Infoserve Group

An interesting study from Borrell Associates, with suggestions that most small-business owners are turning away from local paid search campaigns.

We have long argued that appearing next to search results is the best way for local businesses to reach potential customers, but is support wavering? Is this down to cost? Lack of results? New and better strategies?

For a start, we don’t believe local businesses are turning their back on paid search advertising and our retention figures would back this up. With search engines still being the most popular way for consumers to find local businesses, it simply just makes sense to mirror their movements. Plus online ads produce measurable results, so I don’t think there is a better marketing strategy out there.

That’s not to say that paid search advertising isn’t complex and time consuming though, which is why we would always advise SMEs to employ someone to manage your account for you.

But, that equally doesn’t mean you should sit back either, so make sure you keep them on their toes - find out where your ads will be running to see the results for yourself, make sure you review your key words too (rather than simply rely on your account managers all the time), and use Google Analytics to fine tune your campaign.

Finally, one of the most interesting points I’ve read recently is that paid search advertisement isn’t just a quick-fix solution either. Like optimisation, it helps build your brand, your visibility and recognition too.

You can find some more top tips about Google Adwords here on a previous post

For any SMEs that are unsure of where to start when it comes to online marketing, it’s always worth going back to basics: which strategy gives you the best return on investment?

With traditional marketing – such as advertising in the Yellow Pages or in a magazine - it’s always been difficult to judge which particular advert has been effective or whether it’s actually generated any tangible leads.

But that’s the beauty of online marketing and web analytics; you can evaluate exactly what works, and more importantly, what doesn’t.

It’s certainly nothing new, but free packages like Google Analytics are incredible simple to use and are helping more and more SMEs with tight budgets spend their money wisely. They can show you exactly what a customer does once they get on to your site, where your visitors came from and which pages are attracting the most attention.

As Google AdWords provide a good way to advertise specific goods and services you offer to people searching, you can also quickly evaluate and optimise your online Adword spend to work out which keywords are drawing in the crowds and what makes the most money for you.

So take some time out to make sure you are getting value for money – it’s easy to forget that you can always counteract a lack of budget through spending wisely.

After commenting on how people are searching – and highlighting that nearly one in nine search in a particular location – we’ve had requests to outline some of the best ways to exploit this.

For many search engine optimisation (SEO) campaigns or online advertising accounts, getting traffic through to your website is the number one priority. Actually targeting specific customers – such as those local to you - however, requires a more tailored approach and local search is one way to ensure you are reaching exactly the right people.

Local pay per click (PPC) campaigns, such as a Google Adwords, is one option. Here, you can target potential customers who are searching on your doorstep, e.g. “Restaurant in Leeds” because ads will only show on searches carried out within e.g. 10 miles of your business.

Another option is to be listed on Local Search engines. With paper directories and phonebooks becoming a thing of the past, more and more potential clients are turning to online directories, so perhaps look at sites like Yahoo! Local or industry specific websites, like www.eatsomewhere.co.uk, for ideas.

Alternatively, local SEO is proving to be a very a good long-term strategy for increasing your online presence. It’s just a question of thinking about how people may search for you and gearing your website towards this, e.g. “Restaurants in LS1”.  It’s definitely worth reading this article here from Hitwise about postcode searches, which also highlights the potential for SEO and how people are searching.