Businesses that advertise online have been thrown another loop. Just when they had search engine optimization figured out, now they can target their advertisements based on demographic information – such as location or age or gender.
Christine Churchill likes knowing exactly who will be looking at the Google-based text ads she develops.
“If you’re targeting an audience over 55, you might make the type face of the ad a little larger,” says Churchill, the president of KeyRelevance, a Dallas-based search engine marketing firm. “If it’s for women, the ad and the website [being advertised] should carry more detail, and more content, because women prefer to read more details,” she says.
Until recent years, those purchasing ads on Google AdWords, Yahoo or MSN meant writing a one-size-fits-all ad and trying to come up with the best possible keywords and optimization data for that ad to get it the best exposure. But now, the major search engines are offering more customized options for ad placement, such as demographic targeting (age, sex, or ethnicity), geographic targeting, and contextual targeting.
Read more about targeted search here.
Credit: Mary O. Foley | Inc. Technology
