The Quick Guide to Geotargeting B2B Audiences
by MGB2B
While a lot of B2B marketing is typically national or international in scope, there may be a time that you find the need for geotargeting B2B audiences instead of blanketing them with an overarching campaign. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, geotargeting is the ability to reach specific audiences based on their location.
So when might you have the opportunity to do that? A few examples include:
- Hosting regional seminars
- Providing support to your sales team in certain states
- Attending industry trade shows
In these types of situations, you can use geotargeting to reach specific audiences with a message that hits home. But geotargeting isn’t always a typical function in the B2B realm like it is in consumer marketing, and there can be a lot of confusion. As a B2B marketer, it’s important to have at least a basic understanding of what’s what. Here are the basic types of geotargeting you should be aware of as a B2B advertiser:
IP Address – Your IP address is how your device is identified when it connects to the Internet through an Internet Service Provider (ISP). This is how most ad networks and publishers determine their user’s locations. Be cautious though as IP address geolocation often depends on the nearest hub of the ISP. For example, when I test the IP address for my computer in our New Haven office, my IP is spotted in neighboring East Haven and as far away as Hyannis on Cape Cod.
Subscriber-Provided Data – This is targeting based on, you guessed it, the information given to a publisher or provider in order to access content. Over the years, many B2B publications have done a good job of mining information from their subscribers. Because of this, publishers can sometimes target their audiences based on geographic information that they have provided.
Geofencing – This type of targeting uses the locations services feature of tablets and smartphones to target users where they are in a specific location. By picking a specific longitude and latitude, you can set a circumference around a store, an event, or a specific area and target people only when they are in your range. Ads show up in mobile browsers and apps when location services have been enabled. Currently, there is very little other targeting available with geofencing so it’s best to only use this if a lot of your audience is in one area at one time, like a trade show.
Still unsure about how to target professionals geographically? Drop us a line and we can help pinpoint the right solution.
Tags: B2B marketing strategy, geotargeting b2b audiences, lead generation, sales support, trade shows