Local Ads: how to generate more in-store traffic?

Adapt to a constantly changing environment

For several years now, we have observed an exponential e-commerce development that has had an impact on in-store traffic. According to the latest studies conducted, 85% of consumers get information on the Internet before making a physical purchase.

This change in consumer habits reflects a reality that every franchise network must face: the digitalization of the customer’s purchasing path.

So we asked ourselves the question:

How to adapt to this digitalization and how to generate more in-store traffic? And above all, how to increase online visibility of physical locations?

In this article, we will see together why you should use local Google Ads campaigns and how you can use them for your franchise network.

Summary

1. What are Google Ads Local campaign?
2. Why use Google Ads local campaigns?
3. How to improve your local visibility via Google Ads?
4. Get started now!

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What are Google Ads Local campaigns? 

Google Ads local campaigns allow your company to communicate to your potential customers all the information they need to visit your points of sale.

The objective of these paid campaigns is to generate traffic in your physical locations. They are part of a digital Drive-to-Store strategy.

Unlike organic results, i.e. natural results, local campaigns appear in the top of search results, and allow you to attract consumers who are interested in products or services similar to what you are offering.

These campaigns work with Google Business Profiles and automatically serve your ads on the Search Network, Display Network, Google Maps, YouTube and Gmail on mobile, using Google’s algorithm to optimize your performance. The perimeter targeting allows you to target users near you using their location.

Why use Google Ads local campaigns? 

87% of shoppers now begin product searches online 

Retail Dive

In just a few clicks, they can get all the information they need to choose, or not, to visit one of your locations: opening hours, address, phone number, customer reviews…

 👉 Appearing in the first results is therefore crucial for a business.

A few insightful figures: 

• 86% of consumers use Google Maps to find the location of a business (Hubspot, 2022).
• 76% of consumers look at online presence before physically visiting a business (Cision, 2021)
• 68% of all website visits in 2020 came from mobile devices (Perficient, 2020)

So it’s important to optimize your online presence to differentiate yourself from your competitors and generate more in-store traffic. And one of the best ways to improve the local visibility of your outlets is to use Google Ads Local campaigns.

Here are the 4 main reasons to use Google Ads local campaigns:

1. Targeting: thanks to Google’s “machine learning”, the algorithm displays the right message to the right person, at the right place and at the right time. By targeting specific keywords and a specific location, local campaigns allow you to reach a highly qualified audience.
2. Customer experience: information is easily accessible (store name, description, opening hours…). The number and quality of reviews can also reassure consumers and encourage them to take action.
3. Proximity: seeing online that a company sells what they are looking for increases the probability that the consumer will go to the point of sale, especially in the case of an urgent purchase. But it also increases online purchases via the company’s e-commerce options, reassuring them that they can make returns or exchanges.
4. Automation: campaigns are automated and require little time, allowing you to focus on your core business.

In short, Google Ads local campaigns are powerful solutions to generate qualified local traffic to points of sale! However, they require time and a certain expertise when preparing the resources (visuals, video, keywords, titles and descriptions).

How to improve your local visibility via Google Ads? 

First of all, how to design your Google Ads Local campaigns?

In order to start a local campaign, you have several strategies that we will briefly expose:

1. Entrust the whole of your Google Ads campaigns to a specialized agency
2. Build your campaigns with the help of Google Ads campaign experts
3. Do your own Google Ads campaigns

Each option has its own advantages and disadvantages: 

• For the first option, by entrusting your campaign to experts, you won’t waste time on set-up. However, an all-inclusive service has a cost. 
• For the second option, you keep control over your campaign set-up with expert’s help.
• Finally, for the last option, you have complete control and can move forward with your own testing. However, if you’re inexperienced, you’ll spend more time creating the different assets (keywords, titles, descriptions, visuals and video) and spend more on testing.

Want to learn more about designing local Google Ads campaigns? Check out our article “The benefits of Google local campaigns”.

The key points of your campaigns: targeting, audience and content

56% of European web traffic is on smartphones (Hubspot – 2021). On average, 1 in 2 users use Google searches as a source of inspiration to buy a new product (Statista – 2021). 

Positioning yourself in this type of search seems quite relevant if the goal is to generate in-store traffic. By intervening in this loop, you can attract potential customers during events, offers or promotions occuring at your locations.

The key will be to have relevant Google Ads Local campaigns in order to differentiate yourself from your local competitors, but also from your online competitors. This requires good targeting!

The targeting is at several levels: 

• The keywords choice: the keywords used in your campaigns must be relevant to your local audiences, especially when it comes to highlighting seasonal promotions, such as Easter eggs for example.
• The perimeter around the Google Business profile: set the perimeter where you want to reach potential customers.

💡 Be careful, if your franchise is located in an urban area, recommend that your franchisees respect a certain perimeter (determined beforehand by the network headoffice) so as not to compete with each other and spend more marketing budget.

• The visuals: prepare different visuals variations, in the different formats indicated. Google optimizes the campaign according to the results of these assets.

In short, get started now!

The goal of Google Ads local campaigns will be to allow you to generate more in-store traffic to your locations.

Google Ads local campaigns in 3 key points: 

• Promote local offers and events, to a geographically qualified audience
• Detail information about the establishment and location.
• Multi-channel delivery: Search, Display, Maps, and YouTube

Given their reach and profitability, Google Ads local campaigns are a must in a retail network marketing strategy. Local Ads will be one of your best tools to compete with e-commerce brands. 

Want to know more about how to set up local Google Ads campaigns for a franchise network? Contact us! ⬇️

You can start a campaign now with the tips we’ve given you while refining as you go. 

Source: Statista, Hubspot, Google Ads