What is Local PPC?
Local PPC (pay-per-click) advertising is a marketing strategy that involves using local keywords in advertisements on social media or in search engines to target customers in a specific region. In this approach, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.
Why Use Local PPC?
There are many benefits of Local PPC, particularly if you are a small business seeking to reach a relevant audience.
When you use local PPC advertising, you are in control of what audience you are targeting. This allows you to run ads intentionally, reaching a relevant audience who are more likely to utilize your services or buy your product. These ads are also easily trackable, which means you can analyze clicks and conversion rates and adjust your approach to increase effectiveness.
Local PPC also increases brand awareness in your local region, getting your name out there whether or not you receive clicks on your ad. However, because most people who see your advertisement are looking for your types of goods or services during their online search, you are more likely to have higher conversion rates.
With a local PPC advertising approach, you are able to set your budget limit to what you are willing to spend, and make your efforts more valuable in the long term. If things go well, you can increase your efforts. If you need to temporarily hold-off on advertising, you can do so.
Local PPC Management
PPC management is an important part of the pay-per-click ad development process. Effective management will help you make the most of your marketing efforts, and there are many important pieces to the PPC management puzzle.
Keyword analysis and competitor research are important first steps. These help to determine what keywords are needed to reach the target audience and reveal strategies to rank above your competitors. Additionally, understanding what works for your competitors can help to guide your approach.
Developing a channel strategy is also important in order to reach your target audience. Your channel strategy is essentially deciding what platforms you will advertise on, and there are many to choose from. These include Google, social media, Microsoft ads, and more.
Next is optimizing your ad spend. This involves determining who is likely to click on your ad and also make a purchase or utilize your service. This helps to optimize your PPC strategy and make the most of your money by ensuring clicks turn into customers.
When your PPC advertising plan is underway, monitoring the results is important for future optimization of your marketing strategy. You should figure out what keywords or platforms were most successful, and determine what audience has most frequently been found to convert.
Types of PPC
There are several types of PPC to consider when beginning to develop your local PPC strategy, and here are a few:
First, there are social media ads. This is one of the most popular ad types as these can appear on different social platforms and connect with many users. If you determine that a large portion of your audience frequents, say, Twitter or Facebook, then this may be the ideal place for you to place a “sponsored” ad. Some social media sites have the option of advanced targeting, which can let you target audiences based on location, interests, behaviors, etc.
Paid search ads are some of the most common, and I am sure you have seen a few. These ads show up in Google search results at the very top and bottom of the screen. Setting up these ads involves setting your keywords and bidding for your ad’s placement. Google can also rate your ad’s effectiveness, letting you optimize your ad and get a better position for your keyword.
Display ads are another common form of PPC. These are typically found on Google’s partner websites, and instead of showing up in search results, are found on web pages that user’s visit. Generally, these include a photo and very little text. To use this kind of PPC approach, you will need to determine what websites your audience is most likely to visit. Similar to paid search ads, you need to bid for your placement, and Google has to approve your ad copy.
Other types of PPC include re-marketing ads, Google shopping ads, local service ads, and more. Each type should be taken into consideration when creating your local PPC strategy to determine what will be most effective to reach your target audience.