5 Tips to Use for Local PPC-Pay Per Click Marketing Campaigns

Posted by MdImran on February 8th, 2018

Far too many small businesses tend to stay away from using pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, because they think it’s going to limit them to a certain geographical location. Understandably, the point of advertising is to make sure as many people as possible see your message.

However, PPC has incredible benefits for local businesses. First of all, with the rise of mobile popularity, people are looking at local businesses more than ever before. Plus, if you offer a product or service that has a competitor on the national level, it’s important to be realistic. You can’t compete with a global corporation immediately. With those factors in mind, utilizing local PPC can be very beneficial.

 Let’s look at five useful tips you can use to make local PPC work for you, and your business.

1. Make it Your Own

 Everything about your PPC campaign should be specifically targeted toward a certain audience. If you only offer generic information, that specific audience likely won’t respond as well as you might hope. However, you have an advantage - as a local business, it’s likely that you know your audience better than anyone else. Therefore, you can create campaigns that would appeal to a local consumer.

 So, instead of generalities, use segmented ads to make sure you’re offering the right information and the right location. For example, if you happen to own a hardware store, a great key phrase could be something like, “hardware store in Tulsa.”

 You’ll also want to make sure your PPC marketing campaign sends people to the right landing page. This is extremely important if you have multiple locations. Think locally, not globally. It may not be easy to ‘think small’ when you’re trying to grow your business, but the more capable you are of hitting a local targeted audience, the more success you’ll see.

 2. Focus on Long Tailed Keywords

 Long tailed keywordsare short phrases that are very specific to what you’re offering. When you consider that your potential customers are looking for something in a specific location, long tailed keywords become more important than ever.

 Make sure that the campaign you run serves those who are closest to you in proximity. It may lower your overall search numbers, but you’ll be getting an audience who is more targeted, and likely more interested in your business. A wider search range may give you more numbers, but you probably won’t see a great turnover.

 3. Use Negative Keywords

 If you’ve never heard of negative keywords, it’s important to get familiar with the concept as quickly as possible. Most of the time, we focus on keywords that users will be searching for in order to lead them to our website. However, sometimes those keywords are attached to other related keywords, and if they aren’t related to your campaign, it can do more harm than good.

 Again, let’s say you run a hardware store. But, your store doesn’t sell hammers. Hammer would be considered a related keyword, so people can assume your store has it. If they come into the store only to find you don’t carry hammers, you’re likely to be met with a frustrated customer. By adding ‘hammer’ to your negative keyword list, you exclude the people who are looking for hammers, and targeting your audience even more.

 4. Add Location Extensions

 You might already know about ad extensions, but it’s important to not forget about location extensions. Location extensions are an imperative piece of the puzzle when it comes to a quality ad. They allow you to include things like your business name, address, phone number, etc. When you’re working with local advertising, being able to showcase that kind of information in an ad is very beneficial.

 Make sure you’re set up with a Google My Business account. This will make it easy to ensure your location is visible within your ads, whether people are searching on a computer or mobile device. Google typically gives preferences to businesses who utilize their tools, as well, so you’re doing yourself an even bigger favor by taking advantage of their services.

 5. Include Call Extensions

 Because most people search on a mobile device nowadays, it’s important to make sure they can contact your business instantly. Like location extensions, call extensions can be included in your ad, and will simply ‘attach’ a call button, where people can contact you during their search.

 If your correct business information is included in your PPC ad, along with a call extensions, you’re creating a great opportunity for customers to connect with you.

 You can even take your call extensions one step further, by using a Google forwarding number instead of your actual business number. When you do this, you can better keep track of the calls coming in from your searches. It will give you a better idea of just how effective the call extension is.