I am engaged to be married! Let me show you a little of how I went about shopping for a diamond engagement ring, and the importance of local and geotargeted search. I initially was looking at all styles, and wanted to see a large selection, so I did the most basic of searches for “engagement rings.”

The paid search results needed to use a (unique selling proposition) USP in order to get me to click, especially in light of how competitive the organic field appeared to be. For the most part, those advertising a way to build your own ring were more likely to get my attention, especially because I was looking for a large selection. I could have cared less about discounts and low prices, especially at this point in my research.

I quickly narrowed my interest to platinum rings, and mostly those with solitaire diamonds. A three-diamond ring, or rings that included rubies or other gems just weren’t traditional enough for my taste, or for the woman I’d be giving the ring to.

When it came to categories, it was more difficult to say my taste was classic versus contemporary versus something else. I nearly always liked at least one ring in each category. Ultimately, I was looking for a contemporary solitaire diamond engagement ring with a platinum setting. That’s a bit much to Google, I thought, so I narrowed my Google search to “contemporary engagement rings.”

I still wasn’t interested in buying, but I thought I might come across a manufacturer or designer who specialized in contemporary rings. Mostly, I was disappointed. But at this point, I did begin to pay more attention to geotargeted ads. If an ad was popping up for my location, I figured the advertiser likely had a physical store within driving distance. I was more than willing to discuss engagement rings in person, and an ad that said “DC’s favorite” and another that highlighted Baltimore did get my attention.Ultimately, I did a search for local jewelers, “Bethesda Jewelers”, when a search for “bethesda engagement rings” didn’t satisfy. In the meantime, my father had spoken with the actual “Bethesda Jewelers” and had used them in the past for other jewelry. I went with a ring from them. No ad, no geotargeting, just plain old word of mouth.

Four Takeaways:

1. Research customer intent. Does an ad for “engagement ring” really bring in purchasers? You might be better off with, “Engagement Ring Advice” and pushing your expertise in an ad.
2. What is your USP? Write an ad that sticks out and ultimately targets who you want to be targeting.
3. Geotargeting brings attention to an ad when indicated in the ad copy, in particular.
4. Is your target customer going to buy online? Know your audience and track them through the purchase, even if it’s an offline conversion.

Filed under: PPC on Friday, September 28th, 2007 by Jacob Wolfsheimer |
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.