Google is testing a new demographic bidding feature for AdWords. Demographic bidding helps advertisers display ads to specific gender and age group audiences on some sites in the Google content network, giving advertisers more control over who their audience is and greater insight into how their ads perform with certain demographic groups.

Google will test this feature over the next few weeks with a selected group of advertisers in the U.S. and U.K.

Demographic bidding and reports are available to advertisers who run contextually targeted or placement-targeted campaigns (with CPC or CPM bidding) on certain sites in the Google content network. Here's how it works: Some publishers in Google's network, such as social networking sites, know the gender and age of their users because their users sign in with that information when they create a profile or fill out registration or subscription forms. Participating publishers anonymize this user reported demographic data and then send it to Google in aggregate form, allowing Google to adjust which ads are shown to members of specific demographic groups. (To protect user privacy, AdWords receives this data only from publishers that have permission from users to share their data according to the site's terms and conditions. Users are never identified personally, but only as anonymous aggregated data in the demographic reports. And to protect the privacy of minors, users under 18 can't be targeted demographically.)

There are two ways advertisers can use demographic bidding. First, they can modify their bids for a particular audience segment, such as increasing the bid for 25-34 year-old males by 230%. Second, they can ask that their ads not be shown to certain demographic groups if they aren't meeting their ROI goals.

If advertisers are not sure which demographic converts best for them, they can run Demographic Reports (found in the Report Center) to guide their bids for certain groups. These reports can show advertisers campaign performance metrics (including impressions, clicks, CTR, and conversion data) by the gender and age range of users who saw their ad. If there are demographic groups that convert well, advertisers can increase their bids for those groups, increasing the frequency their ad will be shown to this audience. Advertisers can also choose to have their ad hidden from groups that don't respond well to their campaign.

If you're an AdWords advertiser located in the U.S. or the U.K., you can take part in the demographic bidding beta test. You can see which partner sites offer this feature and learn how to get started by visiting https://services.google.com/demographicbidding/. Google plans to add advertisers on a rolling basis.