Those Who Matter Most

Finding your favorite customers is easier now with demographic targeting

You know your audience — especially those whose clicks are likely to convert. This is the driving force behind the recent launch of our demographic targeting.

Demographic bidding (also known as targeting) allows you to take advantage of the knowledge you already have about your audience and focus your spending on specific age range and gender segments. Demographic bidding is available for both Sponsored Search and Content Match in both the user interface and through our APIs.

Want to increase the likelihood that your ad is in a premium position for men in their 40s? Or perhaps your particular product is geared more toward women in their mid-to-late 30s?  In either case, now you can simply increase your ad group or keyword bid for a particular group with a bid adjustment.  When a user who matches your specified age group and/or gender performs a search on one of your keywords, your ad will have a higher tendency to show up toward the top of the page because of your increased bid.

At the same time, using bid adjustments on your desired demo groups doesn’t mean you’ll have to give up traffic from other groups. For age ranges and/or genders where you don’t adjust your bid, our systems will match your ad just as they do today to determine how and when to show your ad for searches.

Why use demographic targeting
Thinking through the groups you want to target, and adding the appropriate bid adjustments, will require a little bit of account management time initially. But targeting demographically can translate to an improved return on investment when your ads become more visible to users who fit your target prospect profile. These are the prospective customers who are probably more interested in what you’re offering, and are more likely to convert. That will give you more of a competitive edge.

If you aren’t yet sure which age ranges or gender react best to your product, you can use demographic reporting to learn which groups are clicking more on your ads.  For example, it might show you that women are clicking on your ads and buying your product for their spouses far more often than the men you’ve been targeting with your ads all along.  Armed with this information, you can adjust your offers, creatives, and spending to maximize your sales and return on your advertising spend.

How to use it
You can easily activate demographic bidding for a campaign or ad group by targeting any age range or gender with a bid adjustment or by simply clicking on the “”turn on demographic bidding” checkbox where you set your demo targeting. For more details on getting started and using demographic bidding, visit our help center.

One additional thing to keep in mind: The bid adjustments that you set for various demographic groups are added together if a user matches more than one criterion. For example, if you set a bid adjustment of 15% for female prospects and 25% for ages 30 to 34, you would bid 40% (15%+25%) more than your ad group or keyword bid for a click from a 32-year-old woman.

— Malin Kennedy, Senior Manager, Traffic Quality

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Kate Mereand