Geo-targeting helps companies target ad spend wisely

That's according to Jacqui Boyd, media director at Acceleration Media. She says that geo-targeting opens up a host of opportunities for advertisers by allowing them to focus their online advertisements on users from a certain country, region or even city.

The benefit of geo-targeting and other forms of targeted online advertising is that they allow companies to reach users with tailored messaging and content that meets their needs in their own language. Geo-targeting, when used wisely, can improve click through and conversion rates while offering a lower cost per click than untargeted ads.

Geo-targeting allows advertisers to use information gleaned from IP addresses so they can aim their adverts only at users located in a particular geographical region, down to province and city level.

Many local companies are already using geo-targeting to reach South African users as they browse international sites such as CNN, Download.com, BBC, ESPN, MySpace and YouTube.

"South African advertisers are starting to understand that they can reach their South African customers on American and European Web sites, and not only on local ones," says Boyd. "On the other side of the coin, many companies with an international target market have recognised that many of their prospects can be found browsing on South African portals."

One example of a South African company using geo-targeting to powerful effect is a financial services company that is working with Acceleration to target South African users on the giant international social networking site, MySpace. "The campaign is producing a strong return on investment and an excellent yield of South African users that form part of the company's target market" says Boyd.

Many South African companies have also started using geo-targeting to direct their adverts at international customers. For example South African portals attract international users searching for information about buying property, investing or travelling in South Africa.

Real estate firms can aim their adverts, for example, at British visitors browsing a portal's property section. Tourism firms and airlines, likewise, can target their adverts at visitors from certain countries as they browse international travel portals.

“Geo-targeting can also help companies to market their products more effectively to users within South Africa. A tour operator might want to target a special offer for a Johannesburg-Cape Town weekend at visitors from Gauteng, while a retailer that operates only in Cape Town might want to reach people from its own city,” says Boyd.

Concludes Boyd: "Geo-targeting is one of the oldest and most popular ways of targeting advertisements in the online world, but it is only one of the many methods companies have at their disposal as they seek to target their ads with laser precision.

"Demographic, behavioural, day-parting, connection speed and operating system information can all be used to eliminate effort and money wasted advertising to people who are not your core audience. The method - or combination of methods - that will produce the best result varies from company to company and campaign to campaign. The information advertisers have at their disposal today allows them to speak directly to the people they want to reach in a relevant way."