Learn How to Target Ads

Targeting Ads

Objective: Learn how to target ads to get better results.

Introduction

Targeting options in Microsoft adCenter can help increase the chance that specific customers will see your ad. This tutorial introduces targeting options, shows you how to target specific customers, and explains how to use the optional incremental-bidding features.

Targeting Options

Targeting is an optional adCenter feature that can help you maximize your ad's exposure to potential customers who are likely to be interested in your ad. With targeting, Microsoft adCenter can help you focus on specific customer segments to increase the chance they see your ads. Targeting is an excellent way to make your advertising more effective.

There are three ways you can target a customer segment. You can use them individually or in combination.

Geographical location
Day of the week or time of day
Gender and age

Geographical location

Geographical targeting is only available at a country, region, or city level. There are several things to keep in mind if you use geographic targeting:

Geographical targeting is set for a city, not the designated market area. A designated market area is typically used to gather television ratings and can be much larger than a city. At this time, Microsoft adCenter does not offer targeting by postal code or state. Microsoft adCenter determines customer location with reverse-IP address lookup to determine the customer's location.
Some city borders may cross into other states. For example, Cincinnati , Ohio , is located on the border of Kentucky . When an advertiser targets Cincinnati , the advertiser will also be targeting residents of Kentucky who are located in the Cincinnati metropolitan area.

Day of the week or time of day

As your campaign progresses, you may find that your click-through rate (CTR), the ratio of the number of times an ad is clicked to the number of times the ad is displayed) and conversion rate (the percentage of ad clicks that result in a completed transaction, such as a purchase, a registration, or whatever you consider the best measure of the ad's success) are highest during certain times, for example, weeknights. Targeting Monday through Friday from 6:00 P.M. to 11:00 P.M. would help ensure your ads run when your potential customers are online.

When you target by time of day, adCenter uses the time zone of the distribution channel, or language and region that you selected for the ad group. For example, if the language and region for your ad group is France , then the times shown for targeting by time of day will be in France 's time zones.

For information about how to target customers by day of the week or time of day, see Target customers by day of the week or time of day .

Age and gender

You can target customers by age and gender so your ads are displayed more frequently to people who will be interested in them. However, you only pay the incremental bid amount for customers who meet your targeting criteria. You can target your ad to the following audience segments:

All age groups and both genders
A specific age group
A specific gender

The data used for the demographic targeting option (age and gender) comes from information reported by MSN customers.

For information about how to target customers by age group or gender, see Target customers by age group and gender .

Adding Bids to Targets

To increase the chance that your ad is seen by specific types of customers, you can set incremental bids for the targets you've chosen. If your ads are not in position one on the search results page, setting incremental bids can improve your position.

When you place an incremental bid for geographical location, day of week, or time of day, you can choose whether to display your ads only to target customers or to all customers. When you place an incremental bid for age or gender, your ads are displayed to all customers. In all cases, you pay the incremental bid only when target customers click your ad.

For more information about setting bids for keywords and for targeting customers, see adCenter Help.