users who are in the vicinity but not exactly within that location are included in the target audience.

Location-based targeting is preceded by geographical segmentation.

Language targeting

Language targeting allows you to select the languages you wish to include or exclude from queries. For the standard German Google Ads, the default setting is to limit queries to German only. You can choose whether to add English, French or other languages. This enables a European company, for example, to include the most important languages in Europe.

Device targeting

Device targeting allows you to restrict your adverts so that they only appear on specific devices. Typically, this involves the distinction between PCs, laptops, smartphones and tablets, or the convergence of these devices.

You can also set the device’s orientation based on its location or the time of day. This allows you, for example, to serve targeted adverts to PCs during working hours and mobile adverts outside working hours.

As described in our article on Google Ads banners (insert LINK here), device targeting is followed by the selection of appropriate banner sizes and designs. Device targeting, on the other hand, is preceded by segmentation based on the demographics of the target audience. If, for example, you wish to target primarily young people or commuters, we strongly recommend selecting the smartphone as your advertising medium.

In line with device targeting, attention should also be paid to the operating system. Operating system targeting becomes necessary as soon as you wish to market an app or software in general. The income level of the respective target group can also be determined more precisely on the basis of the operating system. According to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research (LINK: https://www.mactechnews.de/news/article/Studie-ermittelt-Symbole-fuer-Wohlstand-iPhone-loest-teure-Butter-und-Senf-ab-169940.html), the iPhone is regarded as the (!) status symbol of affluence. Indeed, the purchase price of Apple products alone indicates a specific income bracket.

Contextual targeting

Contextual targeting is only available on Google partner sites, not on Google Search itself. Essentially, it allows you to place your advert on websites based on topics of your choice. If you choose to have your adverts displayed on sites covering the topic of ‘hiking’, your advert would appear on any number of websites that use AdSense and partner with Google.

Google does not allow website owners to specify the topics of their websites, in the sense that this is not the sole determining factor. Google itself scans every website and determines relevant topics based on its own internal factors. This ensures that your adverts appear on websites that genuinely cover the topics you have chosen, rather than on websites that have simply ticked a box relating to your topic but generate little relevant traffic.

Topic Targeting

Much like context-based audience targeting, the Topic Targeting feature allows you to specify multiple topics for a particular advert at the same time, rather than limiting yourself to a single topic and relying on Google’s automatic placement algorithm.

Placement targeting

As with the two previous types of targeting, placement targeting requires you to create a list of approved websites, videos and apps on which your adverts will appear. You manage this list in AdWords and can amend it at any time as you wish.

Closing remarks

The key to success lies in thorough preparation and a clear definition of the target audience. This enables you to minimise wasted reach and create sustainable, data-driven, measurable marketing processes, so that you can engage with your target customer group over the long term and inspire them to take an interest in your products and services.