Advertising on AdWords for Local Business

Category Advertising, General | 4 comments »

If you’re a local business owner wondering how the Internet can be useful to you, realizing that online advertising is not only for large companies is the first step. While it’s true that corporations use broad advertising for branding and creating national recognition, smaller companies have a different goal from their marketing budgets.

AdWords keeps this in mind, allowing companies to target geographically who will see an ad. Meaning that businesses offering services or products in a specific area can create and deploy ads only meant to be seen by web users from that area. Since AdWords follows a pay per click method, as a business owner you only pay for people who click on your ad (generally people interested in your product or service).

Getting Started

Getting started with AdWords is simple, Google has made it as intuitive as possible. First you’ll have to deposit $5 to create an account. The money you deposit will go towards your ads, and you can add a credit card to pull funds from later.

Once you’re logged into Adwords, you’ll want to create your first Online Campaign. Usually, as a basic user, you’ll want to create ads based on keywords.

Name your campaign something that is easy to track, either by the name of the product you’re targeting or something you’re testing. Be sure to also name your ad group.

At this point we start to target our ads. You’ll want to begin with choosing the language your customers speak. This is the most basic of targeting.

Next you can be even more specific. Click on the link to “Change Targeting”. This opens up an entirely new page, where you can choose to target via country, state, town, or even zip code

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Local businesses will want to create multiple ads for select areas.

If you know the demographic of your key customers can be found in a zip code near you, target that area with an ad that reminds people to visit your store or or with an ad that strengthens your company brand.

When you’re attempting to increase your market share in surrounding areas, you’ll be able to create ads meant to introduce your company to these future prospects.

Test, tweak and adapt

Remember, online marketing is dependent on extreme testing and tweaking. Make multiple ads, try to see what works, and invest the time.

Want to see how big of an impact your advertising is doing? Just ask your customers where they heard about you from. Use this feedback to determine your future online advertising budget.

Although this may seem extremely time intensive, it doesn’t always have to be. Getting started takes a good amount of effort and attentiveness, however, once you’re happy with how much you’re spending and the return you’re receiving you can lower the amount of time you invest in maintaining your online advertising.

Related Reading:

• How to get the most from your Adwords GeoTargeting
• Google AdWords: Local Advertising
• The Importance of Pay Per Click Account Structure
• Where are your clicks coming from? (Geographically speaking)

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