Essential PPC Campaign Management Practices for Local Search Marketers

Local search marketers can capture a lot of quality leads by effectively leveraging Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. Managing a PPC campaign with Google AdWords can be tricky, but with the right direction, it can be immensely powerful for local business marketing.

 To help your local business drive quality traffic and leads to its website using PPC advertising, below are a few key practices to help you make the most of your Google AdWords campaign.

Precise Keyword Research & Selection

Keyword research and selection is significantly influential to the success of any search marketing campaign. Take the time to conduct a thorough round of keyword research using the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. But what's more than simply choosing the most attractive keywords, is analyzing those keyword by actually searching for them in Google (along with your geo-modifier.)

The best tool for keyword research is Google search. By searching your keywords, you'll be able to see exactly what competitors are bidding on what terms, as well as what their PPC ads look like. This will enable you to structure your bids, and write your ad copy, accordingly.

Ensure Your PPC Campaigns Are Geo-Graphically Targeted

One of the most important practices in setting up a local PPC advertising campaign is to ensure that the geographic parameters have been set. This is done during the initial phases of setting up a campaign, and can also be modified by viewing the campaign's settings.

 With PPC campaign management via Google AdWords, you can set the geographic parameters by city, zip code, or a specified mile radius from a specific zip or city. You can also include multiple surrounding areas in one PPC campaign. This makes management much easier, without having to build out multiple PPC campaigns for numerous surrounding areas.

Develop Effective PPC Landing Pages

When a PPC landing page is a generic inside page of your website, you could be missing out on conversions by not integrating the essential elements for PPC landing pages. This why you should always creative PPC-specific landing pages for your campaign.

 When developing effective PPC landing pages, always have a very obvious call-to-action. This can be a button, form, or other eye-grabbing message that compels users to take action. This will help to ensure that you make the most of your PPC search traffic and convert more visitors on your website.

Leverage Google AdWords' Ad Extension

Google AdWords offers a number of "Ad Extensions" which are free features to make you ads pop even more in the search results. The most effective Ad Extensions for local PPC campaign management are "Location Extensions" and "Call Extensions."

 With Location Extensions, the address of your business appears in the PPC ad. This helps to establish great credibility in your ad and business. Call Extensions enable search engine users to place a direct call to your business from the ad itself. This can be very effective when targeting mobile-based search users.

 For more tips and insights about PPC best practices, visit the Web Presence Group. In addition to a free audit, you can take advantage of many great articles about Google AdWords PPC campaign management and PPC optimization.