Pay Per Click for Your Local Business: How Use Adwords to Attract Customers
The internet has revolutionized how we communicate with customers. Within minutes, it is possible to reach audiences who have never heard of your brand before. Even better, you can reach these people with just a few dollars.
In particular, pay-per-click advertising through Google and Bing has helped brands with small social media followings and even smaller budgets find customers.
PPC for local business is a great marketing strategy if you want to grow your business and scale your marketing efforts as your budget expands. Here is what you need to know about Google Ads and how you can take advantage of them to benefit your business.
How Does PPC Marketing Work?
Like the name “pay-per-click” implies, brands pay for advertising when a customer clicks on the ad.
You can get dozens (even hundreds) of impressions but won't get charged until someone clicks on the ad. The most effective ads drive people to click immediately and have high click-through rates (CTR). A good CTR in Google typically hovers between 3-5% depending on your brand.
Google uses an auction system to set bid prices in its Ads system. Keywords that are more popular and are in higher demand cost more, while lesser searched keywords cost less.
For example, the keyword “Disney vacation,” will be significantly more expensive than the term “staycation ideas in Ft. Myers.” Advertisers like Disney and major brands like Hilton and Southwest airlines are all vying for your click. They want you to click on their ad and land on your website, no matter where in the world you are. Meanwhile, the keyword related to a Ft. Myers staycation may only attract ads from local hotel chains and advertisers in the area. The bid cost to show up for that term is significantly lower. To see other examples of this, look at the top 20 most expensive keywords in Google ads.
You can set your bids in the Ads system based on what you are willing to pay per day and per click. For example, you may set a maximum bid of $3. If other brands are willing to pay $4 or more per click, then their ads will be shown more and shown higher. You can also set your daily budget so you don’t overspend beyond what you can afford.
In the ads system, you can see the demand for keywords based on their cost-per-click (CPC). Some of your keywords will have very low CPCs of a few cents, while others will cost several dollars. It all depends on the demand for the term and who is bidding on it.
How Can You Track Your PPC Success?
Getting your ad campaigns set up in Google is only the first part of the process. The next step is optimizing and changing your campaigns for maximum value. Google will walk you through the process of setting up Conversion Tracking or measuring conversion rates within your ads. Conversions vary by business, but you can track your success through a variety of options:
- Sales on your eCommerce site (both in quantity and value)
- Donations to your nonprofit
- Signups for an event or completions of a contact form
- Calls to your business
- Time spent on your site or certain pages viewed
Even non-monetary conversions can be monetized to help you estimate your ROI. For example, if the average customer who calls your business makes an appointment and spends about $100, then you can assume that every call is worth $100 to your business. If only half of the customers who call make appointments or spend money, then you can set the conversion value at $50 per call.
Along with conversions, there are additional metrics you can track to evaluate the health of your ad campaigns. Some of these are found within the Ads system, while others are populated in Google Analytics or whatever data management and analytics system you use. A few valuable metrics include:
- Quality Score: the grade out of 10 that Google awards your ad based on relevancy of the copy, keyword, and landing page. Ads with higher quality scores perform better, are placed higher on the page, and cost brands less.
- Bounce Rate: the percent of site visitors who leave as soon as the page loads. A high bounce rate means audiences did not find value in your website.
- Time on Site: the amount of time audiences spend on your website after you bring them there. The longer they spend, the more valuable they consider your content.
- Pages per Visit: the number of pages audiences look at one average. The higher this number, the more interesting your business website is.
By improving your keywords, landing pages, and ads, you can improve your overall metrics and create better ads that make customers convert.
What Are the Benefits of PPC for Local Business?
Once you learn the ropes of pay-per-click advertising you can start to tailor this marketing strategy to your local business. There are many benefits to this digital marketing tactic whether you want customers to immediately convert on your website, submit their information as potential leads, or make appointments for a service. A few of the main benefits of PPC for local business include:
- The ability to reach customers outside of your email database and social media following.
- Flexible budgets that you can scale up or scale down based on your options and goals.
- Reaching hyper-targeted audiences that are already searching for your services and are looking to convert.
- Trackable traffic that you can improve upon through Google Analytics insights.
- Total control over your branding, exposure, target audience, and ad content.
Some local businesses only spend $10-20 per day on Google Ads because it is all they can afford, but they still appreciate the traffic and customer bumps that come with it. Meanwhile, major brands like Nike and Delta spend millions of dollars each month driving people to their pages through PPC Ads.
Learn More About PPC and Get Started Marketing Your Business
If you are interested in further exploring PPC for local business, give My Area Network a call. We set up and manage ad campaigns for a variety of brands to help them grow their customer base. Tell us your goals, your budget, and your timeline and we can develop a plan around you.
