Local PPC Advertising or geotargeting is an online paid lead generation tool focusing on a specific area. It could be a city, state, zip code, neighbourhood, or a custom local radius. In a world of digital marketing, local PPC is a new way to approach your targeted nearby customers. In local PPC strategy, you can target your advertising efforts directly towards specific locations to their interests and needs.
What is Local PPC?
Local PPC is paid online advertising designed to target your audience within a specific region. Primarily, the strategy involves using local keywords and geotargeting.
What is the benefit of PPC directing your ads to a particular geographic area rather than reaching an international audience? With standard PPC, potential customers across the web will get to view your ads, but this is ideal, especially for start-ups and smaller companies.
International or standard PPC campaigns will put you against large companies worldwide with huge advertising funds. Because of this, your ad groups will likely be blown out of the water. The results? High ad spends with low sales.
On the other hand, local PPC targets local audiences. You are trying to convert audiences who live in a particular geographic area and are competing against local brands with similar ad budgets. So, a local PPC plan is an effective way for small businesses to use digital marketing to optimize their ad spend.
PPC is used to achieve different types of marketing goals, such as:
- Getting new customers
- Generating leads
- Getting people to know a brand
How Does Local PPC Work?
The better you can time your ads and align yourself with your local target audience, the more you’ll tune in with their needs and interests. Targeting will gain new customers, increase lead generation, and dominate search engine results pages (SERPs) with local campaigns. In addition, local PPC advertising is no exception to the universal rule of search marketing because knowledge is power.
Leveraging local ad extensions will help in this strategy. Local PPC Advertising reaches nearby customers. It uses advanced targeting techniques, such as location extensions, location-specific keywords, and radius targeting.
These strategies help us focus our ads on a specific geographic region, ensuring people see them in that area. Let’s consider an example. Let’s say I’m visiting a friend who just moved to the UK, and we’re looking for a bite to eat after a long day of unpacking. I search for the best restaurants near me, and a list of nearby eateries pops up. This is local SEO at work!
Local businesses that attract customers to their physical stores can utilize local PPC campaigns to generate foot traffic. Local PPC comes in and helps businesses connect with potential clients more likely to visit their store and convert into paying customers.
How to Create a Local PPC Strategy?
Crafting an effective local PPC strategy can be a game-changer for your business’s success. Achieving success in advertising demands a blend of expertise, experimentation, and meticulous testing. Even minor adjustments can yield substantial results. To aid you in making a local impact and enhancing your marketing outcomes, we’ve compiled seven valuable tips to help you connect with your desired audience.
Tip 1: Identify your target audience
Targeting a local audience may initially seem counterintuitive, but it can be highly advantageous for your brand. By focusing on a specific geographic area, you avoid competing with international giants and instead reach a niche audience genuinely interested in your offerings.
Local PPC campaigns effectively reach the right audience without the extensive keyword and demographic research required by other digital marketing channels like SEO, PPC, and eCommerce. Once you’ve identified the areas generating the most business, you have the data to kickstart a local pay-per-click campaign.
Consider this example: If you run a pizzeria in Melbourne, Australia, using a standard PPC campaign to reach a global audience could be more efficient. For instance, only some people in Canada would be interested in visiting your Melbourne-based pizzeria. However, by running a local PPC campaign exclusively for Melbourne, you connect with potential customers who can quickly drop by for lunch.
Tip 2: Conduct keyword research
Start your keyword research by brainstorming potential topics and key phrases related to your business. With your broad keywords selected, you should use proper targeted keyword research tools such as Google AdWords Keyword Planner or SEMrush to identify relevant keywords with high search volume. You can also analyse competitor campaigns for inspiration.
Tip 3: Create geographically focused ad groups
An Ad Group is the container for your keywords in your search marketing campaigns. Visiting search engines is crucial to boost sales and enhance lead generation quickly. Local PPC ads can swiftly elevate your ads to the top of search engine results pages (SERPs), placing them in front of eager online shoppers ready to purchase.
This can significantly improve your Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) and increase sales. However, it’s important to remember that local PPC ads are just one part of the equation.
While they can attract interested visitors to your website, success ultimately depends on the strength of your landing page, Call to Action (CTA), and the quality of your product or service.
To delve deeper into these essential elements, you can explore our comprehensive guide on CRO. Most search engines look at how your Ad Groups are set up to figure out:
- Which keywords will cause your ads to show up?
- What will be said in your ad when it runs?
- Where they will be taken when someone clicks on your ad.
Tip 4: Craft compelling ad copy
To make ads that connect, demonstrate your product value, know where you stand in the market, meet the users where they are, be human, be direct, and motivate action. Highlight your business’s most unique selling points while incorporating location-specific information, such as the city or neighbourhood, to add a personalized touch.
The best and most successful ad copy is part of a well-thought-out paid search or paid social strategy. Ad copy is one of the essential parts of the digital marketing puzzle, and (un)Common Logic has extensive experience with the ins and outs of PPC marketing and the know-how to deliver excellent results to clients.
Tip 5: Leverage location extensions
Local ad extensions, such as location extensions and call extensions, can help improve the performance of your local PPC campaigns. Location extensions display your business’s address and phone number in your ads, making it easy for users to find and contact you. Firstly, call extensions add a clickable phone number to your ads, allowing users to call your business directly from the ad.
Tip 6: Set geographic targeting
Using geotargeting and local PPC strategies can target users with relevant ads that speak to their interests and needs in specific locations. You can use keywords precisely to a particular place in your PPC campaigns to reach people looking for businesses or services in your area. For example, if you own a restaurant in New York City, keywords like “NYC restaurants” or “best restaurants in Manhattan” can help your ads appear when people look for those terms.
Tip 7: Optimize your landing pages
Ensure your landing page’s content matches the copy used in your ads. Headlines, content, forms, and call to action (CTAs) match your ad messaging. Doing so not only boosts your ad quality score but also avoids any confusion for the user.
Optimising your landing pages for local PPC campaigns is crucial in maximising your return on investment. Create landing pages that convert visitors into customers by focusing on critical elements such as headlines, copy, CTAs, and mobile optimization. Remember to test and measure to ensure you’re making data-driven decisions when making changes.
- Stay on point by ensuring that the content on your landing page aligns seamlessly with the messaging used in your ads.
- Consistency is critical to a successful campaign.
- Create a Strong Call to Action – Above the fold if possible.
- Keep Your Form Simple.
- Fast Page Load Speed.
- Test & Measure Different Elements.
Conclusion for How to Leverage Local PPC Advertising to Reach Nearby Customers
You can reach your local targeted audience more effectively by including geotargeting and local PPC advertising strategies in your campaigns for better results for your business. Take the time to define your target location, use location-specific keywords and ad copy, leverage local ad extensions, and continuously monitor your results to improve your campaigns.
