My niece’s cat, Juliette, went missing this past weekend. I wanted to help, but my niece (and presumably the cat) were in Austin, and I live in Washington DC.

So I did what any new media geek would do, I started an online ad campaign.

From Lost Cat in Austin

First , I put up a free website on Blogger with a picture of the kitty and a contact phone number and email address. Think of it as the new media version of the lost-kitty flyer that you see taped to telephone poles and mailboxes.

Second, I logged into my Google Adwords account*and bought a bunch of keywords such as cat, lost cat, gato, and so on. I created an ad saying that I had lost a cat and describing the neighborhood in Austin where the cat should be. I linked that to the website.

From Lost Cat in Austin

Finally, I logged into my Facbook Ads account**and created an ad with a little picture of the cat and a short description. I also linked that to the website.

From Lost Cat in Austin

The only problem was geotargeting. The most granular geotargeting that either Google or Facebook allowed was to “Austin.” If you’re not from Austin, it’s a pretty big town. My niece lives down in South Austin near Zilker park, so I didn’t want to advertise way up in the North Austin suburban sprawl. Zip code targeting would have been perfect. A couple of zip codes could have completely covered the possible range of a small gray cat.

When I was at Admixture, clients frequently demanded, and we delivered, zip code level targeting. Instead, the coverage I got from Google and Facebook was a couple of hundred square miles. Granular geotargeting is not technically difficult. They could do it if they wanted, but for some unknown business reason they don’t.

As it was, I burned through my small Facebook budget in about an hour without a single lead. Google performed better, as I didn’t burn up my budget and got one decent lead.

So for now, Facebook and Google aren’t granular enough for really easy, good local advertising. They will be someday, but not yet.

And Juliette eventually came home on her own, limping on a broken leg. She’s now on bed rest at the vet.

* Yes, I am a big enough nerd that I have a personal Adwords account.
** Yes, I am a big enough nerd that I have a personal Facebook Ads account.

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