Google, and other search engines, have given advertisers the ability to show advertisements to a pre-selected audience. Using tools, you can easily limit who sees your ads based on the state, city, or even limit it down to a specified zip code. Advertising your business locally gives you many benefits.
Below, I have created a list of what I think are the top 5 benefits you will see from local online advertising:
1) By advertising locally, your business can advertise to a HUGE market on a shoe-string budget!
Google processes 1,000,000,000 search queries per day. You can think of that as 1,000,000,000 “potential buyers” per day. Using traditional advertising (TV/Radio/etc) ads are simply broadcast to a wide range of audiences. But Google, and other local online advertising platforms, allow you to limit your ads to only people searching for products and services like the ones you offer. On top of that, you can set daily budgets to verify that your costs stay as low as you wish.
Never before have advertisers had the ability to advertise to such a large audience for such a low rate.
2) Lower Your Advertising Expense!
There is no doubt that TV, Radio, and the Yellow Pages have a large audience. But, these mediums also come with a hefty price tag.
I want you to do this: This year when the yellow page salesmen come around, cancel your ad. Seriously, just cancel it. Then take what you were spending on your yellow page ad and spend HALF of it online. For 90% of businesses, you will get better results. I know it because I’ve seen it happen.
3) Increased foot traffic
Foursquare, Google Places, and a number of social sites are a great way to publicize deals, events, and specials that are going on in your store. Additionally, Google shows local stores along with a Google Map above the organic search results (in most searches). If you haven’t done it already, go to Google Places and add your local store at http://www.google.com/local. It’s easy and it’s free. If you don’t want to do it, call us and we’ll do it for you.
4) Customer Loyalty and Branding
Google and other search engines generally allow you to create text ads and image ads. While image ads are less popular, they are an awesome tool to build your brand. Using the tools that Google provides, you can design a cool banner that will burn the logo and the name of the company into your customer’s minds.
5) Make Money While You Sleep
The last benefit is for those of you that have an e-commerce store, donation tab, or online payment processing. It is a great feeling when you wake up and realize that someone has given you money and there was absolutely zero interaction. Call me lazy, but I love it when money randomly shows up in my bank account.
