If you own a local service business, you know that today’s marketplace is more competitive than ever. To stay a step ahead of the competition, you need a marketing strategy that specifically targets your most likely buyers within the area you serve.
One solution that’s proven successful for many local business owners is pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. PPC ads offer you a measurable way to boost conversions within your service area—without breaking your advertising budget.
How PPC Advertising Works
PPC ads are commonly run on platforms such as Google Ads, Instagram, and Facebook and provide a level of targeting specificity unavailable in conventional advertising models. In Google, for example, PPC ads will accompany relevant search results, highlighting your business when and where potential customers are likely to see it.
In a marketplace where more purchases are made on smartphones than on laptops, the implications for PPC smartphone ads are significant. Today’s customers browse, shop, research, and buy, all from their phones. PPC makes it easy for your potential customers to find you, and the pay-per-click approach means that you only pay for the leads that click on your ad!
Benefits of PPC Advertising
PPC offers some unique benefits to advertisers. Here are just a few…
See Results Instantly
From the moment your ad campaign begins, you can begin tracking its impact through analytics. This means you can check on the campaign’s impressions, clicks, and conversions at any time. PPC ads allow you to gauge the success of any ongoing campaign, so you can see what’s working (and what isn’t) and make the adjustments needed to boost engagement.
Budget for Success
The PPC advertising model is extremely budget-friendly, an advantage at a time when businesses everywhere are seeking to lower costs. With PPC ads, there are no startup costs to launch a campaign, and you only pay for click-throughs, so you know that the leads you get are qualified. Best of all, you set the budget for the campaign, whether it’s $100 or $100K, you only invest what you choose.
Build Brand Recognition
PPC ads put your brand name and message out there, so even those who don’t click through are exposed to your ad. For a local business, even a mild increase in brand recognition can boost walk-insand inquiries. On social media sites like Instagram and Facebook, PCC ads can be targeted to reach only people within the service radius of your business, so those who buy are always nearby.
Make Your Next PPC Campaign a Winner!
Like any venture, advertising entails a measure of risk. Fortunately there are a few things you can do to help turn the odds in your favor.
- Be sure your campaign is optimized for mobile. With more people than ever making purchasing decisions from their phones, it’s essential to reach these customers when they’re looking to buy. With mobile, you have only seconds to capture a customer’s attention. So if your ad is laggy, or not formatted correctly for mobile, you’re likely to lose that sale.
- Use single-keyword ad groups (SKAGs). SKAGs allow you to choose a root keyword for a group of ads, then break that out into smaller groups, thus increasing the likelihood that your keywords will match the most relevant searches. Best of all, SKAGs let you get very specific when targeting potential buyers. And you can always make changes on the fly to improve results.
- Use ad extensions. We’ve all seen those clickable questions below a Google ad. These extensions open avenues of dialogue between you and your potential customers. Local extensions can direct customers to different locations of your business, or can be used as a one-click call option to reach a member of your sales team.
- Use Facebook Proximity Ads. Facebook lets you create PCC ads that target your service area, whether that’s a county, a town, or a neighborhood. S the lrds you receive are always local.
Partner with a Professional
If all this sounds a bit daunting, don’t worry. Navigating the world of PPC marketing can be daunting, but a successful marketing team can alert you to potential hazards before they become actual headaches. At Click Canyon, we help local businesses like yours take their first step into PCC marketing, and assist seasoned advertisers in honing their campaigns.
We can get your next ad campaign on its feet and running. We ensure that you don’t lose time (or money) on rookie mistakes, and we can help you craft PPC campaigns that deliver real results.
Why risk missing potential business in your own neighborhood? Click Canyon can help you today! Give us a call.