Local PPC

Dana DiTomsao the CEO of Kick Point, is going to talk to you about rocking local pay-per-click, which mostly AdWords.

Campaign Structure

We're going to start by talking about campaign structure because this is one of the things that's most overlooked in local pay-per-click.

Name the Location

First off It's really important to make sure that you include the name of the location in the beginning of the Ad Group name, because if you don't, then you end up with this terrible report in analytics where all you can see is the names of the Ad Groups. Make sure to put those location names in the Ad Groups. It's going to make your reporting a million times easier.

Enhanced Campaigns

Do not be scared of the enhanced campaigns. The reason we love enhanced campaigns is because of the radius targeting, which is one of the new options available to us. There is some awesome information you can get from these enhanced campaigns.

Mobile Clicks

One of the things we found out is that people are twice as likely to click on the ad if it's on a mobile device than it is on a desktop device. Part of that is a simple complete lack of competition. Make sure that you are targeting both desktop and mobile devices, and you might be surprised as well. A 2.7% click-through rate over a 1% on desktop, that's a pretty sweet competitive advantage.

User Location

The next thing you need to ask yourself is; where are your users? One of the great reports that you get with radius targeting is you can view specific locations where your users are located. It separates the report out by postal or ZIP code, which is extremely nice.

Let’s say that we can see the postal code that starts with T5H has a 0.9% click- through rate, whereas the postal code starting with T5K only has a 0.29% click-through rate. Also, T5G only a 0.3% click-through rate. We’re going to set those postal codes up as negative targeting options in our radius targeting. Also consider going to a different recreation center or a different location instead. Make sure to take a look at where your users are actually coming from and then do elimination based on that to really push up your click-through rate, which makes your ads cheaper.

Extensions

Next thing is ad extensions. You should use all the ad extensions. Google says, "Oh no, don't use all the ad extensions. You can add more than one type of extension to your ad, but keep in mind some extensions, such as sitelinks, may override your location extensions. In these instances, we won't show the location extension in your ad." Google lies. Sorry Google. The cost-per-click was slightly higher on the location extension than it was on the other extensions. Take that into consideration, but at the same time it's totally worth it.

Call Now on Mobile

The next thing is that this also really works in mobile. This is the same search done on a mobile device. Our client's ad, right in the middle there, really stands out because it has the Call Now button and the other ads don't. We find we get a lot of click to call in mobile than we do on desktop or anything else. It's really sticky. Seriously, use extensions.

Call Tracking

Call tracking is a very contentious topic. What we recommend is to make sure if you're putting call tracking in your ads or using call tracking numbers, use local area codes.

Keywords

Now, we're going to talk about keywords. One of the things that we find to be really successful for our clients is to use neighborhood names. This is for a homebuilder in Calgary specifically. We really like putting in neighborhood names because people search for that, and it's broad. When there's not a lot of competition, you can be a little bit lazy in the beginning to find some interesting keywords that you might not have otherwise. Consider using neighborhood names and be unexpected with the keywords that you choose.

If you have a restaurant, try advertising on the name of your local art gallery. If you run a bike tune-up shop, advertise to people looking for local bike path information. If you sell shoes, local running path information, advertise on that. If you sell wine, people who like wine typically also enjoy farmer's markets. Advertise and spend extra on the day that farmer's market is running or phrases like your "local farmer's market hours," for example and then actually provide a useful page with the hours. Don't just spam on the keyword, but try to provide some value as well, which I find gets some really great pick-up. Why do people come to you, or how do people relate you with other types of services in your mind and how can you advertise on that?

Demographics

The last, but not least, is demographics. Look at where people are logged in when they come to my website. There's a great plugin for WordPress to do this. There are also ways if you don't have a WordPress site that you can get there.

Let's say for example, you can see that lots of people are logged into Facebook when they come to your website, which in general is a pretty good assumption frankly because lots of people use Facebook. Build demographics for Facebook and then get them into that remarketing audience, and now you have a remarketing audience built strictly on demographics.