Running Google Ads allows local businesses to display their products and services in front of potential customers quickly and easily. The days of billboards, TV commercials and print ads are long gone. Today the platform of choice for businesses and consumers are online platforms such as Google Ads that support brands in their product and service marketing.
There are marked changes in consumer shopping behavior today. Consumers look for information about a business online before they decide to head down to the physical store or the business location. So local brands need to ensure that their business is in front of consumers in their exact moment of need and in all the places that are frequented by target consumers.
For these reasons, Google Ads can be the perfect fit for local businesses that have to cater to an increasingly growing online target audience.
However, many local businesses often hesitate when it comes to using Google Ads as a part of their online marketing strategy. Small marketing budgets is one of the main reasons why small and local businesses often decide to forgo using Google Ads. Without the right planning and due to misplaced priorities, local businesses might find their Google Ads campaigns spend spilling beyond the limitations of their marketing budgets.
If this is an issue you are facing with your local business Google Ads campaign, then here are seven highly effective strategies for running Google Ads that not only generate brand awareness but also help convert leads into sales for your local business.
1. Update your Google Business profile
A Google Business Profile is a necessary tool for any local business that wants to dominate its local markets. So be sure to claim and update your Google Business Profile. Also remember, connecting your Google Business Profile to your Google Ads account is necessary for pushing your ads in map placement and other relevant local search results.
Your Google Business Profile, previously known as “Google My Business,” can help you manage your online presence in a way that makes it easy for target audiences to quickly and easily discover your local business. Providing highly relevant, correct, and important information about your local business can help
boost your brand credibility. It can also help in boosting your local business discoverability.
Setting up your Google Business Profile is easy and simple. The process involves updating your Google Business Profile with important information such as your local business. This includes your location, contact details, your business hours, a link to your website, and other important information such as pics and videos or any other relevant information about your local business.
In addition, you can use your Google Business Profile to set up messaging for your local business or set up customer reviews and even get a business email for your local business.
2. Run a Local Campaign in Google Ads
Running a local campaign in Google Ads can deliver on your primary goal of getting people to visit your business and convert leads into sales by showing your local business ads to potential customers who are close to or near your location.
The major plus with digital tools like Google Ads is that it runs your local campaigns in the period when your consumers are actively looking for information on your business products and services. So it doesn’t matter even if your business is not open when your customers are searching for your local business products and services – you can simply schedule and automate your local Google Ads campaign to run during the hours when your target audience is most active to reap positive benefits.
Setting up your local Google Ads campaign is easy – all you have to do is to update your campaign with information about your store location, add videos and pics, use the right kind of ad text, and then fix your campaign budget. With this information, Google will automatically optimize your ad placement, your bids, and also ad combinations.
Google will optimize the reach and scope of your local business Google Ads campaign via the following;
- Search Engine Results Pages.
- Google Maps.
- Google Display Network.
- YouTube
3. Drive your Google Ads Remarketing with Google Analytics
Remarketing ads can help you achieve several goals; they can keep your local business brand in the forefront of your target audiences, they can help you connect with the most relevant audience sections, and they can boost your conversion rates.
Most importantly, you can save both money and effort while enjoying sales at a lower cost per conversion rate with higher returns. The best returns with remarketing ads come via visitors who have spent at least ten seconds or more on your site. You want to reach out and connect with these visitors as they come with higher conversion potential. And one of the most effective ways of targeting these visitors is via Google Analytics.
While your Google Ads tracks the ad clicks your local business gets, Google Analytics can offer you information on what happens after someone clicks on your ads. So in addition to collecting important intelligence on the type of visitors you should target, Google Analytics can also provide information on other important metrics like your bounce rate, the average session duration in seconds, pages per session, and the percentage of new sessions.
All this data can help you gain a clear picture of your target audience and help you optimize your bidding strategy and the kind of keywords, or even negative keywords to use.
4. Local-Friendly Ad-Extensions
If you want to boost your local business Google Ads campaigns, then one key area of focus is local-friendly Ad extensions.
If you use Ad extensions – great!
If you are new to them, here are some of the top reasons why you should give Ad extensions for your local business a try.
Consider the following;
- Local ad extensions can convince your potential customers that you have what they require – and this can happen with just one single click! How? Well, one of the advantages of using Ad extensions is that you can include other information that you missed including in your ad messaging. And this matters because, if you can meet the requirements of that one customer, then it means you have a guaranteed sale on your hands.
- You should also know that adding ad extensions can impact your quality score since both your CTR and ad relevance will boost the ad rank.
- Ad extensions lend a greater degree of authenticity to your ad. Since potential customers are provided with important business information such as your local business location, and phone number among other pertinent information, they know your business is real.
- Ad extensions can boost your CTR (click-through rate) because your ads display highly relevant information. For example, displaying location extensions to a customer who is searching for a local business in your area, can lead that customer to take immediate action.
So by using Ad extensions, you can provide potential customers with more relevant information that can drive the number of clicks and calls you get and also lead to a greater number of customer interactions.
5. Create Google Ads Copy that Generates More Clicks
One of the success metrics of your local business Google Ads campaign is a higher number of clicks or a higher click-through rate (CTR) for your local business.
However, creating Google Ads copy that can deliver more clicks can be challenging. Every single character counts – so you need to ensure that you are making the best use of your Ad copy.
To help you ace your Google Ads Copy, here are a few tips on how you can create a compelling Google Ads copy for your local business;
- Create ad groups with one to three highly relevant and related keywords – this will ensure high relevancy and also drive user understanding of your Ad messaging.
- Make sure that your landing page has keywords that match the keywords and search intent of your Google Ads copy.
- Repeat keywords only twice or thrice throughout your ad copy.
- For multiple keywords, pick the keyword with the highest volume in the headline of your landing page and use it.
- Use a call-to-action in your ad copy. When using CTAs, make sure you first test the CTA placement with different ads within the headline and in your ad’s description text.
6. Optimize your Keyword Strategy with Localized Search Terms
If you are running a local business and you are running an ad for your business, you probably might use generic keywords and phrases describing your services and business. Your target will be potential customers within a set location or radius of distance.
However, you should also look at how you can include localized search terms in your ads.
These can include;
- Your City.
- Your ZIP code.
- “Near me.”
- Other location indicators.
Localized search terms matter when you have competition from other big brands within your local market. By using localized search terms in your ads, you can get your local business campaign in front of potential customers who are specifically searching for your keywords in your location right now.
When you use localized search terms, it tightens your target area so your ads are displayed to the most relevant group of users. But when you use generic terms in your ads, it automatically increases the radius of your target area and potential group of customers. The disadvantage here is that Google will display your local business ads to a wider audience – an audience that might not necessarily convert into sales.
- To prevent this from happening, go to your ad campaign setting and click on the Locations option.
- Then select the option “People in or regularly in your targeted locations.”
When you do this, Google will then display your ad only to users who are currently in your estimated location.
7. Run a Brand Campaign in Google Ads
A great way to boost your local business in search results is by running a brand campaign.
What is a brand campaign? Simply put, a brand campaign is a search campaign that utilizes your local business’s branded keywords. These can include your local business name, your product and possibly service names, common or popular misspellings of your brand. It could also include the names of your team members.
Here’s what Google has to say about running brand campaigns in Google Ads – “The purpose of a brand-engagement campaign is to build awareness of and positive associations with your company and its products and services. A customer can interact with your brand in a variety of ways, including watching videos, playing games, spending time on your website, or communicating with other customers.”
Running a brand campaign can help ensure that anyone searching for your local business brand can easily view your site above any organic listings.
The top 5 benefits of running a brand campaign in Google Ads;
- When you run a brand campaign, it can boost your local business presence in local SERPs.
- Google will direct all the traffic in your direction since you are the owner of your branded names and keywords.
- It can boost your brand visibility both in paid search results and organic results – in turn, this can help build brand credibility in front of potential customers.
When running a brand campaign on Google Ads, the use of ad extensions can increase the size of your ad – chances are it can get you more clicks. - Did you know that your competitors or unscrupulous business owners can bid on your branded name and steal your stream of potential customers? By running a brand campaign, you can beat these competitors by bidding on your own branded names. This is possible because Google allows brands to bid on their keywords at a much lower cost compared to their competitors.
If you have the marketing spend, then you should consider running a brand campaign for your local business in Google Ads.
In Conclusion
As a local business, you probably know how stiff the competition is getting within your local market area.
Beating local competing businesses, especially big players with big marketing budgets, can be challenging on a limited marketing budget.
However, online platforms like Google Ads can help in leveling the playing field. The key lies in knowing how to use Google Ads to your advantage.
The strategies listed above can help you enjoy success in your local business Google Ads campaigns and also help you dominate your local market space.
If you are confident in mastering Google ads for your local business, then go ahead by all means. On the other hand, if you are not sure and think you might need help, you might want to consider partnering with a digital marketing and SEO expert to help drive your local business Google Ads campaign.
