Case Study: Key Factors Influencing Ad Targeting Success for a Small Business

Disclaimer: "ItalianEatts" is a pseudonym used to protect the confidentiality of the actual small business restaurant.

Business Overview:

ItalianEatts sought to maximize the impact of their Google Ads campaigns by focusing on precise targeting criteria. This approach enabled them to reach the most relevant customers efficiently, considering factors such as audience demographics, location, content, keywords, and scheduling. Below are the critical factors that influenced the success of ItalianEatts' data-driven ad targeting strategy:

1. Audience Demographics and Customer Persona

• Ideal Customer Profile: ItalianEatts identified their primary customer persona as young to middle-aged women (ages 25-54), typically with families. This group frequently seeks value-oriented meal options and family deals, aligning well with ItalianEatts’ offerings.

• Age and Gender: Targeting female customers in the 25-54 age range allowed ItalianEatts to align ad content with the preferences of family-oriented buyers.

• Household Income Insights: Most of ItalianEatts' customers came from households within the lower 50% income bracket, indicating a preference for affordable options. However, they also noticed that a smaller but significant segment came from the top 10% income bracket, likely due to convenience and quality.

2. Geographic Targeting

• Local Radius: Since ItalianEatts’ primary goal was to serve local customers, they set a 3-mile targeting radius around their main location. This focus helped attract local customers, minimized delivery costs and improved conversion likelihood. However, Google Ads occasionally extended reach beyond this radius, so ItalianEatts had to adjust location settings to maintain a strictly local focus.

• Exclusions for Distant Customers: To avoid the higher delivery costs and lower conversion rates associated with distant customers, ItalianEatts specifically excluded areas beyond the target radius, ensuring their ads were visible to those most likely to convert and allowed ItalianEatts to reach a nearby audience more inclined to order from them regularly.

3. Content Customization and Ad Formats

• Ad Content Customization: ItalianEatts tailored headlines and descriptions to incorporate specific keywords like “Italian restaurants near me” rather than broader terms like “food delivery.” These local keywords helped lower CPC costs and targeted customers with immediate intent.

• Preferred Media Format: Video content performed exceptionally well, particularly in Performance Max ads on YouTube. The visually appealing format helped to capture attention and provided a compelling representation of their offerings.

• Ad Extensions and Assets: Sitemaps, promotions, price callouts, and structured snippets were used to make ads more informative and actionable. ItalianEatts also used lead forms to capture customer information and promote deals directly. These assets provided additional information that helped build interest and led customers seamlessly to conversion pages.

4. Keyword Targeting

• Local and Intent-Based Keywords: ItalianEatts focused on local keywords to attract nearby customers. Keywords like “Italian restaurant near me” were cost-effective compared to broader terms like “takeout” or “food delivery.” The “near me” phrase was especially impactful, as it aligned with the local search intents common among their target audience.

• Cost-Effective Targeting: By avoiding generic, high-competition keywords, ItalianEatts kept costs low while effectively reaching customers with a strong likelihood of conversion.

5. Ad Scheduling and Budget Management

• Ad Scheduling and Budget Management

• Optimized Ad Windows: Initially, ItalianEatts ran ads throughout the day until closing to maximize impressions. However, as they optimized their campaigns, higher click rates rapidly consumed the budget. To maintain budget control, they limited ads to peak times—specifically dinner hours, when customers were more likely to order. This approach allowed them to maximize their budget and reach the right audience at the most opportune times.

• Balancing Impressions and Clicks: Running ads during peak hours preserved the budget and improved the chances of conversion by showing ads when customers were most interested in placing orders. Although this limited overall visibility, it helped optimize the CPC and CPA metrics in line with their budget.
  

Conclusion:

In summary, ItalianEatts’ strategy combined detailed audience analysis, geographic and demographic targeting, and customized content to reach its target customers effectively. The use of local and intent-based keywords alongside careful ad scheduling allowed them to maximize their ad performance within a constrained budget. These insights helped ItalianEatts build a stronger online presence, reach relevant customers, and improve conversion rates on their newly launched online platform.

Figure 1: Displays an increase in conversions as we continue to reach relevant customers. It also illustrates a decrease in cost over time due to improving ad efficiency.