Selling via the Internet is beneficial not only for buyers, who receive the necessary product without leaving their homes, but also for sellers – there are no rental and other costs. But not for all goods, such a “correspondence” sale is convenient and possible.
To attract customers from search or Google services to an offline point – a cafe, a shoe repair shop or a dry cleaner – you can set up a local advertising campaign.
The new format appeared in Ukraine relatively recently, but in 2021, advertisers are already actively using it.
The goal of local Google Ads campaigns is to generate an additional flow of customers from Google services to offline locations and offices.
Advice! Local campaigns should definitely be launched by those advertisers who have several offices or branches, some of which have low traffic. A new tool from Google Ads will also help attract customers to newly opened outlets.
When can offline sales be replaced by online sales?
Despite the current trend of moving sales online, there are categories of goods and services that require direct contact with the client.
Rejecting an offline point will not work in the following cases:
Sale of goods that need to be touched. The buyer wants to evaluate some products visually live: choose a floor covering by color and texture, find the optimal softness of mattress, or determine the type of paper for printing a family photo book. Even the ability to return a product if it doesn’t fit, which is provided by many online sites, does not affect the high attendance of classic offline stores;
Complex product. Sales of goods, upon purchase of which the consumer must first consult with the seller. As an example, consider the purchase of glasses. The frame must be tried on to understand if it fits the buyer. You will also need to consult an ophthalmologist to determine the parameters of the lenses, taking into account the characteristics of the client’s vision;
Offline services. Provision of services that require the obligatory interaction of a specialist-client. Examples of such businesses are hairdressers, massage parlors, dry cleaners, shoe shops or car services.
Important! For customers, visiting a sales office or a store is always more motivated than searching for a product online, so attracting such customers is an important goal.
Flipping pages on the Internet can be done in order to pass the time, while people go to the store more often with a clearly defined purpose.
What are local advertising campaigns?
Google AdWords local advertising campaigns are an effective tool for attracting customers who are looking for goods or services near their location. The advertiser just needs to specify the radius for displaying ads relative to the company address. For example, you can set up display only to residents of your district or city.
The main advantage of local advertising is that it allows you to target your audience geographically and display ads only to those users who are physically located close to the point of sale, without eroding your budget. With proper targeting, conversion rates for such campaigns can be very high.
What problems do local Google Ads campaigns solve?
Local advertising in Google Ads allows businesses to:
Increase the number of calls and requests from potential clients. Integration with Google My Business automatically includes a phone number and a call button in your search ads. This makes it much easier for users to contact the company without going to the website.
Increase store traffic. Since ad impressions reach people near your store or office, you can effectively encourage them to visit by offering promotions, discounts and special offers.
Provide maximum useful information about the company. In advertisements, you can indicate the address, opening hours, directions, photographs of the point, and a description of the main services. Such informational content builds trust among the audience.
Automate work with the advertising account. You don’t need to select keywords and set bids yourself. It is enough to indicate the location, budget and goals. Google’s algorithms will automatically show the most relevant ads to users near you.
Focus on reviews. The user will see the company’s rating on Google Maps directly in the ad. This significantly increases the audience’s trust in the business, because people, as a rule, are more willing to contact a trusted company.
Which businesses are eligible for local AdWords advertising?
Talking about local advertising in Google AdWords is appropriate for promotion in those niches where location is one of the determining factors influencing decision-making.
Advertising is shown to users who are interested in a product or service within a given location. This allows the client to receive the advertised product on their way to work or home, as well as in the places they visit most typically.
An important condition for launching local advertising is the presence of a real address. To create a Google My Business account, you must provide actual geographic coordinates.
For information! It will not work to deceive the system by setting invalid parameters – sometimes a letter is sent to the specified address by physical mail to confirm the rights.
Local advertising is highly effective in areas such as:
hairdressers and beauty salons;
fitness and spas;
shoe repair shops;
dry cleaning;
hotels and inns;
furniture and interior design stores;
catering establishments.
What benefits do local campaigns provide?
High audience relevance. Local targeting allows you to show ads only to those who live or work near your point of sale. This guarantees the most accurate targeting of the target audience and eliminates inappropriate impressions to people from other areas. For example, a coffee shop in the center of Kyiv will receive clicks from people from the Shevchenkovsky and Pechersky districts, and not from Borshchagovka and Troyeshchyna.
Higher conversion rates. Users looking for services “near me”, “near metro X”, etc., usually have an urgent need for the service right now and are ready to make a purchase or take advantage of an offer as soon as possible. This provides much higher conversion compared to conventional contextual or display advertising.
Omnichannel approach. In your advertising campaign, you are not limited to the online channel. You can also interact with clients in the office “live”, communicate by phone and through instant messengers.
Less competition compared to regular advertising. In a local campaign, you compete primarily with other companies in your area or city, and not with large market players throughout the country. This allows you to gain good positions and achieve high visibility at the local level.
How do local ad campaigns work?
According to a certain algorithm, the system analyzes the user’s inclination to visit the advertised point of sale and shows ads only to the target audience.
The following parameters are taken into account during the analysis:
Search query. The system checks if there are occurrences in the user-defined phrase that indicate geographic location or remoteness: “next to me”, “nearest”, etc.;
The user’s location. The probability that a potential buyer will be able to overcome the path to the point of sale is estimated;
User movements. Most likely, the ad will be shown to those who have already been to the specified point or near it;
Device type. For example, for the system, searching for the phrase “restaurant nearby” from a smartphone means that the user is most likely going to have lunch in the near future;
It is critical to note that a visitor who came through a local advertising campaign is more motivated to purchase a product than someone who came by chance from the street.
Where do local ads appear?
Local AdWords ads run on popular Google services: Maps, YouTube, Display Network and Search.
Search Ads
A local ad with the “Advertise” tag will take the first position in the map block, which is always displayed at the top of the search results for queries related to the line of business or the location of the company on phones and tablets. Examples of such requests are “shoe repair nearby”, “takeaway food on Lesia Ukrainka Boulevard”, “cafe near the Khreshchatyk metro station”, etc.
A potential buyer can go to the advertiser’s website or see the path to the offline item right from the local pack block:
Google Maps
Viewing the maps, the user sees a special marker with the advertiser’s logo that accompanies the geotag. By clicking on it, you can open an ad, pave the way or make a call. The advertising message is also displayed in the first positions:
YouTube
The ad is shown in Bumper Ads, In-Stream (with or without the skip option) and Video Discovery formats. It differs from standard advertising by the presence in the headline of the number of points of sale in the immediate vicinity of the user’s location:
Display Network
Local ads on Google Partner Network sites, unlike standard ads, contain a geotagged block. The user can navigate the way to the point of sale, specify opening hours and other data:
Local ads are visible to owners of any type of device. At the same time, mobile gadgets account for the vast majority of impressions, which is due to the specifics of this advertising format.
The appearance of the ad depends on where exactly the ad campaign is placed. So on YouTube, the user will see only the logo and the video, in other cases, he may be shown more detailed information – contact details, description, title.
How to set up local advertising in Google Ads?
In order to set up local advertising in Google Ads, you must fill in the standard ad fields and set a budget limit. Optimization is performed without the participation of the advertiser using machine learning algorithms.
To set up a campaign, you need to do the following:
Link your Google My Business profile to your Google Ads account. Another option is to set up the “partner addresses” or “addresses” extension in your account;
After the connection between the accounts is established, the list of available types of campaigns will be supplemented with the “Local” item. You need to select it and set the goal – “Visit to stores and promotions”;
Select addresses – their list will be loaded from the Google My Business profile. You can set one point of sale, a group of addresses, or the entire list;
Set default parameters – budget and deadlines. In this case, the start date of the campaign is a mandatory parameter, and the end date can be omitted. For local ads, the only bidding strategy that works is “maximizing conversion value”;
Select target actions: routes built by users and/or calls made by them. You should set a value for each action. The default value is $1;
Set ad components:
Headings. Any of the five headings available for adding can contain up to 30 characters;
A link leading to the site;
The URL to display. It is possible to add two options, while the field is optional;
Logo. The image must be square in PNG or JPG format;
Descriptions. Each of the five description texts available for adding can contain up to 60 characters;
Images. These can be PNG or JPG images. The system limits their number – up to 20 pieces;
A call to action. Any of the five description CTA texts available for adding can contain up to 11 characters;
Video. In the required field, enter a link to a YouTube video that is 10 seconds or longer.
Save your changes and your ads will be available for preview.
Important! In additional parameters, you can place a feed of goods that are in stock at certain addresses. The local assortment feed is set in the “Commercial data” block. Products can also be selected from the linked cabinet in the Merchant Center.
How to increase the effectiveness of the campaign?
When setting up local campaigns to improve their effectiveness, it is recommended to adhere to the following rules:
You should add as many ad elements as possible: multiple titles and descriptions, quality videos, images, and a logo;
Important information reflecting the essence of the advertising message should be placed as close as possible to the beginning of the video. After all, the user can skip ads at the first opportunity. It is important that the duration of the video does not exceed 20 seconds;
To set up a budget cap for each point of sale, you need to create a separate local campaign for each office;
The algorithm is trained for at least a month, so it is inappropriate to run ads for a shorter period;
To manage numerous offline address points, it is convenient to group and set the parameters of the target audience located near a certain group;
Your point of sale information needs to be up-to-date, so Google My Business needs to be updated regularly.
