Pay per click advertising can be extremely advantageous for local marketers. While some believe that PPC advertising is only beneficial for big-box or online retailers, many local retailers have discovered that online advertising brings name recognition, enhances credibility, and drives store traffic. It is important, however, to approach a local PPC campaign with specific local strategies and to continually monitor the campaign’s effectiveness to get the most from it.
Google research shows that shoppers are inspired to visit a local retail location after finding information such as store hours and location, or product availability and price.
“A common myth is that as a result of searching online, shoppers will only visit e-commerce sites. In reality, three out of four shoppers who find local information in search results helpful are more likely to visit stores.”
PPC advertising can be a great way to make sure that your business is seen by local shoppers. If done right, your investment in pay per click advertising can provide big returns to enhance your bottom line. Here are 4 ways to make the most of your local PPC campaign:
- Study your competitors – Before you even begin, study your competition. Are they running PPC ads? What messages are they including in their ads? If your competitors are having success with PPC advertising, use their messaging as a starting point, then think about what you do better than they do as a business. If you have better stock, pricing, or customer service, mention that in your ad text.
- Target your ads to local users – Targeting your ads is critical in making the most of your local PPC campaign and budget. You can use geo-targeting to make sure that only users in your service area see your ads. This is important because a lot of irrelevant ad impressions will adversely impact your rankings over time.
- Schedule your ads – If your business gets considerably more traffic on certain days of the week or at specific times of day, consider increasing your bids for that time of day. By setting up an ad delivery schedule, you can increase or decrease bids for certain times, or pause ads completely at times that are not advantageous.
- Track conversions – The ability to track conversions is a great tool for measuring the effectiveness of your PPC advertising. You can measure how many phone calls you get from your ads, how mail email list sign ups you get, or how many online sales result from your ads. In addition to tracking your conversions, you should keep an eye on the campaign performance data provided by Ad Words and Bing to see what is working with your campaign and what isn’t.
PPC advertising can offer many advantages. When comparing pay per click advertising with other types of local marketing like flyer ads and direct mail, one of the biggest advantages is that you know what you are getting for your investment. PPC is an easy form of advertising because you can test, tweak, and adjust to maximize your campaign performance as you go.
Wondering if PPC is a good fit for your local marketing plan? Contact us to discuss your goals.