Location-based PPC (pay-per-click) is becoming increasingly popular as businesses aim to reach their target audience in specific geographic areas. By targeting users based on their location, businesses can ensure that their ads are seen by people who are most likely to be interested in their products or services.
With the help of location-based PPC, businesses can maximise their return on investment and drive more sales. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the best location-based PPC strategies and how you can implement them to drive more traffic and sales to your business.
Location-based PPC is an online advertising strategy that can be implemented by an SEO agency in the UK to help businesses target customers based on their physical location. This form of targeted advertising enables businesses to reach potential customers who are near their store, restaurant, or other physical areas.
Location-based PPC is pretty straightforward and can be effectively implemented by a paid search agency. Advertisers bid on keywords or phrases relevant to their business and set up campaigns to target specific locations. For example, a restaurant in Swindon might target keywords like ‘best pizza in Swindon’ and set their campaign to only show ads to users searching within a certain radius of their location.
Through effective paid search management:
To set up a successful geotargeting campaign, whether through Google Ads management or other platforms, it’s essential to consider the following steps:
Define your target audience. Ask yourself: Who are your ideal customers? Where do they live, work or spend their time?
Determine geographic boundaries. Establish what locations you want to target and exclude from your ad content. This could be anything from a single city or town, multiple countries, or even worldwide. Once you’ve determined which regions are relevant to your campaign objectives, use this information to create targeted campaigns within AdWords and other platforms.
Optimise ad copy. Consider the language of your ads and how they should be tailored for different audiences in different markets. Culture-specific keywords can help boost conversions by improving relevancy with local users and building trust among potential customers who recognise the words used in their language. Additionally, ensure that any landing pages associated with these ads incorporate localised copy and imagery whenever possible.
Track performance metrics. Once you’ve launched your Google paid search campaigns, track performance metrics across each region on an ongoing basis. This way, you can identify notable trends and make informed decisions about where best to allocate budget resources and how to refine targeting criteria based on observed results.
1. Avoid locations with few potential customers
It’s important to exclude certain areas from your targeting so you don’t waste valuable budget attempting to reach people who are unlikely to be potential customers. For instance, if your product or service has limited availability in certain regions or counties, exclude those areas since customers won’t be able to purchase what you’re offering. Instead, focus on locations with the highest concentration of customers.
Another way to exclude locations is by using negative keywords. These are keywords you don’t want your ad to appear for. For example, if you run a pet store and don’t sell fish, you might want to use ‘fish’ as a negative keyword to exclude people searching for fish-related products. A skilled PPC marketing agency can help you effectively identify and use negative keywords.
2. Monitor granular location metrics
To measure granular location metrics, you need access to detailed user data on where people interact with your ads and how they behave after that interaction. This could include information such as what city or region someone is viewing the advertisement in, whether they’re using a mobile device or desktop, if they clicked through the ad, or if they converted into customers.
By tracking those metrics, you can:
Here are some essential location metrics to keep an eye on:
CTR – This measures how many people click on your ad after seeing it.
Conversion rate – This measures how many people take a desired action on your website after clicking on your ad.
CPC – Cost per conversion measures how much you spend on advertising for each conversion.
3. Integrate local insider knowledge
With access to a wealth of data about local trends, businesses can better tailor their bids, ad campaigns, and keywords to better suit their local audiences. By understanding what people are searching for in a particular region, businesses can create custom campaigns to draw in high-value leads more accurately and efficiently.
4. Come up with a solid keyword structure
Start by understanding your target audience and the keywords they use to find relevant content. Once you’ve identified the right keywords, prioritise them based on their relevance and popularity to ensure maximum ROI. Use long-tail keywords, as they’re more specific and have higher conversion rates. Add geo-modifiers, such as city names, to further refine the targeting of your campaigns. And consider creating separate campaigns for each region you’re targeting so you can track performance in each area more accurately.
5. Advertise at specific times
Segment campaigns into different parts of the day. You can focus on peak hours or shift spending towards off-peak hours when competition for clicks is lower. This will help ensure your campaigns reach their maximum potential and have a better chance of driving conversions at a lower cost per click.
Creating time-specific ads also allows you to take advantage of seasonal trends or events in your target location. For example, you might create ads that promote your business during the holiday season or significant local events, such as festivals or sports games.
To create effective time-specific ads, it’s essential to understand the habits and behaviours of potential customers in your target location. This might involve analysing data on when customers are most likely to search for your products or services. You can also conduct surveys or focus groups to understand their preferences and needs.
6. Enable extensions
Extensions provide additional information to ads and can help increase CTR and generate higher-quality leads. By enabling extensions, you can add extra links, location information, contact numbers, review ratings, and other relevant information to your ads. Each type of extension offers its unique benefits and can be used to enhance different aspects of your ad messaging. For example, location extensions can help promote your business’s physical location and give users direction. Meanwhile, call extensions can encourage users to call your business directly from the search results page.
Extensions also enable you to customise your ad copy for each keyword or query you’re targeting, as well as set up different versions of the same ad for different audiences. For example, one version could target someone searching for a specific product. Meanwhile, another version could target someone searching for local services.
7. Create landing pages that are localised
Localising landing pages helps a campaign focus its message and improve performance. Landing page localisation involves customising content, imagery, and offers to match the interests and needs of regional prospects.
8. Test campaigns before scaling
A/B testing is an effective way to determine which versions of your ad are the most effective. By setting up two separate versions of the same ad, you can compare how many impressions and clicks each one receives. This helps you identify which elements are most successful in driving conversions and should be included in future campaigns.
In today’s highly competitive digital landscape, businesses are always looking for ways to gain an edge over their competitors. Location-based PPC advertising enables businesses to connect with highly relevant audiences in specific geographic areas. However, managing an effective location-based PPC campaign requires expertise, resources, and time.
As a leading digital growth agency, Smarter Media specialises in helping businesses of all sizes maximise the ROI of their location-based PPC campaigns. Our team of PPC experts can assist with every aspect of your paid media campaign, from setting up geotargeting to crafting highly relevant messaging and optimising ad copy and keywords.
So if you’re looking for effective location-based PPC campaigns that drive more traffic, leads, and sales, contact Smarter Media today. We’d be happy to discuss how we can help you achieve your marketing goals and grow your business.
