IP Targeting

IP targeting or Geo targeting is used by the best of the Ad-networks. There are lots of different ways to target advertising. Most of them rely on the surrogates of demographics. Demographics are attributes like age, income, education, status or type of occupation, region of country and household size. Demographics can also include the age of children, home ownership, home value and urban or rural location.

IP targeting is the method of targeting whereby, the physical location of a website visitor is determined and different content to that visitor based his location, such as country, region/state, city, ISP or other criteria is delivered.
IP targeting has been the most long-standing method of using “technology” to target users of the Web based on geographic determinants. It has become significantly better recently due to new IP matching companies entering the arena. However, the accuracy of this kind of targeting is how accurately the technology vendor for the site you are advertising on maps IPs to true geographic areas.
IP targeting has been around since the early days of ad serving. It involves writing the code that will strip the IP address from a request, compare it to a database, and deliver an ad accordingly. The next and most important step is building and maintaining an IP database.
One of the first applications of information in an IP database was targeting to specific geographic regions. Most commercial ad management systems have IP databases that can make geographic targeting possible.

The reasons for targeting local in digital media are
A) A local business having reach in only a specific area
B) A national retailer that has reach in a particular locality
C) A national advertiser with a new product testing that product concept and media options to support it in a smaller, representative market
D) A national advertiser that needs to achieve certain communication delivery goals that cannot be reached with national media alone.



It would seem that reasons B) and reasons D) have the potential for being the most compelling use of the Web by advertisers. But one reason not mentioned here that often escapes advertisers in the standard media is one of giving local flavor to a particular product or service.
When you advertise, your focus has to remain on the consumer. A consumer may think globally, but he conducts his life locally.
This is an important thing to keep in mind, especially as so many of us in the Internet advertising industry tend to lose sight of how the general population thinks and feels about their lives and the media they engage in.
“The goal of any advertiser is to make a connection between the consumer and its brand,” asserts Shawn Riegsecker, president of Intégrent Media. “A key to successfully making this connection is to relate or integrate your brand into the daily life of your consumers.
“This is where effectively targeting local audiences comes into play. When done properly, communicating with a consumer at the local level allows you to integrate your message into the things your consumers care most about.”
The practical reasons don’t go away, of course. They simply become part of a larger array of applications for the use of local advertising.