• DE&I Commitment
  • Careers
  • SIGN IN
  • Book a Meeting
    Book a Meeting
  • Company
    Learn a little more about us, our values, and our team
    Our Values
    We don't just talk the talk; we live by our core values
    About Us
    Empowering brands to realize their potential with data, insights, and technology
    Leadership
    Meet our leadership team
    Secure Data Architecture
    Our promise of data security and privacy. We keep your data safe from publishers, competitors and bad actors
    Corporate Social Responsibility
    We are committed to making a positive impact on our communities and our planet
  • Platform
    Plan, manage, optimize, and measure your campaigns with our omnichannel platform
    Omnichannel Advertising
    A platform that connects all walled garden media for more effective campaigns
    Data Connectivity
    Make data-driven decisions as you plan and strategize
    Product Capabilities
    Take your campaigns to the next level by enhancing your platform capabilities
    See the industries we serve
    Learn how our customizable solutions can help with your unique needs
    Explore our partner integrations
    See the media, retailer, and data partners we work with
  • Case Studies
  • News and Events
    Check out recent announcements and see what we’re up to
    Newsroom
    Check out our recent media mentions and announcements
    Events
    Join us for our next conference or webinar
    Omnichannel platform launch
    Read the press release to see how we're helping marketers win the walled gardens
    Cannes Lions 2023
    Don't miss your chance to meet with Skai leadership in Cannes
  • Resources
    From new releases, to industry trends and best practices, Skai has you covered
    Marketer Insights
    Read the latest blog posts and thought leadership from Skai and other industry experts
    Skai Research
    Explore our studies, reports and whitepapers so you can keep up on the latest industry trends
    The State of Retail Media 2023
    Learn how industry experts are approaching retail media
    The Breakthrough
    The only resource hub built for marketers in the new era of omnichannel
Back to Blog

The Benefits to Search Marketers of Localizing Your Campaigns

David Delaplane, Channel Strategist, Local @ Skai™

July  26, 2019

Localized paid search advertising can provide numerous benefits. In today’s post, Skai’s Director of Strategy for Local, David Delaplane explains the advantages that search marketers can garner when moving more of their programs to a location-focused structure.

In this day and age, marketers are moving away from last-click attribution to thinking about supported clicks and how paid search advertising best plays into the customer journey. Consumer behavior and expectations are changing, and as the industry moves toward simplifying the campaign structure driven by automation, AI, and machine learning, it might be easy for marketers to think that they are losing control of their campaign targeting and throwing caution to the wind. 

According to a survey done by Cognetik, only one-third of U.S. marketing professionals said they had a good enough understanding of the customer and data to improve the experience for their customers.

localized paid search

Truly knowing the customer still eludes marketers

So, where can marketers get the data they need to best market to consumers? Well, if you can structure your paid search advertising campaigns by localization, not only can you get a lot of great customer insights from them, but you can also apply the most relevant messaging by location.

And this is even more important for local marketers.

BIA Advisory forecasted that U.S. local ad revenue will reach $148.8B in 2019. With so much at stake, marketers need to make a concerted effort to better understand new and existing customers to improve their experience. The following are some key best practices to develop a campaign structure to enable effective budget allocation and speak to the user with their location in mind as they navigate the web.

Localized Paid Search Geo-Targeting

The key to your success in localized Paid Search is applying location targets. This can be by State, DMA or even Zip Code. Regardless if you sell and ship your products nationally, you are doing yourself a disservice by not targeting your campaigns by location and here’s why:

  • Opportunity Measurement: When your campaigns are targeted by location, you can visually see the available impressions as a percentage how much of the traffic you are capturing. This can also be invaluable if budgets are tight. If that’s the case, you can pull back on a region where the ROI is low and increase in areas where you get a better return.
  • Speak to Your Audience: As reported by Forrester, 33% of organizations face challenges using location data to deliver relevant messaging. It’s no secret that your quality score improves when your ad is more relevant. By carving out your campaigns by geography, you can guarantee that the location you are targeting has the best copy for that consumer.
  • Forecast Each Market: This exercise becomes far easier when you have access to impression share metrics by market and the kicker is that you can roll up or break out the forecast by region on the fly.
  • Location Insights: Having a physical geo-campaign line item gives you all the key insights that are only available at the campaign level plus the added benefit of not needing a separate report to see front end metrics by location.

localized paid search

National catch-all campaign for localized paid search

If you are thinking to yourself Geo-targeting sounds nice, but what about the traffic that can’t be tied to a location? the solution here is to have a “catch-all” campaign. What is it? Simply put, this is a campaign which targets nationally but then excludes all of the geo-locations that are targeted by the individual geo-targeted campaigns. 

This ensures that you have coverage in all scenarios. If Google or Microsoft is able to identify the location it will get attributed to the geo campaign. If the publisher can’t identify the location, you will have the national catch-all campaign at standby to make sure that no impressions are left on the table.

Ad copy testing by location for localized paid search

Once you have your campaigns segmented by location and a catch-all campaign to pick up the rest of the traffic, the fun begins! This is where your creativity and ad copy testing comes into play. Perhaps you have marching orders to increase your non-branded keyword impression share in New York? That’s easy. You can now just increase that campaign’s budget and move forward. Or, maybe you have price points or a special promotion that are only available in specific regions? No Sweat. Just select those specific geo-campaigns and upload your ad copy with those prices to that region.

If you are ready to take your program to the next level of sophistication, then it’s time to think outside of the box—come up with a hypothesis for testing, decide on a single success metric, and always have a baseline for comparison. For example, you might propose that testing curated ad copy that focuses on lower-cost products in a region with a poor conversion rate to see if that boosts your KPIs. You might try adding “near me” keywords to drive more local traffic or maybe you want to measure the incrementality in a market by increasing/decreasing your presence in that location. 

Looking to go to the next level with your local marketing? Let’s chat!

All of these more advanced SEM techniques become much easier with a localized paid search campaign structure. If you are interested in learning more about how Skai can help to execute a localized strategy at scale or measure the true impact of your existing Paid Search Spend, please contact us. We’d love to show you how Skai can help you save time, drive better performance, and get armed with data insights that will help you grow your programs.

Learn More About Skai Local

Related Posts

  • The Evolution of Search Engine Marketing Software to Total Search Intelligence
    Read More
  • Microsoft Shopping Campaigns Get a Powerful Analytics Upgrade in Skai Search
    Read More
  • What’s Going to Happen with Multi-Touch Attribution in a Cookieless World?
    Read More
  • The Annual Skai Hackathon Fosters Team-Building and Innovation
    Read More
  • Mirror Shopping Campaigns and Responsive Search Ads (RSA) from Google to Microsoft Bing
    Read More
  • How Skai Takes the Growing Pains Out of the Client Onboarding Process
    Read More
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share via Email
  • Copy Link
    Copied!
Tags: Audience, Create, Data, Google, Local, Plan, Search, Target, xTLx

    Subscribe to Updates

    Media that matters.
    Marketing that works.
    © 2023 Kenshoo, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
    Privacy Policy. Cookie Policy. Recruitment Privacy Policy.
    • Connected Strategy
      • Dynamic Marketing Mix
      • Budget Forecasting
      • Strategic Consulting
    • Connected Media
      • Overview
      • Retail Media
      • Paid Search
      • Paid Social
      • App Marketing
      • Auditing
      • Expert Services
    • Measurement
      • Incrementality
      • Experiments
      • Cross-Channel Attribution
    • Resources
      • Blog
      • Glossary
      • Case Studies
      • Training & Enablement
      • Developer Hub
      • The Breakthrough
    Privacy Preference

    We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential, while others help us to improve this website and your experience.

    Privacy Preference

    Save All

    Save

    Accept Only Essential Cookies

    Manage Cookie Preferences

    Cookie Details Privacy Policy Imprint

    Privacy Preference

    Here you will find an overview of all cookies used. You can give your consent to whole categories or display further information and select certain cookies.

    Save All Save Accept Only Essential Cookies

    Back

    Privacy Preference

    Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper function of the website.

    Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website, Imprint
    PurposeSaves the visitors preferences selected in the Cookie Box of Borlabs Cookie.
    Host(s).skai.io, skai.io
    Cookie Nameborlabs-cookie
    Cookie Expiry1 Year
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    PurposeThis cookie stores selections made by the user in the Accessibe tool in order to maintain those settings on future visits. These cookies help us make our website compliant with our obligations under US law.
    Privacy Policy https://accessibe.com/privacy-policy
    Cookie NameacsbState, acsbReset
    Cookie Expiryn/a
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    Host(s)skai.io
    Cookie Namewordpress_sec_,wordpress_test_cookie,wp-postpass_*, wordpresspass_*, wordpressuser_*
    Cookie ExpirySession / 1 Year

    We use these cookies to enhance functionality and allow for personalisation, such as live chats, videos and the use of social media.

    Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

    Accept
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    Host(s).chilipiper.com, skai.chilipiper.com
    Cookie Namefs_uid, CHILI_PIPER_CLUSTER, guest-session, _sp_ses*, _sp_id*
    Cookie ExpirySession / 2 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    Host(s).comeet.co, www.comeet.co
    Cookie Namevisid_incap_, nlbi_#######, incap_ses_, referrer22_00a, incap_ses_1364_2167377
    Cookie ExpirySession / 1 Year
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    Host(s)skai.io
    Cookie NamemoduleFormPardotDownload
    Cookie Expiry30 days

    Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us to understand how our visitors use our website.

    Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

    Accept
    Name
    ProviderGoogle Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
    PurposeCookie by Google used for website analytics. Generates statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.
    Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
    Cookie Name_ga, _ga_*, _gat,_gat_*,_gid, GOOGLE_ABUSE_EXEMPTION, AEC, __Secure-ENID, SOCS, CONSENT
    Cookie ExpirySession / 2 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderHotjar Ltd., Dragonara Business Centre, 5th Floor, Dragonara Road, Paceville St Julian's STJ 3141 Malta
    PurposeHotjar is an user behavior analytic tool by Hotjar Ltd.. We use Hotjar to understand how users interact with our website.
    Privacy Policy https://www.hotjar.com/legal/policies/privacy/
    Host(s)*.hotjar.com
    Cookie Name_hjClosedSurveyInvites, _hjDonePolls, _hjMinimizedPolls, _hjDoneTestersWidgets, _hjIncludedInSample, _hjShownFeedbackMessage, _hjid, _hjRecordingLastActivity, hjTLDTest, _hjUserAttributesHash, _hjCachedUserAttributes, _hjLocalStorageTest, _hjptid, _hjSessionUser_2229986, _hjIncludedInPageviewSample, _hjIncludedInSessionSample, _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress, _hjFirstSeen
    Cookie ExpirySession / 1 Year

    Marketing cookies are used by third-party advertisers or publishers to display personalized ads. They do this by tracking visitors across websites.

    Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

    Accept
    Name
    ProviderLinkedin
    Cookie Namelidc, li_gc, lang, AnalyticsSyncHistory, UserMatchHistory, li_sugr, bcookie, TDCPM, TDID, bscookie, ln_or
    Cookie ExpirySession / 1 Year
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderSkai
    Cookie Nameken_gclid
    Accept
    Name
    Provider6sense
    Cookie Name_gd_session, _an_uid, _gd_visitor, _gd_svisitor, 6suuid
    Cookie ExpirySession / 400 Days
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderPardot
    PurposeCookie name associated with services from marketing automation and lead generation platform Pardot. The visitor value is the visitor_id in your Pardot account. This cookie is set for visitors by the Pardot tracking code.
    Host(s).pardot.com, pi.pardot.com, skai.io
    Cookie Namepardot, visitor_id*, lpv*
    Cookie ExpirySession / 10 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderGoogle Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
    PurposeCookie by Google used for conversion tracking of Google Ads.
    Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
    Cookie NameIDE, 1P_JAR, NID, _gcl_au, OTZ, test_cookie
    Cookie ExpirySession / 400 Days
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    Cookie NamePHPSESSID, sid, okto-autoposter-XXX, oktgid, oktsid, oktlogid-XXX, oktolead-XXX-Email, oktolead-XXX-Company, oktolead-XXX-FirstName, oktolead-XXX-LastName, oktolead-XXX-Phone, oktolead-XXX-Country, oktolead-XXX-Url, oktolead-XXX-State, oktolead-XXX-Comment, optout
    Cookie ExpirySession / 2 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderMeta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland
    PurposeCookie by Facebook used for website analytics, ad targeting, and ad measurement.
    Privacy Policy https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies
    Cookie Name_fbp,act,c_user,datr,fr,tr,m_pixel_ration,pl,presence,sb,spin,wd,xs
    Cookie ExpirySession / 1 Year

    Content from video platforms and social media platforms is blocked by default. If External Media cookies are accepted, access to those contents no longer requires manual consent.

    Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

    Accept
    Name
    ProviderWistia
    Host(s).wistia.com
    Cookie Namecb_anonymous_id, _sp_ses.2b40, _li_dcdm_c, __hssrc, _gcl_au, _clsk, hubspotutk, _sp_id.2b40, __hssc, __hstc, _uetsid, _uetvid, _gid, _ga, _ga_GQR109DZ3Y, _lc2, fpi, _ex-pricing-cta, _fbp, cb_group_id, cb_user_id, _clck
    Cookie ExpirySession / 400 Days
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderMeta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland
    PurposeUsed to unblock Instagram content.
    Privacy Policy https://www.instagram.com/legal/privacy/
    Host(s).instagram.com
    Cookie Namepigeon_state
    Cookie ExpirySession
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderOpenstreetmap Foundation, St John’s Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge CB4 0WS, United Kingdom
    PurposeUsed to unblock OpenStreetMap content.
    Privacy Policy https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_Policy
    Host(s).openstreetmap.org
    Cookie Name_osm_location, _osm_session, _osm_totp_token, _osm_welcome, _pk_id., _pk_ref., _pk_ses., qos_token
    Cookie Expiry1-10 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderTwitter International Company, One Cumberland Place, Fenian Street, Dublin 2, D02 AX07, Ireland
    PurposeUsed to unblock Twitter content.
    Privacy Policy https://twitter.com/privacy
    Host(s).twimg.com, .twitter.com
    Cookie Name__widgetsettings, local_storage_support_test
    Cookie ExpiryUnlimited
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderVimeo Inc., 555 West 18th Street, New York, New York 10011, USA
    PurposeUsed to unblock Vimeo content.
    Privacy Policy https://vimeo.com/privacy
    Host(s)player.vimeo.com
    Cookie Namevuid
    Cookie Expiry2 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderGoogle Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
    PurposeUsed to unblock YouTube content.
    Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en&gl=en
    Host(s)google.com
    Cookie NameCONSENT
    Cookie Expiry6 Month

    Borlabs Cookie powered by Borlabs Cookie

    Privacy Policy Imprint