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Search Engine Watch user davec004 has posted a question on the forums regarding the word "Georgia" appearing underneath a PPC listing in Google. I've also seen this occuring on the term [car insurance] for an account which my housemate and PPC Guru, Duncan Parfitt, coincidentally manages.
I just put this down to just one of those “features” that sometimes crop up in search results, although a similar occurrence on US adverts appears to show that Google is performing a low scale test. I would assume that this is connected to either Google Local features, or more likely, Google seeing whether reference to a geographical location increases CTR or conversions.
With the search leader already making plans to move into the Cost Per Acquisition model with some verticals, is this a sign of them automatically including copy which is proven to increase targeted clickthroughs and therefore a more efficient CPA model?
Further Discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums
UPDATE: I've just contacted the person running the above Car Insurance campaign and they have confirmed that this is simply geo-targeting and that it's been out for a few months now. With this in mind, I can't believe that I have not seen this before. Surely advertisers in verticals such as these would be fighting to use these features to make adverts even more personalised and targetted?
Comments:
Barry Schwartz
11/17/2006 04:51 pm
Ah, that happens all the time in US. Geotargeted campaigns shows that data to help increase relevancy. This may be new in the UK.
Keri Morgret
11/17/2006 05:46 pm
I've seen it for some time too in the Bay Area. There's several different ways to set things up in your ad campaign..you can specify country(s), state(s), and area(s). For the Bay Area, you can select the San Jose/Oakland/San Francisco area. If you want more targeted than that, you can enter in a zip code and specify a specific radius in miles or kilometers. For even more targeted results, you can outline a polygon on the map. I do this with some of my clients in the Bay Area -- allows you to target both where people work and live, given the commutes we have here.
Lea de Groot
11/17/2006 10:09 pm
Old news - been around for years. literally. Yep, it just indicates geotargeting. I don't know *why* Google does it, as it adds no value that I can think of to either the viewer or the advertiser. I wish they would stop it - I see no point in putting a 'something funny about this ad' indicator on an ad. I would expect it lowers click through. I wish I saw more of them, because I wish more local businesses would geotarget (I see no point in a child care centre in Perth advertising in Sydney, for example) but it doesn't need to be pointed out when it happens. Competitors probably enjoy the extra information, of course!
Search Engines WEB
11/18/2006 07:21 am
http://battellemedia.com/searchmob/story/Google-SERPs-adds-AJAX--Maps-with-Listings-Address/ LOOK AT THIS - Google is adding AJAX Address location maps to the SERPs
Deepali
11/18/2006 07:32 am
Yup this has been around for quite a while. The feature shows up in India too when advertisers select regional targeting. I also would not expect it to increase CTRs a great deal. What it does do sometime is make an ad stand out a little if there are too many ads showing for a search query.
Gabs
11/18/2006 11:03 am
Old news.. The best bit is a radius from a single point.. That was very cool..
RedSearch
11/19/2006 03:48 pm
Been around for quite a while....Not surprised nobody noticed since most SEM'ers are pretty blind to local search, how it works, how to really sell and manage it properly. (Here's a hint... it's not the same as normal SEM/PPC set up, management and sales) There can be problems if the users IP address is being located out of the region different than where they really are searching. For example, I know of a lot of users in the Indianapolis area who use an ISP located out of Kentucky (Insight) and their search results will have ads that say "Louisville, KY" or "Kentucky" underneath the ads, which misrepresents the validity of their sponsors....and this hurts advertisers' CTR's.