Local PPC management is something many local businesses will investigate at one point or another. The reason for this is quite simple. PPC advertising, via platforms such as Google ads is a fast and effective way to drive new customers to your business online.
There are a few different forms of PPC that business can consider, and their industry will often dictate which is the best fit.
The main platforms are:
- Google ads
- Facebook ads
- Bing ads
Google Ads For Local PPC
Advertising on Google is usually the most common choice, and this is the service that is provided by the majority of local PPC management companies.
Google search ads are extremely targeted. If somebody is searching for a local plumber via Google, then it makes sense for a plumber to advertise where their potential customers are already looking. This is also true of any other local business, where people are actively searching for them online.
Google ads also offer Display advertising and video advertising via YouTube and across the web. Both are less targeted than search. However, if implemented correctly, display and YouTube can also do very well for certain types of local business.
Bing Ads For Local PPC
If Search advertising works well for your business, one of the most common ways to scale your campaign is to use Bing Ads. Search advertising via Bing ads is almost identical to advertising on Google search. The platforms are set up very similarly and most of the features are nearly identical.
Bing ads gives local advertisers the ability to tap into traffic outside of Google. This includes Bing, Yahoo and AOL and they offer free promotional codes for new advertisers
Facebook Ads For Local PPC
Advertising on Facebook is completely different compared with search advertising. However, it can still work extremely well for certain local businesses.
The main thing you need to consider with this big social network is the people using it are not actively looking for your product of service. For this reason, certain industries will not do as well as others.
If we take our plumber example from earlier, most people aren’t searching on Facebook when they have a burst pipe. However, if you owned something like a restaurant it might be a much better fit. A restaurant owner could offer things like deals and discounts to encourage people to come in. They can also advertise events and special nights. These are all things that could be achieved very well via Facebook advertising.
Local PPC Management vs DIY management
One of main question any local business will have is. “Should I do this myself, or should I pay for local PPC management?”
There are a few things to consider here:
- How much spare time do you have? All forms of PPC have a learning curve to using the platform. This means that setting up a campaign for somebody brand new can take a long time. This can also result in campaigns being set up poorly, which can end up costing a lot in wasted ad spend over time.
- Are you interested to learn more about a platform like Google Ads, or Facebook ads? If you genuinely are interested and enjoy it, then maybe it is something you could do yourself. Just remember there are a lot of things to learn. You may find it takes a while before you can confidently run your own ads.
- Will running advertising campaigns take your focus away from your main business? The fact is you are running a business. There will usually far more important things you can be doing than running ads.The advantage of hiring a local PPC management company is you don’t have to worry about how your campaigns are doing. This means you can concentrate on running your business.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Overall, there are many ways you can approach local PPC management. There are several different PPC platforms to choose from and there are plenty of qualified people who can help you with the process.
Local PPC Set up Recommendations
Here at CPS Media we have been working as a local PPC management company since 2011. One of the main things we would always recommend is paying for a professional set up. By paying for your account set up, you know that things are set up correctly. This can save you a lot of money in the long run.
One of the biggest ways business owners lose money with PPC is wasted budget, from poorly set up campaigns. When we audit accounts, it is not uncommon to see 30%+ of an advertiser’s budget being wasted. This is almost always due to bad campaign set up.
To illustrate this let’s use an example. Consider a local business spending £30/day on ads, this would equal roughly £900/month in total ad spend. If the advertiser was wasting 30% of their entire ad budget, due to poor set up, it would be costing them roughly £270/month.
Account setup from a local PPC management company will usually cost somewhere between £300-£600. That is roughly 1-2 months of wasted budget. Also, you can often get good deals on set up if you are using them to manage the account going forward.
Local PPC Management Recommendations
Whether you manage your own campaigns, or use a local PPC management agency, is entirely up to you. The main things you need to consider, is the time it will take and your level of interest.
Good quality, local PPC management will generally start at around £200/month, this will usually include, all the time working on the account, reporting, plus email and telephone support. You need to ask yourself how much your time is worth, and will you be able to do as much in the account as a professional advertiser.
In most cases you can’t really lose hiring a local expert. The main advantage is you know your campaign will be run professionally. Plus, you have the added advantage of learning how they manage the account. This means if you do decide to take over in the future you will be in a much better position to run the account effectively.
We hope you found this article on local PPC management useful. If you have any questions, or would like to talk with a local PPC expert, click here or call us on 0800 043 3034.