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Is Your Localized PPC Campaign REALLY working?
by Kristin Neperud
Submitted: Monday, February 25, 2008
I’ve been working with my client, Storhouse Storage out of Oxnard, CA for awhile on their Google Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign and NOT seeing the results that we were expecting. We have tweaked things and tweaked things, but still it has been quite the poor showing. (And I was feeling more and more like an idiot.)
Frustrated, we decided to meet and discuss some SEO (Search Engine Optimization) options instead. The day before the meeting I took a look again, and found some VERY interesting things.
Their campaigns are all set up with a Google’s Local targeting PPC ads. Which, “Set your ads to appear only to people searching in a particular state, city, or region. Now it's easy to target online customers within, say, 25 miles of your front door.” - Google
(FYI-For the most part local targeted ad are an awesome thing to do if you are not a national company.)
Since I am in the targeted area that their PPC campaign is suppose to cover, I did a search for “Storage Facilities” for which they should come up no problem. Nothing. So I started looking through who was showing up and noticed – they were all from San Francisco. But they are 375 miles away! Why am I getting results from them?
Actually, EVERYTHING I search for was giving me San Francisco results. So I called Strohouse and asked them to run the search - they were getting all LA results. Now Oxnard is close to LA, but not THAT close.
We are no detectives, but what we think is happening is the following...
Google uses two primary factors to run it’s localized searches:
1. The text you search with.
2. Your IP Address
“The AdWords system may analyze a searcher's query (for example ‘London florist’) to establish what location that person is searching for. The system may also take note of the person's Internet Protocol (IP) address to see where he or she is searching from.” - Google
We’ve been able to track down 3 internet service providers in the area. One, whose IP address is bringing up San Francisco results. One who’s IP address is bringing up Los Angeles results, and one which is bringing up results for the location it should be bringing up. Which makes sense why we were seeing SOME results for our keywords, but not a lot.
So our Google ads are working – sort of.
I would like to mention that I queried Google and they were very generous about trying to help me out. It is not their fault (they are working with the technology that is currently out there) and they do disclose how it all works, but… I wish there had been a little more of a forewarning. (Oh well, at least I don’t feel like SUCH an idiot anymore.)
So now we are looking at two main issues for Local Targeted PPC Google campaigns...
If you are doing a local PPC campaign,
1. How do you insure that people in your area are actually seeing your ad?
(I.e. People still are not seeing my client, Storhouse Storage’s ad! Now what?
P.S. It is really one of the most impressive storage places I have ever seen.)
2. If I set up a local ad, and it is showing up in a location 375 miles away, how can I stop them from clicking on my ad and wasting my money?
So if you fall into the “My ads are not being seen” category
I would recommend the following:
Make sure you add keywords to your list that include the names of the areas around you (i.e. “Oxnard Storage” and “Ventura Storage” instead of just “Storage”) This is not going to solve your problem, just give you a slightly better chance.
AND look into a good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) plan to try to get you ranked higher in the natural searches.
FYI - If you are in a major metropolitan area your ads are more then likely showing up in your area, so this is probably not going to be a concern for you. You should pay attention to….
What to do if your add is showing up 375 miles away from your location
You may think this may not be that big of a deal, but if the searcher can not identify that the ads they are getting are not local they are probably going to click on them – costing YOU money for a worthless click.
Here are some thoughts…
1. In your copy tell them where you are.
(i.e Premier Indoor Storage
Winner "2007 Facility of the Year"
Brand New Facility in Oxnard, CA)
2. Make sure you have an ad that links to the map. If you do that it appears to add in a line that shows your location. One caution - IF you pause all of your other ads to insure this comes up… make sure you have tested your ad variations enough to be VERY confident that your ad copy is the best performing for you.
If all else fails, contact Google. They are very happy to help with what is in their control.
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