Google Ads is an essential component of any local business’ marketing strategy; it helps you appear prominently in search results, encourages people to visit your website and helps to keep your competitors from grabbing your customers.
But with so many businesses using Google Ads, how do you make sure your adverts stand out and get people clicking, calling or visiting? If you’re just starting out with Google Ads, make sure to read our beginner’s guide first. If you’re looking to improve your current performance, here are four tricks we’ve discovered which make the most of Google Ads features.
1) Use higher bids for local adverts
For local businesses looking to capture the attention of customers searching and shopping in a local area, this is a useful trick.
The location in which your adverts appear is normally set for your country (like the UK). By changing the location, you can set your adverts to appear for people searching within a certain distance of your business, or in a certain county or town. You can also bid more for adverts you’d like to appear in these locations, so they’re more likely to appear in search results.
For example, a butcher in Leeds who sells locally-reared meat might set his adverts to only appear for anyone searching in Yorkshire. He then could bid more to people specifically in Leeds in order target customers nearby who are more likely to buy.
On your Google Ads dashboard, you can add and change the location for different campaigns under ‘Settings’ then ‘Locations’.
2) Bid on your own business name
If you’re updating your website regularly and sharing updates on social media, then when people search for you online your business name should appear. However, savvy competitors might use Google Ads adverts to bid on your business name, so that when people search for you, a competitor’s advert appears. To get round this, you can bid on your own business name. Don’t forget, you can bid on your competitor’s names too (though we wouldn’t suggest bidding on big national brands, as this is likely to be very expensive and far too competitive)!
3) Make your keywords very specific
In our beginner’s guide to Google Ads, we gave some examples of advert keywords for a plumber: “plumbing services” and “plumbing repairs”. These work well, but longer and more specific keywords can be even more effective.
This is because people searching online for things like “plumbing repairs” aren’t necessarily looking to hire a plumber; for example, they might be trying to find DIY plumbing advice. Writing adverts based on longer, specific keywords directly related to your products or services means your adverts are more likely to be shown to someone who needs your business, potentially gaining you an extra sale.
For example, a florist in Derby could bid for keywords like “florists in Derby” and come up against lots of competition. If they use longer, specific keywords, they could stand out against the competition and appear when customers are in the market for certain ‘niche’ products:
The key to choosing longer search terms is to think like your customer- what time of year is it? Where do they live? What occasion is coming up? Note down some search terms based on these, but remember that the more specific they are, the less people will be searching those terms, which could result in fewer clicks.
4) Use emotion to encourage clicks
It’s important to include appropriate keywords related to your business in your adverts so people searching for similar words are likely to click on it. But to really engage someone and encourage them to click your advert, you also have to speak to their emotions.
How often have you clicked on a link in Facebook because it’s had an image or title which makes you laugh, or solves a problem, or intrigues you? You can use the same tactics to get people to click on your advert, for example by thinking about the worries your audience might have and use emotional language to show how your services or products could help.
Using our florist in Derby as an example, their adverts might include:
By using emotion as well as these longer keywords, this florist is more likely to get customers clicking on their adverts.
For any local business already using Google Ads, these four tricks will help you make your adverts stand out – and get you those vital clicks and customers. If you need more help to improve your Google Ads performance, take a look at these articles:
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