Small Business Pay-Per-Click Marketing

By Casey Brander

Four Methods to Get Visitors Quickly To Your Site Via Local PPC

I've been creating and maintaining national pay-per-click marketing campaigns in Google, Yahoo and Bing for about 8 years.  Recently, the search engines have made this method wekk suited for use by local, small businesses.

PPC advertising offers a fast, targeted method to market to prospective local customers. PPC allows you to laser target your prospective customers by focusing in on where they live OR what local geographic area they are interested in.

The four basic ways to get targeted traffic using local PPC.

1. Targeting a specific area: Create ads that are shown when users are searching for a product or service from a specific location. For example, I live in the same general area as your business and type in “auto body shop.”  Your ad appears based on the region from which I am searching (Round Lake/Grayslake/Lake Villa). Your ad does not shown for the same search if I was 50 miles away in Bartlett.
   
   The area your ad shows to can be selected in many sizes; from "X" miles from your physical location to an entire city, metropolitan area, or state.  When you select a specific city, metro area or state, the ad includes an additional line that lists the location.  This helps increase traffic to your web site.
2. Targeting a specific area/town name: Create ads that are shown when users search for your business using keywords with a geographical modifier. For example: “Lake Villa Body Shop.” These searches are highly targeted and your ad can be displayed to an audience that is looking for exactly what you offer, and exactly where they need it.
3. "Google Places" Ads: Create Local Business ads that will show up on many times on page ONE of the search results when a customer searches in your region for the keywords you have chosen.
4. Mobile Ads: Create mobile ads that are specifically designed for placement on mobile phones, Blackberries, iPhones, iPads and other devices.  You can even select specific carriers on which to advertise. The coolest feature of a mobile ad is the “Click-to-Call” setting – which gives the mobile user the ability to quickly dial your number with one touch, once they have found you.