Are you an advertiser who knows what your high converting customers look like? Or, are you specifically targeting a certain age or gender for the product or website you’re promoting with search? If you knew that someone in your target demographic was sitting at the computer, wouldn’t you be willing to pay a bit more for your ad placement with that customer? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may be a prime candidate to utilize the demographic targeting feature available in adCenter. This allows you to maximize presentation of your ads to your target demographic by paying a premium on your bid for those customers whom you know are likely to convert.
How does it work?
The data used for the demographic targeting option (age and gender) comes from information reported by MSN customers; this data in Microsoft adCenter is retrieved through the online advertising audience's Windows Live IDs. If you have targeted your ad to Females using the incremental bid or "bid boost" option in adCenter, you can increase your bid in increments of 10% up to 100% for the demographic you’ve identified as your "sweet spot". So, if you’ve chosen 10%, your $2 Max CPC bid becomes $2.20 when adCenter is able to recognize this information about a logged-in user. With this strategy in place, you're likely improving your position for your target customer and increasing the right traffic to your site.
Important note: Incremental bid boosts are additive so if you’ve elected to bid 10% for Female and 20% for 30-39, you’ll be increasing your bid by 30% for someone who falls into both categories using their non-identifiable label.
How do I implement this strategy?
Select the ad group you'd like to apply demographic targeting to. On the Manage selected ad group page, under Set incremental bids for targeting, click Bid for location, day, time, age, or gender. Under Demographics, select the additional amount you want to bid to target by age group or gender, in 10 percent increments above your keyword bid amount. Click Save. You’ll be off and running in targeting the right customers to maximize your bid for.
If this strategy is implemented correctly, you could increase your conversions, increase your CTR, and boost your ROI! Good luck.