5 Tips To Drive More Local Customers From Your PPC Campaigns

For companies that have a brick and mortar store, or for those that have limited advertising budgets, targeting local people can be a cost-effective way of reaching new customers. More and more consumers are using local information to drive an action, especially when looking for directions or calling a phone number, and your business could fulfill this need when they’re searching. Here are 5 ways you can use Google AdWords to help drive more local customers: 1. Use Audience Targeting Based on Their Location Location targeting is a must for almost every paid search campaign but when focusing on local people, it is important to be very specific. You can target by country, TV regions, city, and even postcode. If driving footfall is your main aim, then you can use radius targeting (e.g. within 20 miles of your store) to be even more specific. 2. Show Adverts During Opening Business Hours As a consumer, there is nothing more frustrating than calling a company to ask a question and there is no answer or it goes to voicemail. Of course, this can’t be helped if they visit your website directly out of hours, but you can control when your ads show so be sure to set an Ad Schedule. Using ad scheduling will also help to prevent ad spend wastage too. 3. Use Local-Specific Advert Content Think with Google researched that four out of five consumers want their adverts to be location-specific and to include their city name or postcode. By creating adverts with locality and accurate information, potential customers can see the information they need without necessarily clicking your advert. If they do click, they’re more likely to do so because the information they have seen has triggered their urge to stay locally. 4. Use Call Extensions and Call-Only Ads Phone calls are important; really important. Phone calls are possibly the first time a customer will interact with your business but if you don’t show your phone number as part of your advert, they could call your competitor rather than you. The click to call feature is a well-known and well-used feature and your business should be using this feature within Google AdWords too. You can also use call-only adverts too if your main focus is phone calls and not clicks. 5. Use A Mobile-First Strategy In the same research from Think with Google, it highlights than 75 percent of people who search on their mobile device for something locally will visit a business within 1 day. People who search on their mobile are more likely to visit you when they’re already out and about too, so adding bid adjustments for mobile devices should be something you consider too.   If you’re looking to improve your local targeting, contact one of our experts today and see how we can help improve your campaigns.