• by Tom Hespos , May 13, 2002

This week, Paul Jongeward posted a question to the Spin Board about city sites. Good thinking, Paul. The more we hear from our readers, the better we're able to target the topics of our weekly columns.

Paul writes:

City sites (citysearch.com, realcities.com, sidewalk.com, etc.) seem to do a great job of geo-targeting and delivering local content. Does anyone have opinions on how well they work for advertising campaigns? Has anyone had experience planning or buying local sites on a national basis? What's the general consensus? What's the good, bad, and ugly?

City sites have an interesting role in online media plans. Depending on your advertising goals and objectives, they can be a part of either national or top DMA-focused campaigns. A lot also depends on your campaign's tolerance for spill into other geographic areas. I've worked on quite a few campaigns that required a geographic focus, and spill tolerance was a big factor in each of them.

For instance, if you're working on a campaign for a Telco in which offers are not valid outside a specific geographic region or prospects need to be living within a certain geographic footprint, city sites might not be the answer unless they're able to target to your geography at the ad server level. If you're a national service that simply wants to heavy-up in certain markets, you might be more spill-tolerant. A test I ran a while back showed that many city sites can get 60% or more of their total visitation from outside the geography they service. If your communications plan can't tolerate this kind of spill, you might want to ask your sales reps at the city sites to target your inventory solely within the geography.

As you might imagine, some city sites do a better job of geo-targeting than others. Some will be able to target based on a user-declared profile. Others might target via IP address, which can still generate significant waste depending on the quality of the database that the site's ad server uses to map IPs to specific geographic locations. If you're looking to narrow your audience down to a specific geography, look for sites that can profile target rather than IP target and you'll do well with keeping the spill to a minimum.

If you're planning a national campaign with heavy-ups in major DMAs, city sites can do a great job. In addition to Citysearch and RealCities, you might want to check out Digital City (from AOL), various local offerings from Yahoo, city sites from Cox Interactive Media, or even some cross-platform offerings from companies like Vindigo or Streetmail. All of these interactive offerings do a great job of tapping into their respective localities and speaking to the consumer in a local voice. You will want to consider tailoring your message to each specific geography so as to leverage the local power of the medium. Using the same message for each geography is do-able, but it won't take advantage of the affinity that prospects feel for the site and the locality. If you are buying national with heavy-ups in top DMAs, city sites do make sense. They'll give you that needed extra kick in critical markets. Just be sure to tie in the creative accordingly.

Another option to consider for geo-targeted campaigns is buying sites with a national or international focus on a local basis. Use the publisher's ad server to target your buy appropriately. Some sites target via DMA, others by ZIP code or area code. What's important to understand is the targeting methodology the sites use. Are the DMAs mapped to IP address? That can be somewhat inaccurate. Is a ZIP code mapped to a user-declared profile in which the user provides location information? That option is more desirable when you want to minimize spill. Other publishers may rely on external profiles or a combination of targeting methods to handle their geo-targeting. In any case, you want to understand the methodology used and factor it into your decision.

What's the ultimate verdict on city sites? Used correctly, they can help you tap into certain geographies. Used incorrectly, they can send your message to a wider audience than you might have expected. Determining your spill tolerance and geo-targeting methodology are both keys to making the right moves.