Here’s a staggering statistic: 73 percent of U.S. consumers prefer to use their phone to search for local information.
Paid search marketers have understood that mobile is important for some time, but few are leveraging the power of mobile advertising tailored for local traffic.
Revenue-Boosting Mobile Campaign Elements for Local
If you aren’t using mobile-specific paid search ads, you’re doing it wrong. If the mobile game isn’t new to you, consider upping your game for local targeting.
Here are easy mechanisms to increase conversions on your AdWords mobile campaigns for local:
Google My Business
One of the easiest things which many PPC marketers aren’t utilizing is Google My Business (GMB, formerly Google Local). Paid search marketers can gain a ton of insight from GMB to inform PPC targeting strategy on AdWords, particularly for mobile campaigns.
Linking AdWords accounts with GMB automatically allows you to highlight business locations(s) within PPC ads on search (as a location extension):
The “Get Direction” button populates for linked campaigns in search as a location extension, information which comes directly from your GMB profile:
AdWords makes it really easy to link Google My Business Import your business location(s) from GMB into AdWords for location:
Why This Rocks:
Location extensions are an effective way to get people to your store, to increase offline conversions. If nothing less, location information is an ostensible differentiator on search.
- Pushes searchers to your store
- Highlights your store in search
- Insanely easy to link GMB and AdWords
- Information automatically populates from GMB
Local Google Shopping
Google is all about giving users as much relevant and useful information as possible. The more information you give Google, the more they can share with online shoppers and searchers. Local Google Shopping is useful way to provide useful location information in search.
Google gives you the option to highlight product availability in Google maps with Local Google Shopping, as seen below:
Local Google Shopping is a Google Shopping feature (not text PPC), so you’ll need to update your Google Shopping Campaign data (in the form of a local product feed) to reflect local information.
Why This Rocks:
Google Shopping is managed in AdWords, cozied right up there with your PPC campaigns. Utilizing data from Google Shopping to influence text ads and vice versa is convenient and often overlooked way to leverage your campaigns to push in-store and online conversions.
- Expand your Google Shopping presence on search
- Remove barriers to entry for in-store purchases which start online
- Provide useful user information in a search friendly format
Segment Campaigns With Store Locations
Seamless alignment with your local mobile campaign and stores is pivotal. Be sure each store location has its own campaign with a specific budget and strategy based on performance and analytics.
Segment and refine each one-store campaign to inform your store performance metrics, and determine brick-and-mortar sale correlation with particular mobile campaigns. In other words – find out what mobile campaigns are driving sales in specific store locations.
- Use GMB Location extensions for store location
- Segment campaigns in AdWords by store location
- Create specific budgets for each AdWords store campaign
- Correlate in-store sales reports
Bonus: Mobile Best Practices
To further enhance your local mobile ads, here are some useful mobile text ads optimizations you can leverage to increase online revenue.
- Write ad text that highlights mobile-specific specials or deals
- Use a mobile-optimized Display URL (Mobile.Cpcstrategy.Com)
- Keep descriptions short and sweet
- Make sure description line 1 flows with the headline (it’s always appended)