In
the previous two posts in this series, I discussed key elements to pay
attention to in geo
targeting and content
targeting. In the final post in the series, I will discuss the
risks, limitations and best practices in using demographic targeting.
Part III: Demographic Targeting
Demographic
targeting is a relatively new tool currently offered by MSN AdCenter and Google
Adwords (for limited site targeted content campaigns). Through
demographic targeting you can target your audience based on gender, age,
ethnicity, family income and even whether they have children at home or not.
This would be one of the greatest tools for search engine marketing if
completely accurate, since you will be able to show your ads to the preferred
demographic. However, there is still room for improvement.
1. Inaccurate User
Information
Search
engines base demographic targeting on the information users enter at the time
of signing up for any of their products. MSN AdCenter, for example gets this
information from MSN Hotmail and Microsoft Windows signups. It’s a common
knowledge that people give inaccurate information during signups and there is
no shortage of fake Hotmail and Gmail profiles on the internet. Search engines
base their trends on this information which is perhaps not entirely accurate.
For
example, a 50 year old man in Canada can easily create a user profile of a 27
year old woman in San Diego, California. Thus a cosmetics ad intended for women
in their 20s would not reach its intended audience in this case.
2. Again, know your
business
Just
like ,
demographic targeting would be applicable only for certain businesses and not
for others. If your product is targeted towards a particular demographic, it
may make sense to use this tool.
When
I looked at the demographic report for the keywords "evening gown"
and "tuxedo" from MSN AdCenter’s new MS Excel Add-in "Ad Intelligence", I could see
very clear gender-based search trends. If you are a business which aims to sell
evening gowns and tuxedos, you should keep two sets of keywords, one targeted
towards men and the other towards women.
Similarly,
if you look at the demographics for the keyword "baby clothes," the
majority of searches are from women between the ages of 18 and 50.
On the other hand, if you look for demographic
trending of electronics related keywords like "hdtv" and
"digital camera," the search volume doesn't skew strongly towards one
gender or age group. In this case demographic targeting would limit your reach
more than necessary and is not recommended.
All
said, you should have enough data and proof to determine which demographic
group is more likely to buy your product before you use this feature.
Unlike
geo and content targeting, demographic targeting is relatively new. I am still
not completely confident of its accuracy as many web users likely enter
incorrect information. I am positive though, that the tool will become more
robust in future. If you decide on using this tool, I would strongly recommend
conducting research on demographic trends in your business from both internal
and external sources.