Geo Targeting

WHAT IS GEO-TARGETING?

Geo Targeting is the process by which a website or campaigns are setup to specifically target a geographic location or to present different data depending on the geographic location of the user. Geo targeting can be done on different levels depending on the level of customisation necessary. It can be country specific or as low as postal code / zip code specific depending on the content that needs to be delivered.

The significance of being able to target customers and users on a geographic level is that you can market to them directly. Marketing a plant hire company based in Johannesburg to companies interested in Cape Town does not make sense. The equipment cannot be hired due to the excessive distance making it uneconomical. Hence a Johannesburg based plant hire can more aggressively market in Gauteng, whilst informing others in advance that their fleet is based in Johannesburg because of the geographic location targeting that has been setup. This is a very small example of how a small company could reduce the resources needed in the sales department by reducing the load of leads that will not turn into sales. The uses are infinite and really are only limited by your imagination. A larger company with multiple branches can automatically bring up the correct contact information based on the location or even change the language. A possible scenario whereby a South African company sells equipment to Angola, the website can automatically load in Portuguese to allow the Angolan client to more easily navigate and access your products. Usability such as this has already put you ahead of your competitors by pre-emptively taking the initiative to cater towards what your client needs.

Some common places you will have already seen geo-targeting in action is Google Ad-Words. When setting up you campaigns within Google Ad-Words you can specify which countries you would like your advert to come up in. This allows you to easily prevent wasting money on Pay per click (PPC) advertising to an audience which is not your target market. Another good example of geo-targeting is the “match maker” type websites who have banners that will say they have a potential match in your nearest town with the hope of capturing your attention and clicking on their advert.


HOW DOES IT WORK?

Geo targeting works by looking at the users IP address as they load the website. As the user loads the website, the remote server takes their IP address and runs it through a database to see what location is on file for that IP address. The IP address consists of 4 blocks of 3 digits. For example: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx or 196.143.121.231. Each part of this has significance when looking it up in the database and essentially will pin point your location (depending on the accuracy of the database) does to a town level. With each block reading from left to right the lookup will become more and more accurate.

There are a possible 4 billion possible IP addresses and due to the fact that networks are constantly evolving and changing, constant upkeep on IP address information is required.