Is IP Targeting Digital Ads Right For My Business?

Published on
January 31, 2017
Contributors
Leslye Schumacher
Leslye@vicimediainc.com

Leslye Schumacher is a Founding Partner with Vici. Leslye’s background in media spans 25 years and includes working for both large and mid-size television, radio and newspaper companies. She has held positions in sales, management, marketing and NTR. Leslye has extensive experience in training salespeople and coaching managers. She is Google Analytics Advanced Certified, a Certified Radio Marketing Consultant and a Certified Sales Talent Analyst, having assessed over 10,000 media salespeople and managers. Leslye was the Vice President Of Talent Services for The Center For Sales Strategy before going on to start TalentQ Consulting and then Vici Media.

Subscribe to our newsletter
Read about our privacy policy.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Maybe…Maybe not. How do you know? First let’s start with what IP Targeting is. Many digital providers say they do IP Targeting but are referring to targeting small groups of IP addresses. (An IP address, or Internet Protocol Address, is the string of numbers your internet service provider assigns to your internet connection). That form of IP Targeting is really geo-targeting – targeting an area – like a neighborhood or a street. What we are talking about when we say IP Targeting is the ability to target specific households by matching the street address of a house (or business) to that house’s internet connection which is why we call it Household IP Targeting.

So back to the question – how do you know if your business should be using Household IP Targeting? The first thing to do is decide who is your ideal customer base that you want to target. Let’s say it is people who own homes worth $150,000+. For that type of target, you could use a product like Advanced Behavioral Targeting where we can choose behavioral categories based on income, home value, gender, or age. Maybe you want to target people who are searching for words related to what you sell. If that is the case, you could use Keyword Targeting. Or, perhaps you want to target people who own pets. That can be done by using an Ad Network of websites targeted to pet owners. All of those examples are ones where the type of person you want to target is a broad group – that is not when you use Household IP Targeting.Household IP Targeting is when you need to reach very specific households or businesses. For example, you want to reach previous or current customers to upsell them, and you have a database of their addresses. That database can be put through a matching process where we identify the IP addresses of households on that list and then only show your ads to those people.Another example of when you would use Household IP Targeting might be when you want to buy a list of very specific people to target. If your business wanted to target people who own a second home and are frequent vacation travelers – well that is VERY specific and would be a list that you would purchase to have matched for Household IP Targeting!Want to read more about how Household IP Targeting works? Click here for a great explanation.

Related Posts

Tips, guides, industry best practices, and news.
Category Link
What Digital Trends Should I Use In 2025?
We wanted to dig in and give you some insights into digital marketing trends that businesses should consider in 2025, focusing on strategies such as social media video, SEO (and how AI now impacts it and zero-click searches), and OTT (over-the-top) advertising.
Greg Swiszcz
May 14, 2025
Category Link
How Connected TV Caters to Holiday Shopping for Eager Consumers
The holiday shopping season is the Super Bowl of retail. Every brand, big or small, is vying for consumer attention, and traditional advertising methods just aren’t cutting it anymore. Enter Connected TV (CTV) and Over-The-Top (OTT) advertising, a game-changing strategy that allows brands to meet shoppers right where they are—on their favorite streaming platforms.
Allison Gibson
May 14, 2025
Category Link
How can I use Social Media Stories to promote my business?
Storytelling, one of society’s greatest tools in sharing the narrative that you want people to understand, has changed a lot since the days of fireside chats and Shakespearean stages. 
Greg Swiszcz
May 14, 2025