Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Bing are working hard to overcome the hesitance of small businesses to buy local search advertising because selling ads to the millions of small businesses in the US is crucial to their future ad revenue growth.
Google has had a long interest in selling search advertising to local businesses, but sofar with limited success. It has relied primarily on its self-serve, auction-based Adwords system to sell the bulk of its search ads. In this scenario advertisers go to the Google Adwords ad network to make bids on keywords that best match their products and/or services. Their ads then appear in the Google search results when users conduct searches on the keywords. Advertisers pay Google per ad click.
Why Most Small Businesses Are Not Buying Search Advertising
There are a number of reasons why many small businesses are not buying local search advertising, but the most obvious ones are that they simply don’t have the budget, time and expertise necessary to manage a competitive Google AdWords search advertising campaign that will get them a positive return on investment. They need ongoing hand-holding in the ad-buying and management process, something Google is not able to provide.
Google Boost
In an effort to boost revenues from local search advertising Google recently released Google Boost, a new component of Google Places. Boost is currently available only in select US markets for a minimum $50.00 per month. The service offers to deliver three-line text ads (company name, address, phone number and description), including a destination web site link, average reviews and star ratings and a link to the business Place page, in the Sponsored Links section on the Google.com and Google Maps search result pages when people in the business’s vicinity search for related business keyword phrases. When a Map appears alongside the results, a blue pin will also help users find their location on the map.
Google Place Page
Earlier this year Google converted their Local Business Center into Google Places. Since then they’ve been making a big push to get businesses to either set-up a Place page or claim an already existing one. Rather than go looking for information about local businesses themselves, Google is putting these pages in the hands of those businesses so they can provide Google with the most accurate and up-to-date information about their business. In order to participate in any of Google’s local advertising initiatives, having a Place page for a business has now become a minimum requirement.
How Google Boost Works
Once a Place page has been established, or claimed, businesses owners will be able to create Boost ads using the Places dashboard within their Google Places account. The set-up is straight forward. Advertisers are prompted to provide an ad description for their business (two lines of 35 characters each, the standard set by Google AdWords). Next they are giving users the option to determine where they want users who are clicking on Boost ads to land; on the Place page or on the business web site. After that advertisers are provided with a list of categories to choose from to help Google decide where their ads will be served in the search results. Finally Google recommends a monthly ad budget for clicks that advertisers can override with a custom ad budget.
Campaign Control. The Boost ad campaign comes with some restrictions. Advertiser control over where ads appear is very limited. As mentioned, Google provides advertisers with a list of potential categories with which they can associate their ads. Google comes up with these categories by scanning at the content of the advertisers’ Place page. Once a category is selected Google decides on the rest. Advertisers do not have any control over which specific keywords are triggering ads. Google decides for which searches ads will appear based on the categories that where selected.
Along with the ad description advertisers have provided during the campaign set-up, additional information appears in Boost ads. The ad content will also include the advertisers’ business name, address, phone number and a small snippet of information about reviews and ratings all of which are pulled directly from the advertisers’ Place page.
Boost Ad Location. Boost ads can appear on the search results pages in Google.com, where it could appear in the “Sponsored Links” section at the top of the page or on the right-hand side of the page, or in Google Maps, where a Boost ad may show up above the search results. It’s important to remember that when a Boost ad is displayed on Google Maps it will not affect the ranking of the free organic listings. This makes it possible for a business to appear twice in the Google Maps search results on the same search query.
Campaign Budget. Like AdWords ads, Boost ads are pay-per-click and therefore advertisers only pay for clicks to the Place page or business web site. As long as advertisers have a sufficient ad budget their Boost ad continues to show on the search results pages. Unlike a regular AdWords pay-per-click campaign however, advertisers do not have the ability to set a bid for each click. Google only gives advertisers control over their monthly budget, but advertisers can set whatever budget they like, as long as it is at or above the $50.00 monthly minimum. Businesses are only charged at most once a month when they reach their budgeted amount.
For local businesses that have already an active Place page in Google and are looking for an easy way to get more traffic Boost ads are a good option to consider. The Place page dashboard will provide an easy guide for setting up a campaign, and will also provide businesses with basic ad performance statistics to monitor the traffic the ads are generating and at what click cost. Businesses that are trying Boost ads must remember that they are trading control for ease-of-use. But for businesses that do not have the time and expertise to manage a full pay-per-click campaign, Boost Ads is an effective online advertising channel to consider.
