How to promote a local business in Google Ads?

If you want to promote your local business in Google Ads, the first and most important thing you should take care of if you have a local business is to set up and optimize your Google business card in Google My Business. Admittedly, a business card is not a method of promotion in Google Ads, while it is such an important part of local marketing that it would be a sin not to mention it. 

How to promote a local business in Google Ads –Google business card

A business card is a profile displayed in a search engine and on Google maps. Among other things, it contains the name of the company, opening hours, address, contact information, etc. Most importantly, it also includes reviews from customers who have used the company’s offerings. 

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Users looking for local services or products usually use a search engine to do so. Therefore, the winner is the one that meets two criteria: 

1. will get found – in other words, he will take care of the visibility of his company. In order for a Google business card to be visible, it should be fully filled out. It should include all contact information, a description of your company and the services you provide, as well as your address. In your business card you can share photos and your company logo. With the help of photos, you will show the nature of your company, as well as present your store’s offerings or past service implementations. The more information, the better! 
2. perform better than the competition – in this case, the ratings and reviews you can collect in the business card are decisive. Customers rate the company on a scale of 1-5, and they can annotate the rating with a short comment. If you operate locally and have direct contact with your customers, ask them directly to give feedback in the business card. Customers looking for local businesses often compare them with each other based on ratings, so these are critical in the final stage of selection. Customer reviews also add credibility to your business, making customers more likely to use your business.

If you want your business card to get noticed and have a high search engine ranking, take a look at our resource titled “How to position your Google business card and get more customers?“.

If you’ve got your business card setup behind you, it’s time to take advantage of paid forms of promotion to increase the visibility of your business on Google. You will achieve such an effect with Google Ads, a dedicated platform for advertising on Google’s services.

How to promote your local business in Google Ads – search

Probably the most effective form of promotion in Google Ads is to increase search engine visibility. As I mentioned earlier, it is through the search engine that customers most often look for local businesses. Therefore, the main pillar of promoting a local business in Google Ads should be a search campaign, i.e. a search campaign.

Configuring such a campaign you will start by creating a list of keywords, i.e. such phrases, when typed into a search engine, your company’s ad will be displayed. The list should include words related to the products or services offered by your company. This way, when a user types a phrase related to your business into a search engine, such as “bicycle service,” your ad will be displayed at the top of the results. If you don’t know which keywords to use, you can support yourself with the keyword planner, available in the Google Ads interface. It’s a simple tool that will tell you how much you’ll pay on average for clicks on a particular phrase and how often such a phrase is searched for in a given area. On our site you will find a comprehensive guide on this “How to create a search campaign from scratch“.

Remember to use local keywords in the pool, i.e. keywords that contain your company’s area of operation. Such phrases are often cheaper and have a higher volume of searches.

Take note of the following.

When setting up your campaign structure, divide it into several ad groups, such as those containing local phrases, generic phrases and service/product phrases. This will give you precise information about their effectiveness and make it easier to optimize the campaign later.

An important part of setting up a local campaign is taking advantage of geotargeting capabilities. Google Ads allows you to display ads in a given area, such as a city district or a radius from a given point. This is a great way to limit the display of ads to audiences who will potentially be too far away to take advantage of your company’s offer. Consider the distance your potential customers will be willing to travel and set the restriction to display ads only to them.

Performance Max campaign for stationary stores

If you own a stationary store, it would be ideal for you to take advantage of a Performance Max campaign, which is geared toward increasing sales in such stores. This type of campaign is designed to help companies give potential customers the information they need to decide when and how to visit their stores. 

To set up such a campaign, you need to link your Google Ads account to your Company Profile, or business card. Setting up the campaign itself is trivial. All you need to do is specify the location of your store, define the campaign budget and add ad components (graphics, ad text, etc.). With this data, AI technology from Google will optimize rates, ad destinations and component combinations. Ads from this campaign will be able to display on various Google services, including Google Search and Ad Networks, Maps, Gmail and YouTube. 

Campaigns-reach

If you are already using the above solutions and have taken care of your search engine visibility, you can try to reach new audiences with reach campaigns. These include GDN banner campaigns and Video.

Promote your local business in Google Ads – GDN

Graphic Display Campaign (GDN) is an excellent tool for building a company’s image online, or informing customers about new products or services. Display ads will help promote a company when potential customers are browsing the web, watching YouTube videos, checking their Gmail accounts or using websites or mobile apps. The possibilities for display ads within this campaign are virtually unlimited. Google’s ad network reaches more than 90% of Internet users worldwide. You can display ads on blogs and Google pages, such as Gmail and YouTube, as well as on news portals or specific websites, such as those related to the topic of your product or service. You can also limit this type of campaign in terms of display on a particular location.

Promote your local business in Google Ads – video

Video campaigns allow you to display ads in videos on YouTube and on sites and apps in Google’s network of video partners. Some types of video campaigns help increase brand awareness, while others are designed to increase conversions or encourage users to buy from the site. The implementation and management of these types of campaigns is trivial, so the setup should not cause problems for even low-level users. 

If you are wondering what type of campaign you should choose, you can read our article titled “Google Ads – what type of campaign to choose?“. In it, you will find a description of each type of campaign and tips on the circumstances in which you should use a particular solution.

There are many ways to advertise a local business, and Google Ads is just one of them. Their effectiveness depends on a variety of factors, which should be taken into account even at the stage of planning activities. If you want to be sure that your actions will bring the expected results, use the services of Digital Agency The agency primarily deals with the planning and implementation of online marketing activities. These can consist of brand building, search engine advertising, public relations, creating marketing communications, optimizing online campaigns or data analytics. The agency’s marketing department will assess budget allocation, recommend solutions in ppc advertising and make any changes to the website.