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digital pr online pr tech pr Technology PR

IT Pro: your grandfather’s computer magazine?

I’ve written before about using Google’s Ad Planner as a PR planning tool. In the original version, detailed demographic information about site visitors was only available for the US – now you can get this data for the UK as well.

And it is quite an eye opener.

If we take IT Pro as an example, according to Google Ad Planner, nearly 65pc of readers are aged 45 or over. Indeed, nobody under 25 appears to visit the site. And 10pc of readers are aged over 65 (perhaps proof that some IT workers remain interested in technology in retirement – or are having to keep working for financial reasons).

Computer Weekly by contrast appears to have a more youthful audience – the majority of CW online readers are under 45. Computer Weekly also seems to have more female readers than IT Pro (both in percentage and absolute terms because CW appears to have a higher readership}.

The point of all this is that it shows again how Google is providing insightful data that can make a big impact on how you approach planning a digital/online PR programme. This kind of detailed demographic information has never really been available – and smart PRs will be able to use this to develop more relevant content for the sites most appropriate to their target audiences.

And perhaps IT Pro might consider a bigger type size to cater for the poor eyesight of its older demographic?

2 replies on “IT Pro: your grandfather’s computer magazine?”

Interesting. In B2B, older probably = more budgetary power. Or at least I’m sure Barry Cronin at Dennis would argue that.

Different in consumer, of course. (Presence of kids = less discretionary spend.)

But… do you happen to know Google’s methodology? How do they mine the demographics? I’m just sceptical…

Peter

Here’s what Google says: “Google Ad Planner combines information from a variety of sources, such as aggregated Google search data, opt-in anonymous Google Analytics data, opt-in external consumer panel data, and other third-party market research. The data is aggregated over millions of users and powered by computer algorithms; it doesn’t contain personally-identifiable information.

In addition, Google Ad Planner only shows results for sites that receive a significant amount of traffic, and enforces minimum thresholds for inclusion in the tool. For more information about how Google protects privacy, please refer to our privacy policy.”

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