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What is Geographic Segmentation? How to Use It + 7 Examples that Work

Sarah Jane Burt

Caroline Cox

Senior Editor

Approved By

Patience Hurlburt-Lawton

Content Manager

Geographic segmentation creates more effective, personalized marketing campaigns by using location-based targeting. Learn from real-life examples and keep these expert tips in mind.

When you think of customer segmentation, you might think about demographic, behavioral, or psychographic segmentation. But if you’re not considering geographic segmentation, you’re missing an opportunity to understand, reach, and convert your target audience.

Geographic segmentation isn’t just for location-based businesses, international brands, or companies selling weather or climate-related products.

Nearly every brand can use it to learn something about its buyers and create a more targeted marketing strategy.

Let’s dive into what geographic segmentation is, what geographic variables you can use to segment your audience, and what it looks like in real-life campaigns.

Geographic segmentation definition

Geographic segmentation organizes your audience into different groups using geographic variables. This type of segmentation helps you identify and leverage location-based characteristics to create more personalized marketing campaigns.

Where a buyer lives impacts their choices and habits. After identifying the patterns and trends based on geographic segments, you’ll better understand fluctuations in demand and the best ways to market your offers.

So whether you’re running PPC lead generation ads or buying billboard space, you can use the data to inform your strategy.

For example, people in larger urban areas may be more likely to buy a certain luxury product than their suburban and rural counterparts. Identify this, and you can create more targeted marketing campaigns to reach the right buyers.

“Geographic segmentation is a fundamental strategy in PPC marketing that could yield high ROI if utilized properly,” says Sam Yedagar, HawkSEM CEO. “You want to ensure you’re working with a PPC agency or PPC manager that understands your target audience and how to best utilize geo-segmentation to get the highest ROAS.”

By using geo-segmentation along with other PPC strategies, HawkSEM was able to increase CDL Consultant’s conversion rate by 124% and their qualified call conversion rates by 108%. See how the team did it .

Benefits of geographic segmentation

There are several types of market segmentation — why consider geographic location to segment your customer base?

While demographic, psychographic, and behavioral segmentation are all helpful, geographic segmentation is the only type that considers geography’s influences on behavior, preferences, trends, and buying decisions.

Here are several benefits of geographic segmentation:

• Target more efficiently. Geographic segmentation helps you learn more about your customers and target audience. With this information, you can better identify buying patterns and behaviors.
• Optimize your marketing budget. Instead of marketing to people who may not have an interest or need for your products and services, you can use geographic segments to ensure you reach the right people.
• Save money. When you market to everyone, you waste money on those who aren’t the right fit for your product. Geographic segmentation saves money using highly-targeted campaigns.
• Get started easily. If you’re just starting your segmentation strategy, geographic segmentation is fairly easy. The information is concrete and easier to find, making analysis straightforward.
• Provide better customer experiences. The more customer information you have, the more personalized you can make your marketing campaigns and messaging, resulting in a better experience.

Geographic targeting alone may not give you the whole picture. So, it’s valuable to overlap different types of targeting as part of your marketing or ad strategy.

For example, let’s say you’re running a retargeting ad campaign. You combine both geographic and demographic segmentation to reach the population of 25- to 30-year-old women in urban areas.

To get the full benefits of geographic segmentation, track your campaign performance. HawkSEM uses ConversionIQ to track the results from campaigns with specific geo-segmentation.

“Tracking the performance of these campaigns not only allows you to see what part of the marketing dollar is providing a positive return,” explains Yadegar. “But with ConversionIQ, we can extract specific customer data (from traffic that converted) and use that data to market to more potential customers who are also highly likely to convert.

7 geographic segmentation variables

Geographic segmentation isn’t just about grouping people together by their home address. There are other characteristics that align with a person’s geographic location that help you understand and target their different needs.

Here are the seven geographic segmentation variables you may use in your PPC ad campaigns:

• Climate & weather
• Ethnicity & religion
• Population density

1. Location

Location is probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think of geographic segmentation. This involves grouping customers and prospects into segments based on where they live.

Location-based segmentation can be as broad as people living on a certain continent and as specific as those with a specific postal code.

If you’re launching a campaign targeting different countries, you may use this as a segmentation option. Laws, regulations, languages, preferences, and more can vary from country to country, and you may need to account for that in your offers, strategy, and marketing messages.

If your target market lives in different regions of the world, account for that in your segmentation. For example, Europe’s culture is different from U.S. culture. And even within the U.S., West Coast folks have different behaviors, tendencies, and preferences than those on the East Coast.

If you have a small business operating across the United States, consider segmenting based on state if it’s relevant. For example, insurance laws are different in California than in Florida, so the plans you advertise in each state may differ.

2. Climate & weather

Climate and weather impact different markets’ demand for certain products. When you segment by climate, you can target those who live in colder areas with different products than those who live in warmer climates. People in Canada may want to purchase hand warmers, but people in Mexico may be more interested in sandals.

Similarly, if an area is prone to snow, extreme heat, rain, hurricanes, or humidity, you can segment these different areas. People in Florida (one of the rainiest states) may have more chances to use a rainy-day discount promotion than people in Nevada (one of the driest states).

Cultural preferences and attitudes vary from place to place. Studying the local culture of different geographic areas reveals what customers want and need.

When you respect cultural differences and adjust your PPC ad copy and offers to account for this, you can build genuine, long-lasting relationships with buyers.

You may not connect “fast food” with culture, but McDonald’s is a great example of a brand that takes cultural preferences into consideration. Not just in its messaging but in its offers — for example, its menu offers lobster rolls in New England, spam in Hawaii, and taro pies in China.

4. Ethnicity & religion

Ethnicity and religion are significant — from the holidays we celebrate and the food we eat to our daily habits and customs. This is another way to segment your audience for more effective marketing campaigns.

When you understand your customers’ ethnic and religious backgrounds, you can avoid sensitivities when targeting promotions to their customs and holidays. For example, a dress retailer may market dresses for quinceñas to areas with high Mexican populations and dresses for bat mitzvahs to high Jewish population areas.

5. Population density

Population density impacts the number of potential buyers in the area and their buying decisions and preferences . Buyers in rural areas will need and want different offers than those in urban or suburban areas because their lifestyles and attitudes differ.

Here are several examples.

Urban areas have a higher population density than rural areas, providing a larger market to tap into with more competition. These areas tend to be more diverse and attract a more politically progressive population.

Urban residents are more likely to have access to public transportation and ridesharing. Since things are generally closer together, they’re also closer to government resources like the library, courthouse, and post office. They have more options for entertainment and shopping than those in rural areas.

People living in urban areas tend to make more and have more disposable income, but they also have a higher cost of living. They pay more for housing and often live in smaller homes than those in rural areas. They also tend to spend more on food overall because they have more options for dining out.

Rural areas have a less dense population. They have fewer options to pick from locally, so there is less competition. People living in rural areas may also be less sensitive to trends than their urban counterparts.

Those living in the country spend less than urban or suburban residents. They have fewer dining options but are able to grow their own food. They are dependent on their vehicles to get around and value privacy.

Rural residents tend to spend more time outdoors. They have easy access to natural areas, making outdoor activities like hiking, fishing, hunting, and boating more common.

Suburban populations are unique — many suburban residents work in the city but live in the suburbs for affordable housing. So they may have very similar characteristics to those in urban areas, though their lifestyles are different.

The suburbs tend to be more car-dependent than cities — but not as much as rural areas. Many suburbs have access to mass transit but are less walkable than urban areas.

Suburban areas tend to have the best schools, making them attractive to families. These areas also offer the best of both worlds for indoor and outdoor activities since they’re close to cities and a short drive away from rural spots.

6. Language

Using the language of your target market is essential to your marketing efforts. If you have an international audience, use geographic segmentation to group people by their language.

Whether your audience speaks English, Spanish, German, or Chinese, segment each to ensure you serve ads to the right buyers in their native language.

7. Time zone

Time zones impact the timing of mass marketing communications like email or SMS. Segmenting customers based on time zone allows companies to send marketing messages at the most optimal time for customers in that area.

Geographic segmentation played an impactful role in the HawkSEM team’s PPC and SEO strategy for Escape the Room. See how HawkSEM helped them get record clicks and impressions.

Geographic segmentation examples in real life

The best way to understand the power of segmentation is to see it in action. Here are real-life examples of geographic segmentation in popular marketing campaigns:

Geographic segmentation by location

Geographic segmentation by climate, geographic segmentation by culture, geographic segmentation by ethnicity & religion, geographic segmentation by population density, geographic segmentation by language, geographic segmentation by time-zone.

As an international brand, Nike often uses location to tailor its messaging and content. The sports apparel company promotes different sports gear and clothing based on the popular sports in each location. Nike’s ads promote gear for basketball and baseball in the U.S., soccer in Europe, cricket in India, and rugby in England and Sydney.

Nike also features locally popular athletes in its ads to attract customers in different areas. For example, soccer (or football) ads in the U.K. feature prominent athletes that people in the area would recognize. For instance, Nike features Demi Stokes, a professional English footballer playing for Manchester City and the England national team, in its UK advertisements.

Here, Nike projected an ad featuring the soccer star on a well-known England landmark, the Thames barrier:

Source: soccerbible.com

Then ads in the U.S. feature popular soccer players United States fans recognize like Alex Morgan, captain of San Diego Wave FC of the National Women’s Soccer League.

Source: footwearnews.com

Companies in the hair and beauty industry often use climate as a factor for segmentation. People in different regions have different preferences and face different challenges based on climate. So ads targeting these people need to feature different products or types of messaging to appeal to the audience.

Kate Ross, Hair and Beauty Specialist at Irresistible Me uses geographic segmentation in the company’s marketing campaign for the Diamond Flat Iron.

“We found that customers in the Southwest region were more likely to have dry and frizzy hair due to the hot and arid weather, and they valued moisturizing and smoothing features in their flat irons,” explains Ross. “On the other hand, customers in the Northeast region were more likely to have fine and straight hair due to the cold and humid weather, and they valued volumizing and curling features in their flat irons.”

Source: irresistibleme.com

When Irresistible Me launched this product in the U.S. market, its in-house Ads Marketing Specialist Stefan Valentin, used these insights to tailor its marketing messages and offers to highlight product benefits that appeal to each geographic segment.

“In our ad copy, we emphasized how the flat iron’s tourmaline-infused ceramic plates could lock in moisture and reduce frizz for customers in the Southwest,” says Ross. “And we emphasized how the flat iron’s adjustable temperature settings could create different styles and curls for customers in the Northeast.”

Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign is a great example of using cultural segmentation to not only personalize advertising but also the products themselves. This multi-national 2014 campaign was successful because of its community focus, a universal theme that appeals to every culture.

Coke used its packaging to personalize bottles and cans, using different names in different regions, catering to the cultural diversity of each area. Here’s just one example of a promotional image from its United States campaign:

Source: independent.co.uk

These are popular American names that are likely to appeal to a large number of Americans who have or know someone with these names.

The campaign used different culturally significant names in different countries. For instance, in Ireland, the company featured the traditional Irish names Róisín, Tadhg, and Liam, on bottles.

Source: medium.com

SwagMagic allows organizations to create their own branded gift items. It also uses culture as a geographic segmentation variable in how it connects with customers through its messaging.

“Employee gifting is a powerful motivator in the United States. And personalization, convenience, and brand recognition are highly valued,” says Jas Banwait Gill, Growth Manager at SwagMagic. “We’ll share success stories of companies that use our platform to create memorable corporate gifts and how it strengthened their business partnerships. And we’ll ramp up our promotions during the lead-up to the holiday season and Employee Appreciation Day.”

The company highlights other benefits and themes when marketing in other countries. For example, in India, gift culture is different. Gifting is often tied to celebrations, festivals, and personal relationships.

“So we leverage the emotional connection of gift-giving with messages highlighting the joy of giving and receiving gifts,” Gill continues. “Since India is a vast and diverse market, we adapt our messaging to local languages, nuances, and customs.”

McDonald’s is a great example of a global brand that does its market research and tailors products and ads to each location. It’s known for having different versions of its menu that include regional favorites. But in India, religion plays a role in its product offerings.

Known for its hamburgers, McDonald’s has re-engineered its menu and advertising in India, a country whose most widely practiced religions have dietary laws and traditions. Hindus avoid eating beef because cows are seen as sacred in their religion. And it’s even illegal to slaughter cattle in many areas of India. While Muslim teachings prohibit the consumption of pork.

Instead of McDonald’s beloved Big Mac sandwich, you will find the Chicken Maharaja Mac, a double-layered grilled chicken sandwich. While a big sandwich seems to fit right in with American meal expectations, the same is not true for India.

For this reason, ads for the sandwich feature the tagline “the social burger,” marketing the sandwich as something you eat while spending time with others. Yes, it’s a big sandwich, but it’s meant to be eaten as you socialize with friends and family.

Source: quoracdn.net

Given that in India, 81% of adults restrict meat from their diet, McDonald’s has also incorporated many vegetarian menu items to align with this cultural norm. Its Indian menu features items like the McAllo, featuring a patty made from potato and peas with vegetarian sauce, and the McSpicy Paneer, a patty made from Indian cheese.

Population density has a big impact on housing. Homes in cities tend to be smaller, with many more people living in apartments than houses. Due to the cost of living, average home prices, and availability of homes to purchase, there are more people renting apartments and homes in cities than in suburban and rural areas.

Home improvement stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s use population density as a variable in the products they advertise to people in different areas. City dwellers and country residents have unique needs impacting their home improvement and maintenance projects.

For instance, let’s say Home Depot wants to run a promotion on lawnmowers. Rural properties may have acres of land, while suburban homes have a smaller yard, and urban homes may have little to no yard at all. This impacts the type of lawnmower a person may need.

In more population-dense areas, Home Depot may highlight manual push mowers, which get the job done for smaller lawns. They’re also compact, making them ideal for people who don’t have much space.

In rural areas, it may promote riding lawnmowers. This mower is more practical and efficient for people living on larger properties. They’re also more likely to have a place to store the large equipment.

In suburban areas, it may advertise its gas push mowers, which are a better fit for smaller yards. While they aren’t as compact as the manual push mowers, they’ll fit in a small shed or garage, which is more common in suburban areas than urban areas.

If you want your paid search ads to be effective, they need to speak to people in the the language they understand best. This may vary from country to country or by region.

For example, in most areas of Canada, advertising in English will be the norm. However, in Quëbec, French is the official language. In fact, in June 2022, the province passed Bill 96 , a controversial law that limits the use of English in certain settings, making French the language of business in Quëbec.

Any advertisers in this area of Canada will need to create ads in French if they want to appeal to the target market and adhere to the law. Though the law allows English to be used alongside French in some advertisements, that’s only if French is the “more predominant language” (meaning it’s at least twice as big as the English text).

Here’s an example of an Ikea billboard ad in Quëbec:

Source: langsolinc.com

Not only is the ad copy in French, but the link it drives people to is a link to the French language Canadian website.

Larger businesses operating in countries across time zones will use this as a segmentation variable to plan promotions and ad campaigns. Time zone segmentation is useful for email marketing campaigns as it allows you to schedule emails to hit customers’ inboxes when they’re most likely to open and read them.

This segmentation tactic is also important for PPC ad scheduling. For example, if you want to run ads in both New York, NY, and Sydney, Australia, you won’t schedule them for the same time. The AEDT time zone is 15 hours ahead of New York City.

So, while your data may tell you 5 p.m. ET on a Friday is an optimal time to run ads, it’s 8 a.m. Saturday morning in Australia which may not be an optimal time for that population.

The takeaway

Using geographic segmentation for your marketing and PPC ad campaigns can help you deliver more targeted messaging and offers to your audience—wherever they may be.

It’s certainly not the only type of segmentation you should pay attention to, but it can make a significant impact on your advertising results.

Ready to get support with your PPC ads? Book a free consultation with the HawkSEM team today.

Privacy Overview

Geographic Segmentation: The Complete Guide

Updated: July 18, 2024

Published: March 03, 2023

Geographic segmentation organizes your audience into groups based on their physical location, such as country or postal code.

This type of segmentation can provide valuable insights into the buying trends and preferences of different regions, allowing for more targeted and effective marketing efforts.

Plus, geographic segmentation can increase profits and sustain growth.

By understanding the needs and behaviors of different regions, businesses can create more effective marketing campaigns and build stronger relationships with their customers.

Learn more about geographic segmentation below.

Table of Contents

What is geographic segmentation?

Benefits of geographic segmentation, advantages of geographic segmentation, geographic variables.

• Geographic Segmentation Example

Like other types of segmentation, geographic segmentation organizes your audience into different groups. The groups are based on physical location, like a specific country or postal code.

Well, people in certain areas follow certain trends. For example, the residents of a particular city might buy much more fresh fruit than a neighboring city.

Geographic segmentation can help you figure out those trends so you can focus your marketing efforts in the right places.

Segmentation doesn't just bolster your marketing — it's more necessary than ever these days. Other than dividing your audience by location, why should you care about geographic segmentation?

Geographic segmentation can save you money. Think about it: You can spend endless amounts trying to promote your offers.

With the right segmentation, you're marketing the right offers to the right people — people who want and need what you're selling.

Effective geographic segmentation can also make and keep your business relevant.

If you market to the right segments, people will keep buying your products or services. If they keep buying, they're more likely to recommend your business to others.

You can also use geographic segmentation to innovate your product. For example, a certain flavor or style may be prevalent in a certain area. If you make a version of your product with this specification, you can increase sales.

Finally, geographic segmentation can be easier than other types of segmentation . Since the information is concrete, measurement and analysis are much more straightforward.

Your budget dictates your marketing strategy, for better or worse. So, with a specific budget, how can you make sure your marketing results in sales?

Well, geographic segmentation is a great choice — especially compared to something like psychographic segmentation.

Here are a few reasons geographic segmentation might end up on your to-do list.

Image source

1. You can accelerate growth.

More sales are great, but sustained growth is even better. Geographic segmentation can help with both.

Update your segments regularly, and you should be able to keep targeting the right groups. Keep that up, and your business is almost guaranteed to keep growing.

2. You can organize your marketing efforts.

Scalability is one of geographic segmentation's greatest strengths. While you can zoom out and create large segments, you can also zoom in and target more specific groups.

You can even target based on keywords that can help you select a particular group without spending a fortune on marketing.

3. You can improve communication.

As you probably know, every group — and every customer, for that matter — has unique needs and habits. That's where geographic segmentation comes in.

With the right segments, you can focus more on how specific groups of people communicate and do business. That's invaluable if you want to do business with them.

4. You can boost profits.

Want your business to make more money? Start targeting your audience with geographic segmentation, then create specific marketing campaigns for each group.

If you do this right, you should be able to make more profit and cut down on your time and money spent.

The world is a big place. That can make geographic segmentation seem intimidating, but it doesn't have to be.

See, all the geographic variables let you create segments based on the information you can get. Let's look at a few of these variables and how you can use them.

This is probably what comes to mind when most people hear "geographic segmentation." You can segment on a local level all the way to a global level, depending on your needs.

Small Area (Neighborhood)

Think about the last few times you Googled something. Remember the top few results on the first page? Chances are some of those ads were locally relevant to you.

You can target specific communities and areas with your marketing in the same way.

Large Area (Continent)

Have you heard of Cadbury Eggs? They're chocolate eggs that contain toys inside. Eggs with toys inside are banned in the U.S. So it wouldn't make much sense to see a Cadbury Egg commercial in the states.

Without proper geographic segmentation, those ads might run in the wrong market, which would be a waste of money and time.

Segmenting based on climate has to do with weather conditions. Think about it: Packing the same clothes for Hawaii and Montana wouldn't make sense.

People have specific needs and wants depending on their climate, so always be aware of the weather in any market.

Warm Climates

Let's say you sell sunscreen for this example. You probably wouldn't send most of your stock to Iceland, but mistakes happen. Instead, you'd have the most success selling sunscreen somewhere like California or anywhere else with beaches.

Segmenting based on climate can help you match the right products to the proper weather.

Cold Climates

Imagine you went on a ski trip and forgot to bring a nice shirt to wear to dinner. What would you think if you went to a shop in the ski lodge and only saw short-sleeved shirts?

Well, with the right segmentation, the shop would likely have cold-weather clothing. That's why geographic segmentation is important, even regarding weather.

Population Density

Let's say you found the perfect way to segment your audience, and you want to hone in on a certain group. Now, what if this group, the one you thought would buy everything you had, bought at a low rate?

That might have to do with the population's density. Here's how population density can affect your operation.

Think about how the average person lives in an urban environment. They buy things more frequently, tend to have more money, and often care more about what's "cool."

An urban environment dictates many behaviors and habits, so make sure your offer fits the lifestyle of your target audience.

A rural environment probably isn't the best place to debut a new sports car or open a luxury fashion store.

You'll need to adjust your offerings accordingly. Keep this in mind as you segment, and don't push offers that might make a specific audience think you're out of touch.

Pure geographic segmentation can tell you a lot, but it can't account for everything. Different cultures have different products and preferences.

To assess how your offering will be perceived by different cultures, you'll need to get in touch with a diverse group of users.

Consider holding a focus group or sending a survey to your cross-cultural users. This allows you to gain insight from insiders.

Alcohol consumption is banned in Saudi Arabia. That's not to say nobody drinks, but an alcohol band won't have a place in the market there. So, if you own a distillery, you'll see a greater ROI by focusing your operation elsewhere.

Cultural segmentation can make this easier to see, as other places might have similar standards and laws based on demographics.

Let's go to French Canada for this example, specifically Quebec. There, you'll find a large population of French-speaking Canadians.

Proper geographic segmentation could help you decide if you should translate your product labels to French before selling there.

Geographic Segmentation Example: Haribo Gummy Bears

Geographic segmentation sounds simple, and it can be. But if you really want to get your message in front of the right people, you might have to dig a little deeper to create your segments.

Haribo is one of the biggest candy brands in the world. Based in Germany, Haribo produces most of its candy in the U.K. — but not all of it. Being an international brand, Haribo has to cater to many specific groups with different needs.

One of those groups is the population of Turkey, which is majority Muslim. That population requires food to be halal, including candy. This means no pork is allowed, and Haribo typically uses pork gelatin in its products.

So what does Haribo do? It produces candies with beef gelatin specifically for the majority-Muslim country of Turkey.

Why The Campaign Works

Changing ingredients allows Haribo to tap a huge population in a new geography. Dutiful market research unlocked a segment that has needs separate from their other consumers.

Without adjusting its product, Haribo would risk not only losing out on sales but also being seen as a company that lacks knowledge about its customers.

Geographic Segmentation and Your Business

Geographic segmentation is a crucial aspect of effective marketing.

By focusing on regional trends, you can tailor your campaigns to specific groups and increase the likelihood of reaching potential customers.

Using variables such as location, climate, and population density can give you a deeper understanding of your audience, leading to improved communication and increased profits.

Keep in mind that geographic segmentation can be a straightforward and cost-effective approach compared to other types of segmentation.

By regularly updating your segments, you can ensure sustained growth and scalability for your business.

Don't forget to share this post!

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Geographic Segmentation: Definition, Characteristics & Examples

Many tools can help you figure out what your target group does, what they need, and what they like. Geographic segmentation is an important tool that helps businesses make goods that consumers and potential customers will like. 

Before launching new products or services or improving existing ones, businesses need to do geographic segmentation as part of their market research. 

In this blog, we’ll talk about what geographic segmentation is and how you can use a number of factors to divide your market into geographic groups.

Content Index

What is geographic segmentation?

Geographic segmentation characteristics, why use geographic segmentation, geographic segmentation examples, geographic segmentation variables, advantages of geographic segmentation.

Geographic segmentation is a component that competently complements a marketing strategy to target products or services on the basis of where their consumers reside. Division in terms of countries, states, regions, cities, colleges, or Areas is done to understand the audience and market a product/service accordingly.

Geographic segmentation is putting your people into different groups or categories based on where they live. In this type of market segmentation , customers are put into groups based on factors like temperature, population, food habits, clothing, etc., as well as where they live.

Customers’ choices and habits are often affected by where they live. For example, people are more likely to buy tea and coffee in the winter because of the weather. During the summer, more people would be drinking cold drinks.

With geographic segmentation, you can figure out how trends and patterns, like the one in the situation above, affect the demand for your product or service in the market. Also, geographic segmentation gives you useful information that can help you make better marketing plans and put your business in the right place.

LEARN ABOUT: Marketing Insight

People in different parts of the world display different characteristics. A marketing strategy created by dividing the target market segmentation into segments on the basis of factors such as economics, food habits, clothing habits, languages, traditions, and many other traits is known as geographic segmentation.

A classic geographic segmentation example: A classic example – people living on colder continents, such as Europe, are interested in warm clothing, heating devices, etc., almost throughout the year, whereas people living in hotter continents, such as Australia, are interested in air conditions, beach vacations, breezy outfits, and cold drinks.

Example 2: let’s take another example where a government body wants to segment its geography based on the use of plastic bags in its region. The goal is to conduct a use of plastic bags survey. Based on actionable insights into the geographical spread of plastic bags, the governmental body can reinforce administrative supervision to reduce the use of plastics and add new plastic recycling plants in areas of heightened usage.

Each continent or country is further divided into places with distinction in terms of culture, traditions, languages, etc., and there can further be a geographical segmentation. Geographic location is an integral factor that determines market positioning and product sales.

Irrespective of an organization’s market share or product success rate, it’s extremely important for them to conduct market research before launching new products/ services or introducing better or newer features.

Geographic segmentation helps you lower your marketing costs. As a business that wants to cut costs, you would look for places to spend that will give you the best returns. It lets you focus your marketing efforts on a specific area of interest and avoid spending too much.

Learn more about your target audience

Make effective marketing plans.

LEARN ABOUT: Behavioral Targeting

Better experiences for customers

Here are some examples of geographic segmentation:

Products based on season

Size and type of region, food inclinations, launch products or services in new regions.

Learn about: Demographic Examples

Geography isn’t the only thing that affects geographic segmentation. Climate and weather, cultural preferences, and people are also important. Pricing, product availability, and marketing tactics are just some of the things that depend on where an organization is located. 

Let’s explore common geographic segmentation variables.

Religion and culture

Businesses can benefit from geographic segmentation as a marketing tactic in a number of ways. Geographic segmentation offers a number of significant advantages that are given below:

Enhanced focus due to targeting

Immediate market growth, improved communication, increase profits.

Learn more: Demographic Survey Questions

Geographic segmentation lets organizations target customers by region, climate, culture, and other criteria. Businesses can adjust their effective marketing campaigns to each group’s demands by segmenting a market. This improves their advertising and helps them understand and personalize their customers.

LEARN ABOUT:  Test Market Demand

QuestionPro, a top survey and research platform, lets organizations examine customer information by region. This tool helps organizations understand regional customer behavior, preferences, and purchase habits and build focused advertising.

QuestionPro’s regional segmentation function helps businesses target prospective customers and grow their customer base in specific locations. Businesses may improve marketing, customer satisfaction, and income by understanding regional customer needs and preferences.

QuestionPro’s geographic segmentation capability is vital for businesses seeking consumer insight, focused marketing, and growth. This product helps companies compete in today’s market with its sophisticated analytics and simple design.

LEARN MORE         FREE TRIAL

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Geographic Segmentation: Definition, Pros & Cons, Examples, and More

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Ever wondered why some marketing campaigns hit the mark while others completely miss it? The answer often lies in how well the target audience is understood, especially in terms of location.

Geographic segmentation is a powerful tool that allows businesses to tailor their marketing efforts based on geographical factors, ensuring messages, products, or services resonate with specific regions. This strategy not only adds value to your marketing activities but also ensures customers feel understood and catered to.

What is geographic segmentation?

Geographic segmentation divides a market into smaller units based on location—whether that’s countries, states, regions, cities, or even neighborhoods. Businesses can then adapt their marketing plans to suit the unique characteristics of each locale, considering factors like culture, climate, language, and local laws, all of which profoundly impact consumer behavior .

For instance, a clothing brand might heavily market its latest swimwear in warmer states during summer while promoting winter apparel in colder states. These tailored approaches significantly increase the chances of successful engagement with your target audience.

This strategy is crucial not just for meeting customer needs but also for shaping your organization’s approach to the marketplace. By understanding local market intricacies, geographic segmentation helps businesses expand their footprint more smoothly.

From global giants like Amazon and Apple to small local businesses, geographic segmentation allows precise targeting, making marketing efforts more effective and resource-efficient. In this article, we’ll explore why geographic segmentation is essential, its advantages and disadvantages, and how to conduct one using tools like Similarweb to gather geographic data.

The importance of geographic segmentation for your business

A solid marketing strategy is rooted in understanding the geography of your audience . Geographic segmentation plays a vital role in gaining this understanding.

Here’s why it’s crucial:

Messages that align with regional cultural values, language specifics, and interests are more likely to connect deeply with your audience. Beyond engagement, this creates a closer association with your brand. Customers are more loyal to companies that understand their unique challenges and preferences. For example, advertising winter tires in regions with harsh winters is far more effective than targeting sunny beach locales.

Cost efficiency

Another major advantage is cost efficiency. Marketing campaigns can be expensive, and without proper targeting, they might not yield a significant ROI. Geographic segmentation allows for more cost-effective resource allocation, focusing efforts where they matter most. This is especially beneficial for smaller businesses with limited budgets, enabling them to compete effectively by maximizing the impact of every marketing dollar.

Scalability

Scalability is key to growing a business. Once you’ve successfully tapped into one market, many of the same strategies can often be adapted for similar regions. Geographic segmentation simplifies this process, providing a framework for expansion based on previous successes.

For instance, a brand that succeeds in a state within the United States – for example, one that produces similar demographics and preferences – may then replicate many of the same strategies in another state, saving time and reducing the risks associated with new market ventures.

Local insights

Finally, local insights offer very useful information for localized marketing. Companies that understand regional tastes can, therefore, create products and services that are more attuned to the needs of locals. Customization of this nature brings across to the customer that their special needs are being attended to, which still further instills brand loyalty .

Advantages and disadvantages of geographic segmentation

While geographic segmentation offers numerous benefits, it also comes with some noteworthy challenges. Let’s dive into the pros and cons:

Geographic segmentation presents several benefits, which is why it’s one of the most preferable strategies for businesses in their quest to realize maximum profitability in their marketing processes. Some of the leading benefits of geographic segmentation include:

1. Increased profits

Well-aligned marketing strategies keep in mind the needs of the audience and may often lead to more profits. For instance, running localized marketing campaigns generally works much better than a one-size-fits-all marketing campaign. According to a report by MessageGears , 83% of consumers report that they prefer connecting with brands that offer hyper-personalized marketing messages. In such a scenario, personalized marketing finally translates into higher engagement from the customers, and hence, it leads to more sales.

2. Resource optimization

This technique helps companies target regions with maximum potential to execute marketing budgets effectively. They would avoid wastage in places where the engagement is less and focus on regions where their marketing messages will have maximum impact. This is very useful for startups and small businesses with limited budgets as it makes sure that every marketing dollar is well-spent.

3. Improved communication

Communication can be improved upon with deep knowledge of regional languages, dialects, and styles of communication. It’s at the root of any good marketing campaign, and knowledge about what to tell the local audience and how to say it helps. An advertisement run in Spain with some local highlights in Spanish is going to fare much better than a standard ad in English.

4. Customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is directly related to how well the products and services of a company meet local needs. Knowledge of these needs will help businesses make the right decisions on product offerings and service delivery.

For example, a beverage company can just add some flavors to suit the local taste, or a clothing brand can provide regional fashion styles. Such attention to detail may consign a very loyal customer base that feels understood and appreciated.

Disadvantages

While there are some advantages associated with geographic segmentation, it is also important to understand that there are some associated disadvantages:

1. Potential to overlook opportunities

This can be missing out on various other opportunities that arise. If too much focus is given to one area, it may cause a company to overlook untapped markets that offer enormous growth potential. This requires a delicate balancing act between spending time in areas of high potential and relatively unexplored areas and continuous market analysis . It is advisable to implement diversified approaches to make sure that the business does not put all its eggs in a single basket to avert this risk.

2. Complexity in management

Another challenge is the management complexity. Geographic segmentation has to deal with several marketing strategies for different regions, which can be complex and resource-intensive. The running of such concerted efforts calls for advanced logistics and a specialized team that may stretch the resources of the company to a breaking point. A number of these complexities can be reduced by using advanced marketing tools and platforms. However, the upfront investment may be huge.

3. Risk of stereotyping

The risk of stereotyping is another aspect of geographical segmentation. It’s easy to fall into the trap of generalizing about a region’s needs, assuming all people in a geographic area have similar tastes and preferences. Assumptions like these can be hallmarks of some pretty ineffective, or even counterproductive, marketing. Not every consumer in Texas wants cowboy-themed products, and not every New Yorker has an interest in high fashion. To avoid such pitfalls, detailed market research should be conducted to know the various needs in any given region.

Geographic segmentation variables and examples

Geographic segmentation depends on the likes of location, climate, culture, and population density, and this enables companies to fine-tune their strategies. These help companies localize effectively: Here are some good geographic segmentation examples:

Amazon shows very good use of geographic segmentation in its markets. The company operates many domains for different regions. The top five domains are amazon.com for the USA, amazon.co.jp for Japan, amazon.de for Germany, amazon.in for India, and amazon.co.uk for the UK.

This way, the company can tailor its product assortments, marketing messages, and promotions according to regional preferences. It better controls the supply chain as well as its region-specific deals.

Even retail brands like Zara segment their marketing tactics based on climate. They advertise winter collections in geographies having long winter conditions and make use of showcasing summer wear in the parts with warmer conditions. As see below, keywords and landing pages for winter clothes are more popular for areas such as South Korea, UK, and Japan. This aligns the product offerings with the seasonal needs of individual geographies, so they have higher relevance and more sales.

Global fast food chains such as McDonald’s have tailored their menus to suit the local flavor and cultural preferences. They have vegetarian options on the menu in India, as dietary practices are largely influenced by religious beliefs. The ‘Teriyaki Burger’ is their offering in Japan to connect with local flavor preferences.

Population density

Big brands like Nike practice market segmentation between urban and rural areas. For the heavily urbanized markets, like the US, UK and Germany, it launches lifestyle or fashion-oriented products; whereas in a more rural setting, the focus is ofen on sports apparel and outdoor gear.

How to gather geographic data using Similarweb

Similarweb provides a comprehensive market research tool to gather and analyze geographic data. This data can be used by businesses to make informed decisions. This platform can help in taking out geographic data through several modules.

1. Website Analysis

Using the Website Performance tool in Similarweb, you’ll be able to have an idea of the geographical traffic distribution for your competitor’s websites. Just input the domain’s URL to find out the countries driving the highest volume of traffic so you can later tune your marketing strategies accordingly. The main metrics for traffic include total visits, device distribution, and country and global rank.

• Total Visits: This is the sum of all visits to the domain within the selected timeframe.
• Device Distribution: This is the percentage of the traffic from desktop versus mobile devices.
• Global Rank: It is defined as the ranking of that particular website based on its highest summed value for monthly unique visitors and page views globally.
• Country Rank: This comes from a ranking within the top websites of the country. It is calculated as the largest sum of monthly unique visitors and page views altogether.
• Category Rank: It’s the maximum number of monthly unique visitors and page views across any site within a category representing the primary website.

You can use this data to benchmark against your competitors and could reveal growth opportunities in niche markets .

For instance, a fashion ecommerce website would learn that most of its competitor’s traffic comes from Europe. It would then consider regionally targeted marketing campaigns and optimize product listings for European fashion tastes.

2. Market analysis

In the Market Analysis module, an existing industry or custom industry can be looked at and the country traffic and engagement metrics taken into account. Key data points one could take away include:

• Country: Geographic location to which traffic is received for the analyzed segment.
• Traffic Share : The estimated percentage from each country targeted at the segment in comparison to the total website traffic.
• Visit Duration : Average length of a visit in hours, minutes, and seconds.
• Pages/Visit : This is the average number of pages per visit for your chosen period.
• Bounce Rate : The percentage of visitors to a particular site who leave just after viewing one page and do nothing else.

For example, an ecommerce company might have high bounce rates in one country and optimize the user experience of its website specifically for that region. Statistics on traffic share by country guide businesses to focus on regions that most contribute to their online presence.

3. Demand analysis

Using the Demand Analysis tool will enable you to generate a keyword list, view search traffic by country, and track micro trends to predict demand shifts across different areas of the world. Some of the features it comes with include:

• Demand Size: This lets you in on the significance and direction of the search demand for a topic. Trends are designated as growing (over 5 percent), stagnating (5 percent to -5 percent), or declining (over -5 percent).
• Demand Trend: You could monitor your search trends to determine what’s happening to the topic over time to know whether it’s peaking, growing, declining, or seasonal.
• Keyword Trends: Using this information, you will be able to see which of the keywords on your list is driving the most volume in search.
• Keyword Trends Summary: You can dive into this full list of keywords by seeing their search volume, percentage share, and change over time.

For example, a technology company might notice an increase in searches for a new product feature in one region. This insight helps to align product development and marketing strategies toward effectively meeting regional demand.

Tailoring your global marketing strategy to local needs

Geographic segmentation allows businesses to cater to regional preferences, resulting in more targeted offerings, improved customer satisfaction, and higher market penetration. It’s an effective way to optimize marketing ROI and ensure precise targeting.

With tools like Similarweb, you can gain insights that drive business growth through data-driven decisions . Leverage geographic segmentation to navigate market fluctuations and sharpen your strategies with a more granular view of geographical markets.

Start your data-driven geographic segmentation analysis today to:

• Gain a comprehensive understanding of your competitive landscape and identify key players in your target markets
• Track and analyze any website or app to boost online sales
• Discover competitors’ winning marketing strategies and their top-performing products

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The all-in-one solution for data-driven planning and competitor analysis.

What are some of the problems business organizations encounter in geographic segmentation?

Problems often associated with geographic segmentation include collecting and analyzing tons of geographic data, which can be complex, overgeneralizing regions, and extra costs incurred on the development of multiple campaigns localized in different regions. Moreover, region-specific strategies need to be developed and sustained through constant monitoring and prompt adaptations to keep up with the dynamic market conditions.

Can geographic segmentation work alongside other segmentation methods?

Yes, geographic segmentation combined with demographic , psychographic, and behavioral segmentation is a comprehensive market strategy. This will provide more insight into consumer behavior and preferences so effective marketing efforts can be applied.

How often should a business review its geographic segmentation strategy?

A review of geographic segmentation strategies should be done once a quarter or twice a year. In this way, the strategy will be updated and changed according to the shifting market conditions, consumer behaviors, and competitive landscapes . This will allow businesses to make adjustments promptly to major geographic preference shifts.

Which tools can support the collection and analysis of geographic data?

There are a host of geographic data mining and analysis tools at one’s disposal, ranging from Similarweb and Google Analytics to dedicated market research platforms. Enterprises can make use of these tools to gain full geographic insights into web traffic, consumer behaviors, and market trends across various regions and effectively tailor strategies.

How can geographic segmentation be used by businesses to improve customer satisfaction?

Businesses can serve customers better by offering products and crafting messages that meet the needs and preferences of different geographic segments. The product variety by region, customer service support localization, and marketing messages that reflect the local culture and values help to build more trusting and loyal customers.

by Monique Ellis

Content Marketing Manager

Monique, with 7 years in data storytelling, enjoys crafting content and exploring new places. She’s also a fan of historical fiction.

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What is geographic segmentation and how to put it to work.

12 min read Whether you’re a brand looking to go global, or a small business focusing more on the local, geographic segmentation is one of the most effective types of market segmentation. What is it, and how can you put it to best use?

What is geographic segmentation?

Geographic segmentation is a marketing strategy used to target products or services at people who live in, or shop at, a particular location. It works on the principle that people in that location have similar needs , wants, and cultural considerations. By understanding what people in that area require, brands can target more relevant marketing messages and suitable products to customers who are then aware and more likely to buy.

Why is it important to segment customers based on geographical variables?

• It makes your brand relevant : targeted marketing campaigns attract customers and increase revenue because they appeal to the needs and wants within a geographic location, triggering purchases.
• You save money : your marketing budget is more efficient when it offers appropriate and available products and services, rather than being wasted on promoting things that nobody needs
• It’s easy : Location information is objective, easy to measure and analyse, and cheaper than psychographic , demographic or behavioural segmentation
• Larger companies : can offer different or more relevant products in different geographic areas, and market them more efficiently there
• Smaller companies : can target marketing directly at their specific areas of interest and target audience , rather than taking an inefficient blanket approach

eBook: How to Drive Profits with Customer Segmentation

Geographic segmentation advantages

As you have a finite amount of money to spend on marketing, geographic segmentation will give you the best chance of successfully connecting with specific audiences. Here’s what it can do for your organisation:

• Increase profits: As geographic segmentation allows you to target specific audiences and deliver tailored marketing campaigns, you can generate profits faster while saving time and money.
• Drive growth : By targeting the right people, you can increase sales and drive business growth. Ensure you revisit your geographic segmentation regularly — especially when entering new markets or advertising new products — to get the best value from your campaigns.
• Focus efforts: Geographic segmentation allows you to target location-specific keywords and demands. This is incredibly useful if you’re operating with a smaller budget or want to develop awareness in a particular region.
• Improve communication : Every region has different needs, shopping habits and ways of doing business. Geographic segmentation takes into consideration the way people communicate within regions and communities. With this kind of insight, you can move forward with confidence and ensure a high engagement rate from the start.

Geographic variables (with geographic segmentation example list)

There are several geographic parameters (or types of market segmentation) you can use to focus your marketing efforts and target your customer base. Each geographic segmentation example explores the different variables, to give you a better picture of how to use it in practice in your target market.

This variable can impact geographic segmentation by covering a small area, like a neighbourhood, or a large area like a continent, with towns, cities, states and countries in between.

If companies have your location data, it may impact the kinds of sales ad messages you receive. For example, if you’re looking for nearby restaurants in New York City, then Google search results will use your location (based on your device’s IP address) to search for places to go in a small radius.

Another way products differ by location is through target market buying preferences. For example, Nike in the US is likely to focus on American football and baseball , while you’re unlikely to see American football or baseball commercials in Europe – you’ll see product ads for Soccer (Football in Europe) instead.

If you’re targeting a new geographic location with your segmentation strategy, ensure you understand the nuances of the regions you want to operate in!

Image Source: Nike

Climate segmentation involves selling products that are appropriate for the climate, weather, and season in a particular area. This means that the right products and services are chosen for the climate.

For example, if you’re planning a trip to Antarctica, warm clothes and boots will be crucial to keep you comfortable and safe. Therefore, if you’re a winter boots manufacturer like Cool Antarctica, your product marketing strategy revolves around targeting people who are searching for holidays in that region.

Image Source: CoolAntarctica

You may have to adapt your products to take account of cultural variations and sensitivities. In different countries and regions, it’s not culturally acceptable to serve certain products or some customs prescribe a certain dress code.

For example, with McDonald’s, the company takes into consideration cultural differences . In India, McDonald’s doesn’t serve any beef or pork in any form, in any of their outlets. Instead of ground beef and pork patties, the McDonald’s menu in India features Indian burgers that are 100% vegetarian.

The reason for this is that diets in India have been affected by different religions for centuries. Hindus don’t eat beef — and the cow is considered sacred. Since the majority of the population follows Hinduism, there’s no beef on McDonalds’ menu in India . There’s also no pork out of respect for Muslims.

Also, different countries will enjoy different flavours and often have unique items, such as Thailand McDonald’s (Samurai Pork Burger) vs. UK McDonald’s (Mozzarella Dippers).

An integral factor of your marketing efforts is understanding the potential customers within your geographic location. Population density or population type will help make effective marketing campaigns because you’re more likely to relate to and serve customers within your target audience groups.

A brand may choose to market in cities rather than rural areas because there are simply more target buyers, and urban distribution is easier. On the other hand, a Chinese grocery store would do more trade in a city area with South Asian communities, than in a less diverse rural farming village.

For example, in China and Japan, capsule hotels are an increasingly popular method of accommodation for Japanese citizens who want to keep costs low. For tourists, on the other hand, demand for traditional hotels is on the up.

Urban, suburban and rural

These different environments – across urban, suburban, and rural communities – require different marketing strategies.

Customer needs are different: e.g. a car manufacturer may target their smaller, electric vehicles at city and suburb dwellers, while rural customers may enjoy larger, four-wheel-drive cars.

Generally, customers in cities and suburbs have more purchasing power than rural areas, so products can be more expensive . The site Realtor.com recently ranked Salt Lake City as the No. 1 housing market positioned for growth in 2022 , providing a 15.2% year-over-year sales growth.

Image Source: Forbes

Not everyone can, or wants to, read marketing in English, Spanish, or Mandarin. It’s essential to use languages of targeted areas for labelling, online communication, and promotion. More than 20% of the population in the US speaks a language other than English at home, according to 2017 U.S. Census data .

There’s a lot of support for this with marketing platforms – for example, Google Ads says it offers language targeting, which lets you target your ads to potential customers who use Google products and third-party websites based on the languages those customers understand.

Language learning brand Berlitz used language misunderstanding very effectively to connect two geographic segments at once (German and English) in the famous TV ad about a new German Coastguard on his first day at work:

Examples of how organisations use geographic segmentation

There are many ways geographic segmentation might be applied in different scenarios, such as:

• A pool supplies manufacturer targets warmer, sunnier climates
• A liberal political action group has more success fundraising in the Pacific Northwest rather than the Southeast
• A clothing retailer adjusts its inventory according to the weather and styles of its store locations
• Restaurant chains customise their menus according to the local tastes and ingredients available in their areas
• Local businesses open locations in areas where the average income is appropriate for the price of their goods
• Home security companies may have more success focusing on high-crime areas
• Retail businesses are more likely to be successful in high-population areas
• Healthcare organisations may provide Spanish language service options in areas with large Hispanic communities

How to build a geographic customer profile

There are many tools that can help you layout a geographic segmentation strategy:

Survey research

One of the first tools businesses turn to in order to understand the geographic preferences of their customer base is to conduct survey research . Here are four survey research approaches you may want to consider:

• Take a random sample of your customer base and ask about their product preferences. Filter the results by region to breakout geographic preferences.
• Use conjoint analysis methodology to rank order product traits using trade-off questions and filter results by state or region to understand which regional differences exist.
• Test your messaging and advertising concepts with prospects in different areas to understand where different messages are well or poorly received .
• Survey your employees in different regions to understand how engagement may affect the customer experience they are providing per region.

Check your operational sales data to see where product sales are increased or decreased by region. Consider trends in seasonality to understand how they affect your sales by region. Combine your sales operational data with your customer experience and survey data to pick up trends by region.

Website data

Use web traffic tracking patterns by region to see where your traffic is coming from. Conduct analysis on the types of products that ship to various regions to pick up differences in purchase preferences.

Mobile usage data

Mobile devices present unique opportunities to better understand customers by very specific location – sometimes down to the foot. By using app-based location services available with most smartphones, you can send the right message at the right time with pinpoint accuracy.

Social media profiles

Social media data can provide tremendous insights into the location preferences of your customers and prospects. Many social media platforms even allow you to target messaging by area or zip code.

Secondary data sources

Many third-party technologies and agencies specialise in helping you to build and execute a geographic segmentation strategy. Claritas PRIZM , Carto , and ad platforms like Google and Twitter are often able to help you target the right prospects in the right locations.

Think and act like a local company

Overall, geographic segmentation is a strategy that is crucial for any organisation that provides services that vary based on regional factors like climate, local styles, distribution differences, channel availability, culture or values.

Employing an effective marketing plan based on geographic segmentation can be a key competitive advantage for organisations that understand how to ‘think local’.

For more on how you can use these types of market segmentation to reach your target market and target audiences, check out our eBook below.

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Related resources

Demographic segmentation 14 min read, market segmentation 21 min read, behavioural segmentation 20 min read, what is psychographic segmentation 11 min read.

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