A great number of searches on Google are local. For a small price, compared to other media, you can get traffic and customers by using local ppc advertising for your business. It costs less than mailings and fliers; is more trackable than billboards and will at times contact more people than an ad in the Yellow Pages.
The Kelsey group reports that of the millions of internet searches 60 percent are local. Others estimate that it is as many as 75 percent, but even if the percentage was only 20 that is still a whole boatload of searches targeted at locals.
Whatever the number is, local search is undoubtedly the most untapped opportunity in PPC management.
You want to sell weight loss plans, MP3 downloads, high definition TVs, or mortgages nationwide on Google? You can do it, but you’d better strap on your gladiator helmet and prepare for a fight.
However if you happen to be accounting firm, electrician, handyman, or foot doctor, the battle is easily won. The competitors in your market most likely have no idea what they are doing.
This is a prime place for you to consult, with your neighbor businesses; setting up campaigns for them. Look at this: .
Some businesses are paying out a thousand dollars a month for Yellow Pages ads. They are already spending the money.
The representatives for Yellow Pages also sell Internet Yellow Pages listings, this helps make businesses more aware of internet marketing. However these reps are not selling Google or Yahoo ads.
Companies like Google are so busy dealing with existing opportunities, putting reps on the street to sell PPC to local businesses is a long way off at best. (There are rumors of partnerships with Yellow Pages companies though.)
If you are dealing with a category where mail-order in not possible and the items must be gotten locally, then the clicks are cheap. Check this out. If you search for ‘brake shop’ in Chicago only 6 ads will come up, and one is for E-bay. Do I hear a bid for nickel clicks?
Web savvy local advertisers are very rare, and this is not going to change any time soon. Running a retail store and running an online store are two entirely different things. So for local yokels, “In the land of the blind, the man with one eye gets to be king.”
If you can accept the fact that many keywords will only produce a few local clicks a month, the return on investment (ROI) on what you do get is extraordinary.
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