Simple Guide To Google Ads For Local Businesses [+ 7 best practices]

Last Updated on 22 August 2024 by Stu Edwards

More than half of the world’s population has access to the internet in some form which makes it essential for businesses of all sizes to use online advertising to reach their target audience.

Google Ads has the biggest ad network that connects your local business with your target audience in numerous ways (via Google search, Google Maps, Display, etc.).

Our guide explores how local businesses can set up and use Google Ads to generate leads and sales with 7 best practices to improve Google Ads for local business conversion rates.

Why use Google Ads for Your Local Business?

Here’s a list of the primary reasons why you should consider using Google Ads for your local business and how your business can benefit from it:

• Targeted geographic ads: Google Ads offer the best way to reach and connect with local audiences in a specific region. For example, you can target people through search ads who are within a 5 km radius of your service area. Anyone who searches for one of your target queries in a specific location (town, city, state, zip code) will see your ad.
• Cost-effective: Digital ads, in general, are quite cost-effective than ‘traditional’ advertising. You can be much more targeted with full control through Google Ads. If you wanted, you could run a Google Ads campaign for £5 per day… That’s not a possibility with TV ads that can cost more than £100K to run a 30-second commercial on national television
• Fast results: Google Ads gives you instant access to click and traffic. As soon as your ad goes live, you start receiving traffic which can be tracked through Google Analytics and Google Ads dashboard
• Measurable performance: Google Ads provides you with detailed analytics including attribution, sales and conversion tracking, and traffic statistics. Metrics like cost per conversion, ROAS etc are automatically calculated and reported in Google Ads (provided you’ve set up things correctly)
• Flexible ad formats: Google Ads offer a wide range of campaign types and numerous ad formats. You can choose from Search text ads, Display banner ads, videos on YouTube, Shopping ads and more. Each one has its wide range of formats that make it easy to connect with your target audience in a format that suits you and your potential customer
• Local assets and features: Google Ads provides multiple ‘local business friendly’ ad assets such as Call, Location and Reviews assets. These assets make your ad prominent in search results page (SERP) leading to high engagement and CTR.

7 Best Practices Local Businesses Should Follow on Google Ads

If you are getting started with Google Ads for local business, these best practices will help you get the most from your campaigns and Google Ads account:

1. Connect your Google Business profile

Connecting your Google Business Profile to Google Ads is a must.

If your a local business and don’t have a Google Business Profile, go and set that up here.

It is essential for locally focused ads as Google pulls data from your business profile to show in Maps listings, such as the business name, location, address, services phone number, reviews, etc.

Research shows that 42% of local searchers click into map pack results, which highlights the importance of connecting your Business Profile with your ads account.

You can then connect your Business Profile from the Assets tab during campaign creation.

2. Use location targeting to only target your local customers

The best way to use Google Ads for local businesses is to use specific location targeting to reach your ideal customers.

For example, if you have local craft beer delivery business, you might only want to delivery to towns 20km from your business.

Specific location targeting will help control ad costs, as you won’t receive clicks and orders from people who live outside your coverage area.

Ultimately, optimising your location targeting (and exclusions) will improve conversion rate, lower cost per lead, increase ROAS, and reduces budget wastage.

3. Optimise ad copy with local keywords

A simple but highly effective rule to improve the CTR and conversion rate of your locally focused ads is to use ‘local’ keywords in the ad copy.

It provides you with two distinct benefits:

1. You can target the right search intent as more than half of Google searches have a local search intent
2. You can filter invalid clicks which helps you save cost.

Here’s an example of a Responsive Search ad (RSA) with local/regional keywords in the ad copy:

4. Utilise ad assets (extensions)

Ad Assets (used to be called ‘Extensions’) are an important part in the background of a locally focused Google Ads campaign.

They’ll make your ad prominent, visually pleasing and more relevant. They’re directly correlated with CTR improvements too.

Here’s an example of various Assets used in Responsive Search ads:

You can see that these 3 ads offer a lot of additional information to the user. We can see Call Outs, Sitelinks, Seller Rating and Image assets.

All of these can (and should!) be set up at the Campaign and Adgroup level in your account.

5. Schedule ads to run during business hours

Keep in mind that your ads will run throughout the day, 24/7 by default, which means your ads might trigger when your business is closed.

Use the Ad schedule setting under your Campaign settings to set days and times when you want your ads to run:

You can add customised times for each day of the week based on your store’s timing.

Tip: If you have a Call asset running, you can control when this is visible to users, in case you’re away from the office and can’t take calls, but still want to run ads and drive users to your site.

6. Enable call tracking

Call tracking lets you track conversions generated by Call assets. The calls from ads are diverted to Google’s call forwarding number which tracks call conversions.

You can enable call reporting in account settings from your Google Ads account:

Calls are counted as conversions based on call length. You can set the call duration setting in seconds to count it as a conversion.

Tip: Setting the call duration to 3+ minutes will improve the conversion data you feed into Google. If you set it to 10 seconds, you might end up tracking wrong numbers, people calling for directions etc.

There are loads of third-party call tracking tools which are much more robust than what Google offers, and come with a range of features, reporting and in-platform analytics.

7. Track your conversions!

This isn’t just applicable to local businesses running Google Ads, but to everyone! Tracking conversions is critical when it comes to understanding the ROI that the channel provides.

Deciding on which conversions to track is specific to your business.

Here are a few examples of conversion actions you might want to track:

• Calls directly from ads
• Calls from your website
• Website form submissions
• Email clicks
• PDF downloads

You can enable conversions from your account settings under Conversions:

You can adjust all your conversion settings, ranging from view-through conversions, engaged-view conversions and more.

Setting up and managing Google Ads for local businesses

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to set up your Google Ads account and create a local ads campaign.

1: Create a Google Ads account

Click here to create your Google Ads account. You have to sign in from your Google Account to get started.

It is fairly easy as you have to follow instructions after logging in via your Google Account.

The key information you need to add include are your business details, domain name and payment method.

2: Define your campaign goals

Once your Google Ads account is set up, you need to create a new campaign for your local business. Click Create and select Campaign from the dashboard:

Select the campaign objective and campaign type based on your preferences. For a local businesses getting started, we suggest you start with Search only.

Select ‘Create a campaign without a goal’s guidance’, then Search.

3: Set up geographical targeting to target local customers

You can choose geographical targeting in two ways:

1. Select locations by country/state/region/ or zip/post code. This is a simple way to reach a wider audience in a specific location.
2. Choose a radius by adding the name of a place or coordinates and the radius distance to target people who are in that specific radius.

Then under Location options, select Presence: People in or regularly in your included locations

Presence or interest may show ads to users who have shown interest in your included locations.

These could be people in Nigeria who have an interest in London.

This targeting setting mistake is one of the most common things we see during our Google Ads audits. Don’t make the same mistake!

Tip: You should also exclude locations.

4: Write compelling Responsive Search Ads and Assets

This is assuming you’ve created a Search campaign.

Your RSA Headlines and Descriptions must be persuasive and inspire to the user to want to click your ad and convert.

Follow these best practices to write compelling ad copies for your local ads:

• Layer in your target keywords to the search intent to highlight that your ad is related to the search
• Be descriptive and specific about your offer and service
• Ideally the ad copy should be consistent with landing page you send users

For your RSA assets you need to include:

• Headlines
• Descriptions
• Display URL Path

You can add additional asset types to supercharge your ad that include:

• Sitelinks
• Promotions
• Business name
• Logo
• Prices
• Calls
• Callouts
• Lead forms
• Structured snippets.

5: Monitor and optimise performance

Google Ads require monitoring and optimisation to ensure it remains a cost effective channel for your business.

It’s likely you’ll see Clicks and traffic immediately, but dialling in to what’s working well (and what isn’t working) in your campaigns requires analysis and optimisation.

…Which is why you should really engage with a growth focused Google Ads agency.

Ongoing optimisations based on the the analysis of performance include:

• Low-performing ads and keywords
• Search term report analysis, and staying on top of negative keywords
• Bid adjustments based on ad performance
• Custom experiments and A/B tests (in account and on the website) to improve performance.

What about Google Local Services Ads?

Google Local Services Ads is a type of local ad for service businesses. It is used to collect leads via phone calls and messages.

Google Local Services Ads are only available to limited business types only.

Here’s an example of how Google Local Services Ads appear in SERPs:

The Local Service Ads have a business name, phone number, reviews, address, services offered, and other key details. (On mobile, the phone number will be immediately clickable.

You can set up Local Services Ads by defining your cost per lead manually or letting Google decide it for you.

There’s little you can control about these ads in terms of visibility and structure, but they’re great as you only pay Google for the lead not the click, and they tend to appear higher in the search results page.

Local Services Ads vs PPC – what’s the difference?

Local Services Ads are pay per lead ads as opposed to standard Google PPC ads where you pay per click.

The major differences between these two ad types are:

• Local Services Ads don’t have any keyword targeting or bidding, while PPC ads you select and target specific keywords, and the bidding’s either manual or automated
• Local Services Ads only appear at the top of SERPs whereas PPC ads appear both at the top above organic results (and in other places on the page)
• Local Services Ads are automated and offer little to no control over editing. PPC ads are fully customisable and let you tweak your ads the way you like.

Facebook Ads or Google Ads for Local Businesses?

Meta is the worlds largest social network that lets you run ads on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp from a single dashboard.

When choosing between Facebook and Google Ads for your local business, there are a few things to consider:

1. Google Ads target users who are actively searching for something. Facebook Ads are generally ‘intrusive’ as people aren’t typically looking for products or services browsing their feed watching cat videos. They’re not in an an active buying mode
2. Targeting a specific geographic region for your local business works for both Facebook and Google Ads and it’s something you can leverage on both ad networks.
3. Google Ads has specific campaign types and ad formats for local businesses such as local ads, shopping ads, Google Maps, and more. Meta Ads don’t offer local business-relevant campaigns and ad formats.
4. Google Ads offer numerous ad types and assets for local businesses while Facebook has a limited ad type and format inventory.

Ultimately, Google Ads is the king of capturing high-intent traffic.

When users search on Google, they’re actively researching, looking to make a decision, or seeking a solution.

Take these (unfortunate) real-world examples:

• Your toilet explodes – you’d likely search ‘emergency plumber near me‘
• You added the wrong fuel to to your car – you’d likely search ‘added diesel instead of petrol to car‘
• You notice termites at your grandma’s house – you’d likely search ‘termite pest control quote‘
• You find a hole in the roof in your attic and all your Christmas decorations are wet – you’d likely search ‘roofing repairs near me‘

For businesses who value providing services around those examples, look no further than Google Ads.

Meta and it’s targeting options can’t compete when it comes to those situations.

Conclusion

Google Ads for local businesses is a must if you want to be front-and-centre when users search for things related to your business or services.

If you need a helping hand from an experienced, friendly, qualified agency, reach out to us and book a call with us today.