Top 5 Local PPC Strategies to Boost Your Small Business

If you’re running a small local business, getting your brand in front of your target audience in your area is essential to business growth. There are many digital marketing tools available at your disposal: Google Business, email marketing, SEO, social media etc. However, each of these strategies can take weeks, even months to build momentum. 

Email marketing and social media require you to build an audience before you can get the word out. SEO and Google Business require months of effort to build an online presence, and lots of reviews. Like many small business owners, you likely don’t have time to waste. You’ve already invested heavily into getting your store or office open, and you’ve got rent to pay. So how can you start getting customers or clients in the door now, with virtually no online presence and no audience? Introducing: local PPC. 

Local advertising is one of the most powerful marketing strategies local businesses can use, especially for brick and mortar businesses. In this article, we’ll break down five Local PPC strategies that can drive more foot traffic, leads, and sales for your small business. 

What is Local PPC?

Local PPC is a paid advertising strategy that is designed to target a specific audience within a small geographic region. While traditional advertising methods like newspapers and flyers once dominated local marketing, digital ads now offer a smarter, more precise way to attract the right audience. With Local PPC, businesses can not only target nearby customers with greater accuracy but also track their ROI in real time. However, true success goes beyond simply targeting the nearest city in hopes that your business increases foot traffic or phone calls. To make the most of your ad spend, you need the right strategy that works best for your type of business.

#1 Geo-Targeting: Reaching the Right Customers in the Right Places

Geo-targeting in PPC advertising involves showing your ads to users based on their geographic location or places they frequently visit, whether that’s specific areas like neighborhoods or within a set radius from your business. With Geo-targeting, Google Ads can offer different options best suited for your objectives. You can target as wide as entire countries, to specific states, cities or even zip codes. 

To set this up within your Google Ads account, there’s a section under the Campaign Settings called “Locations”. Here, you can search for the locations you want to choose from. Within this feature you can see an estimated number of people in that particular region that are searching from that location. This may help you determine whether this specific location is valuable to target in your marketing strategy. Additionally, you can exclude locations where your services aren’t available to ensure your ads reach only those who can actually convert into customers.

Another feature under these location settings is “Advanced Search”, which allows you to visualize your targeting with an interactive map. You can also use it to set a specific radius around any location. Select the location you want to be the centerpoint and choose the distance around that area. If you need to target multiple locations, you can search for multiple locations. You can also bulk upload locations by clicking the “add locations in bulk” checkbox. This will allow you to type or paste up to 1000 locations at a time to either target or exclude. 

Once your campaign is live, Google Ads lets you set different bid adjustments for various locations, allowing you to increase bids for high-value areas and reduce bids in less relevant ones and keep within your budget. 

Now that you know how to set up geo-targeting in your campaigns, let’s look at some examples of real-world applications for this feature. 

A client of ours owns a bakery in Detroit. Because his business is a brick-and-mortar store, targeting within a certain radius around the store is critical to attract the right customers willing to drive to that location. Customers are likely only willing to drive up to 20-30 minutes maximum to his bakery, so we implemented geo-targeting within a 20 mi radius around his business.

In contrast, many of our clients offer nationwide services, so they simply need to select the United States or multiple locations across the country for their geo-targeting. These include ecommerce stores, national brands with multiple US locations, and various service-based businesses whose services can be performed over the phone or via Zoom. 

Geo-targeting is particularly beneficial for local businesses because it helps maximize ad spend efficiency. Whether you’re targeting a group of up to 1,000 locations within a country or setting a radius around your business for delivery services, geolocation targeting ensures your ads are reaching the most relevant audience, leading to higher engagement and better ROI.

#2 Use Location & Phone Call Extensions: Make It Easier for Customers to Find and Contact You

Another local PPC strategy you can consider implementing is ad extensions; specifically Location and Phone Call Extensions. Both enhance your local PPC ads by providing the necessary details directly in the search engine results for customers. For Location Extensions, certain details, such as your business address, hours of operation and directions will populate when a potential customer searches for the services you offer. Having this information readily available makes it easier for customers to visit your physical business location with a simple click from your ad that redirects them to Google Maps.

To maximize this feature, ensure your business address is correctly set up in Google Ads and linked to your Google Business Profile. To ensure that this feature is used properly, be sure to double check that the address linked to your Google Business Profile is accurate. 

Call Extensions, on the other hand, allows you to add a clickable phone number that a potential customer can use to quickly get in contact with your business. You can modify this to have it only enabled during business hours to ensure that customers are able to reach you only when you’re available. Mobile searches are a big driver in the percentage of local inquiries, so having a click-to-call option may enhance the overall customer experience if they’re able to efficiently get in touch with your business.

Both Location and Phone Call Extensions are highly effective strategies for local campaigns as it can increase your business’s foot traffic and phone calls when effectively implemented.

#3 Bid on Location-Specific Keywords: Attract the Right Local Audience

Bidding on Location-Specific Keywords ensures that your ads are reaching customers located in your area. By adding a city or location name to the search query, such as “Detroit Bakeries” or “Bakery in Detroit” you’re able to get your ads in front of potential customers who are searching with a specific location in mind. When paired with Google’s Keyword Planner tool, you can find the right location-specific keywords that are searched most often in your area and their search volume.  

Not only can you include location specific keywords in your ads, but you can also use tourist destinations, street names, area codes, words and phrases that are well known to local customers further refining your targeted audience that they would only resonate with. This strategy is valuable because it increases the trust between you and your customers, improves engagement and the probability of customers coming back compared to your competitors who may be using more broader terms. 

Another way to implement this strategy is to use “near me” keywords. Oftentimes searchers are using the search term “near me” instead of a specific location. When paired with geo-targeting, bidding on these types of keywords can be very effective, and increase your conversion rates.

#4 Consider Using Call-Only Ads: Connect with Customers Instantly

Call-Only Ads encourages customers to call businesses directly versus driving them to your website. This strategy only appears on mobile devices that can make phone calls. The great thing about Call-Only Ads is that there’s no additional costs associated with it. Call-Only ads are charged a normal Cost-Per-Click (CPC) just as you would with a standard text ad. 

Call-Only Ads are great for customers whose priority is quickly finding a business that is trustworthy but can immediately address their needs, such as a tow truck company. By eliminating the extra step in having customers be directed to your website, call-only ads increase the chances of converting high-intent customers with just a simple tap to call. 

#5 Consider Using Local Service Ads: Get More Qualified Leads with Less Effort

Local Service Ads (LSAs) are a powerful tool to increase your click-through rate, specifically for service-based businesses. This includes plumbers, electricians, lawyers, real estate agents and many others. Unlike traditional PPC ads, Local Service Ads appear at the top of the search results with a “Google Guaranteed” badge. Getting a Google Guaranteed badge is achieved by submitted proof of a license, insurance, registration details, and completed a background check. It’s a great indicator to the customer that your business is trustworthy and reputable. 

The benefit of using Local Services Ads in your business strategy is that you pay per lead, not per click. This means you don’t have to manage the cost of your bids. While traditional paid search ads require more experience with the Google Ads platform and knowledge of how to use the many features it has to offer, LSAs are easier to manage for those less experienced with digital advertising. Local Service Ads are managed separately from Google Ads, and it doesn’t require you to manage ad copy or keywords. Google automatically creates the ad based on your information found from your business page. This strategy offers a low-maintenance and high-trust way to generate new leads to meet their marketing goals as well as increase your business visibility in a competitive local market.

Which Local PPC Strategy Is Right For Your Business?

Local PPC advertising strategy provides small businesses a way to quickly and directly reach their targeted audience. By implementing these strategies – geo-targeting,  location and call extensions, bidding on location-specific keywords, leveraging call-only ads, and exploring Local Service Ads – businesses can efficiently and effectively connect with the right audience in their area within their allotted budget. These strategies complement brick-and-mortar stores looking to increase in person visits to their business as well as other businesses seeking to attract more qualified customers who are ready to to engage in the services you have to offer. The most effective way to determine which strategy offers the best return is by aligning your business model with the customer needs and ensuring you regularly optimize your campaigns on an ongoing basis.

FAQs about Local PPC