The following post is authored by Andrew Lolk at White Shark Media.
Optimizing AdWords campaigns for local companies is a completely different task than managing AdWords for an e-commerce or lead generation website. The challenges differ in such a way that the tips that work for e-commerce rarely work for local, and vice versa.
At White Shark Media, we have divided our Search Specialists between local and AdWords segments in order to make sure they get to the highest level of competence possible within their individual areas.
It’s not easy to find specific information about how to optimize your local AdWords campaigns. This is one of the reasons why I’ve teamed up with DialogTech to bring you some proven tips to improve AdWords performance for local advertisers.
The tips will work for anyone working with a local business, no matter if you’re only cover a 15-mile radius around your office or if you cover several states.
1. Set Your Location Targeting to Only Cover Your Local Area
When you set the location targeting for your AdWords campaign, remember to set it to target the area you are actually able to service. Too many service providers opt to cover the entire state to make sure they get shown whenever someone searches for their service.
Don’t make that mistake.
Focus only on the areas you are willing to drive in order to provide the service. I highly advise you to not go too far in an attempt to draw in extra traffic. Start out narrow and expand as needed.
Bonus: A recent study showed that you get the most precise targeting by excluding nearby areas you don’t want to be shown in. This can be a city on the other side of a bay, or other areas close to your location, but that for some reason you don’t want to drive to.
2. Enable Keyword-Level Call Tracking and Conversion Tracking for Your Website
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is not enabling keyword-level call tracking with providers such as DialogTech. At White Shark Media, we decided a long time ago to include call tracking in all our AdWords management plans and we haven’t regretted it all.
DialogTech was later introduced as our main partner within keyword-level call tracking due to their excellent service, but more importantly they also enabled the opportunity to integrate our data with Google Analytics. This means that we can get your call data directly into Google AdWords. For someone who works with AdWords everyday, this is invaluable. I can’t explain how much time I’ve wasted switching from interface to interface trying to calculate cost-per-call pricing while using other call tracking providers.
Keyword-level call tracking ensures you can see how many calls each individual keyword and ad produces. This is crucial information for you to optimize your AdWords campaigns.
3. Set Up a Process to Import Your Offline Conversions
One of the latest features from Google AdWords is the ability to upload the value of each conversion that happens offline. Most local businesses operate offline. The businesses might get leads online via their website or calls generated through online marketing, but the sale is closed on the phone or in-person.
Google has recognized this limitation and recently introduced the possibility to upload your conversion data to AdWords. This will enable you to know how each individual keyword actually converts.
You can read more about the feature here and learn more about how to actually work with the offline AdWords conversion tool here.
4. Make Use of Local Keywords With Cities, Zip Codes, and Other Relevant Locations
When it comes to AdWords, the biggest advantage local businesses have over e-commerce businesses is that local businesses have much more opportunity to target highly relevant buyers.
When a buyer is searching for cheap carpenter on Google, he might just be browsing or he might actually be looking for a carpenter to hire. However, when a buyer is looking for a carpenter in Miami, Florida by searching cheap carpenter in Miami fl and you are a cheap carpenter in Miami, Florida, then he’s definitely a prospect you need to get in front of.
By bidding aggressively for keywords that contain cities, zip codes, the state, or even local areas, you can get in front of buyers who are ready to take advantage of your service right at the moment.
I’ve built numerous local AdWords campaigns where our only keywords were keywords with local modifiers (city, zip code, state). They’re that effective.
5. Only Use Broad Match Modifier and Exact Match Keywords
When setting up your campaign, avoid using broad match. You might be inclined to do it in order to get more clicks (some actually recommend using broad match), but it will not work. All you’re going to do is waste your money.
6. Refrain From Using Single-Worded Keywords
In the beginning of your campaign, I highly advise you steer clear of single-worded keywords like:
- Carpenter
- Landscaper
- Plumber
- Locksmith
You get the point. The CPCs for these keywords are normally super high and you have a very tough time deciphering their intention. Someone searching for the word landscaper can be looking for pictures, salary information, job opportunities, or he can be looking to hire a landscaper. You don’t know, which is my point.
Start with the keywords you can decipher their intention behind the search. As you expand your campaign, you should definitely look to include the single-worded keywords from your industry. They can produce a high amount of leads, but you need to ensure you are ready for them.
7. Include Your Location in Your AdWords Ads
When advertising locally, one of the most important tasks you have is to show your target audience that you can serve their area. Some advertisers make the mistake of simply listing their office location in their ads, but that can turn some people off.
If you are targeting a bigger area (say 50 miles), you will, in many cases, be covering several cities, each having their own local service providers. This causes a glitch between you and other companies. If a buyer needs to choose between the guy just down the corner and the guy who is 30 miles away, the choice is simple for them. The buyer might not call you because he does not know you cover his local area and that you would gladly drive the 30 miles to do the job.
Don’t let the buyer make that decision for you. Clearly define the areas you want to target to ensure you are the first option in buyers’ mind. On the other hand, setting specific target areas and including your location in your ads will spare you from getting clicks from buyers you don’t want to service.
Use The Name of The City You’re Targeting Instead of Your Own: Instead of using your own location in your ads, consider using the city you’re targeting. Consider the following two ads:
You’re sitting in Dallas and you’re looking for a carpenter to do some housework. Which ad would you click?
Seeing that the second guy is in Houston and he is showing up, then you’re 95% sure he can do the job in your local area. However, you are 100% sure that the guy from the first ad can do your job, because he is closer to your house. The 5% difference is enough to make you click the first ad rather than the second one.
Remember you need to be present for the individual buyer who is searching for your service. It’s not enough to be close you need to be where they are.
8. Mobile Is Crucial for Most Local Service Companies
Search traffic from smartphones is increasing every day. Matt Cutts from Google in the SES SF conference in September said that within a year, smartphone traffic on Google would be higher than desktop traffic.
Read that again. You will get more traffic from mobile than from desktops before the end of 2014. Are you ready for this? Do you have a mobile-friendly website? Are your ads mobile-optimized? And do you have a direct strategy for taking advantage of this huge opportunity?
Don’t forget about mobile. Mobile is here to stay and the longer you ignore it, the more you will give business away to the competitors who have already embraced it. It will be like when the Internet first came out. The ones who get on mobile the fastest will benefit the most.
9. Close or Restrain Your Ads in Hours/Days You Can’t Receive Calls
Google AdWords has this wonderful feature called Ad Scheduling. What Ad Scheduling does is to help you control at what times and days your ads are showing. Through the Ad Scheduling feature, we are also able to increase or decrease our bidding according to how many calls we get at specific times.
One of the biggest advantages for you as a local business owner is being able to automatically stop your ads in the times when there is no one available to answer new customer enquiries. If you’re running your own shop and you always help the kids with their homework between 5 pm. and 6 pm, you are able to automatically shut off the ads for this time frame.
It All Starts With Tracking
You might be thinking: of course he ends the post talking about tracking. The company offers call tracking, duh!. However, if you take a look at all my other blog posts, tracking is an element I include in every single blog post about optimizing AdWords campaigns.
You need to implement the relevant tracking to know what parts of your AdWords campaign are actually producing results. It doesn’t work if you just have a feeling for what your campaign is generating. You need to know.
Once you can tell what parts of your campaign are actually generating calls and email contacts, you are able to invest more in those areas.
I hope you enjoyed this post on PPC tips for local business. Please share it on Google+ and Twitter even if you don’t want your competitors to know.