Google Updates AdWords with Demographics
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Google surprised? And by a move from MSN, no less? Say it isn't so! But it is. MSN's adCenter began offering demographic targeting of its advertising a week before Google managed to roll out demographic targeting of its own. But the two programs are rather different. Keep reading, or you might not realize what you're buying.
It’s a little unusual for Google to get caught flatfooted. But that seems to be what happened in this case. Microsoft’s MSN adCenter received a lot of praise when it launched March 6. In particular, many were impressed that the service offered demographic targeting to advertisers.
In response, Google updated its AdWords control panel interface to also provide demographic targeting of content ads. Aside from the fact that Google is actually being a follower rather than a leader in this case, this is huge. Advertising based on demographics is considered to be much more effective than more broad-based advertising, because you’re able to reach the exact audience that would be most interested in your product or service.
So far, Google’s demographic targeting service is only available for the United States. The demographic data comes from ComScore Networks. Google uses the demographic data only to choose the sites that AdWords suggests advertisers run site targeted advertising on. The service does not target specific users visiting particular websites.
Of course, this isn’t exactly useful if you aren’t targeting the United States. On the other hand, with the U.S. still the leading Internet market, this looks like a good start. It’s still a little early to get a lot of information about these two services, but it has set the forums buzzing and plenty of people seem at least curious about what the two services can offer them. If you’re wondering what all the buzz is about too, keep reading; I’m going to explain what demographics are, why they matter, and take a look at how these two services compare.
Next: Demographics for Dummies >>
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