Local Marketing Online: Part 8: Pay Per Click Integration

Contrary to misguided belief, pay per click is not a ‘get rich quick’ local marketing opportunity. That’s not to say you can’t make money but the first thing you need to understand about pay per click search engine marketing programs is that they must be properly set-up and managed for them to fulfill your revenue-generating ambitions and provide you with lasting return-on-investment.

In this part of the series I will explain how pay per click search engine marketing programs can be thoughtfully integrated into your overall strategy to provide you with impactful results that work together with all your online local marketing initiatives to develop opportunities.

Branding is a big part of local marketing. Whether you offer a product, service, or information, you need to develop and reinforce your brand in the local areas you serve so your targeted audience groups think of you when they need what you offer. Online branding means appearing in the top search engine results for the terms related to what you offer. Achieving top listing positions organically for those all-important terms takes time and an on-going commitment to the objective. Although pay per click search engine marketing programs, such as Google’s AdWords, will not directly affect your organic listing results or the development of your online authority, they do provide you with a quick way to get in front of your targeted audience groups while your organic ranking campaign is underway.

Let me give you an example. One of my clients is a local service provider serving several counties in the Carolinas. As part of an overall strategy that involved the launch of a newly designed optimized website, development of social media, claiming listings in Google Places and other web directories, generating online reviews, and a targeted email marketing campaign, we set-up and managed a pay per click AdWords campaign that focused on the principle services and products the company offers.

The objective of the campaign was two-fold: first to attract new customers to the targeted services and secondly, to reinforce and /or expand the reach of the brand. Organic listing results take time to develop but a well-managed AdWords campaign, for example, helps you to start building your targeted audience right away by providing you with a quick way to learn about and respond to their interest in what you offer.

A well-run pay per click search engine marketing campaign is like having a neon sign that flashes every time users search for what you offer. They may not respond to the ad immediately. But now they know you exist and they have your company name “branded” in their thoughts. Before they reach out to you they may try to find more information online about your company, such as a review on Angie’s List or a shopping site. They will likely visit your website and they may even hope to find information about you on third-party blogs or social media sites. You can start to see how having the other elements of your local marketing strategy in place before you initiate a pay per click campaign is critical to your overall success.

Pay per click search engine marketing programs work best when integrated with a local marketing strategy that covers all the bases concerning how and where potential new business acquires information about your company before deciding to do business with you. It all starts with branding – letting them know you exist and keeping you foremost in their thoughts. From there, you have to use the variety of platforms available to establish your identity and develop your online authority in order to reap the long-term benefits that help you to meet your revenue-generating goals over the long haul.

In Part 9 of the Local Marketing Online series I will talk about the significance of the rise in popularity of Smartphones and the opportunities provided by mobile marketing.

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