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Local Online Advertising
Google Local Listing Ads - Taking the Complexity Out of PPC Search Advertising
Google has recently rolled out, on a limited scale, a new flat fee Local Listings advertising product in the San Diego and San Francisco areas that offers small business advertisers and retailers with a physical local store a good opportunity to target Web users who are doing their research online and then visit local stores to make a purchase.
For small, local businesses, launching an in-house online advertising campaign on search has never been an easy process. The search engines and 3rd party PPC management service companies, aware of the huge revenue potential that small businesses represent, are offering several advertising options aimed specifically at helping small businesses to promote their products and services. Despite their efforts to dummy-down and automate the process of keyword research, keyword and bid management and campaign performance optimization, the annual churn rate for these services has been high.
Yahoo reportedly has had a fairly high success rate with a flat fee enhanced listing product for some time. They are offering a fixed placement advertising option in Yahoo Local to all businesses. The cost of these Category Sponsor listings is determined by what category a business falls under and what locations they are advertising in. While Sponsored Search results from Yahoo's PPC program will also appear in the Yahoo Local results, the Category Sponsor listings can offer a different option to small business owners and other local advertisers. Yahoo also offers small businesses the chance to build up a business details page that can act as a landing page to potential customers on in case they do not have a web site.
Through the Category Sponsor listings Yahoo gives advertisers an alternative to a full-blown PPC search advertising campaign. It provides users with the ability to set a fixed ad that runs without having to worry about constantly monitoring it. Category Sponsor listings also get preferential treatment, appearing at the top of Yahoo Local results pages. For a small business owner who doesn't have the time to manage a local PPC search campaign, the fixed placement ads allow them to still participate in local search advertising without having to worry about the complexities of such a campaign.
Google Local Listing Ads
Google Local Listing Ads is a flat fee advertising solution specifically designed for small local businesses. In many respects, Google's Local Listing product bears a strong resemblance to the Yahoo Category Sponsor Listings. Google Local Listing Ads are accessible from a new tab within the Google Local Business Center for businesses that have verified their free business listing at the Center.
Google has also recently introduced Place Pages, which brings together many different types of content from the Web for a specific place, and assembles it on one page. This includes information, images, customer reviews and more. Businesses that have a physical local business location can have a Place Page where all this information is available to users who are searching for more information on a business.
How Do Google Local Listing Ads Work
Following in Yahoo's footsteps, Google will be offering fixed placement ads that will appear on Google.com in the local results (above the 10-Box) and in Google Maps search results, both marked by a pushpin. They therefore, do not compete with Adwords local business ads. To get started with Local Listings Ads advertisers first need to claim their business listing in Google's Local Business Center, provide a credit card and select a standard category that best describes their business, after which Google automatically determines the monthly cost and the number of estimated impressions the ad(s) will receive. Local Business Ads are based on a self-service system, but unlike Google AdWords, Local Listing Ads do not require keyword research and management, keyword bidding or budget management. Advertisers do not need to write any text ads, they are generated automatically by the Local Listing Ads system and include just the business name, phone number, address and a link to the business web site or the recently introduced Place Page.
Advertisers can sign up for a 30-day trail and a Local Listing Ads account can be cancelled at any time during the 30-day period. There's no further obligation.
In addition to providing a full performance report on Local Listing Ads, including the number of calls, clicks, requests for driving directions, and clicks to the business Info Window on Google Maps, Local Listing Ads also offer free call tracking with a short announcement of each forwarded call. ("This caller is brought to you by Google") That way, advertisers know precisely when and how often ads trigger a phone call.
A weakness of the flat fee Local Listing Ads product is that it does not include any creative, just business name, phone number, address and a link to the business web site or Place Page. Since the text ads are created automatically by the Google system, the ads do not include the keyword(s) web users used in the search query.
Although Google has had a hugely successful PPC search advertising program for years, there has always been the barrier of complexity for small business to be successful with an in-house PPC ad campaign. Combined with the other innovative products that Google continues to implement, small business advertisers may be able to leverage the power of search more than they have been able to before, and do it more easily with Local Business Ads.
Click here for a video presentation of the Google Local Business Ad product.
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Past Presentations
128 Business Expo 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009 - 12:00 noon
Westin-Waltham Hotel
Waltham, Massachusetts
"Twitter and Blogging for Business"
Presenter: Louise Rijk
Click here to play the video
Middlesex Savings Bank Business Success Seminars
Thursday, June 18, 2009 - 7:30AM
Crowne Plaza Hotel,
1360 Worcester Street, (Rt 9), Natick, MA
"Using Internet Marketing to Build Your Business"
Presenter: Louise Rijk
Click here to play the video
Clark University
Thursday, May 14, 2009 - 8:45-12 noon
Grace Conference Room
Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts
“Search and Digital Asset Optimization”
Presenter: Louise Rijk
Click here to play the video.
WebmasterWorld PubCon 2008
Las Vegas
“Integrating Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) into the Advertising Mix”
Presenter: Louise Rijk, Vice President of Marketing and Sales
Click here to play the presentation
128 Business Expo 2008
The Westin Waltham-Boston Hotel
“Using Social Media to Connect with Prospects and Customers”
Presenter: Louise Rijk, Vice-President of Marketing and Sales
Click here to play the video.
495/MetroWest Business Expo
Sheraton Framingham Hotel
Pre-Expo Keynote Presentation
“A Strategic Approach to Integrated Marketing”
Presenter: Louise Rijk, Vice-President of Marketing and Sales
Click here to play the video.
Bentley College, 2008 - Waltham, MA
“Planning and Integrating a Targeted Internet Marketing Campaign”
Click here to play the video.
WebmasterWorld Pubcon 2007 - Las Vegas, NV
“Planning and Integrating a Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) Campaign”
Click here to play the video.
BizAction 2007 - Washington DC
"Email, Social Media and Search in the Overall Marketing Mix"
Click here to play the audio.
128 Business Expo 2007
"Blogging and Podcasting For Business"
Click here to play the video.
495/Metrowest Business Expo
Pre-Expo Keynote
"The Rise of the Internet as a Mass Advertising Medium"
Click here to play the video.
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If you would like more information on Internet Marketing, Consulting, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing and Email Marketing, please
click here.
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Copyright © 1996-2009. Advanced Media Productions, Inc.
Advanced Media Productions, Inc.
251 West Central St., Suite 28, Natick, Massachusetts 01760, USA
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