Planning Your Digital Advertising Strategy

In today’s rapidly changing world of online marketing, digital advertising offers a cost effective and measurable way for businesses to connect with prospective customers, which makes it an essential element of an integrated marketing plan. Trivera experts Christina Steder, executive vice president; and Ivana Skoko, SEO and PPC Specialist; recently recorded their conversation about the topic and also sat down to tape a couple tips on making digital advertising work on a local level.

The first important tip when planning your digital advertising strategy: understand the same algorithms that power local search — geography, relevance and prominence — also power which local digital ads are surfaced, which means results are user-specific. Google has indicated that 30 percent of mobile queries have local intent and that 82 percent of smartphone users conduct “near me” requests every day. Also remember voice search. It’s a thing. Make sure your ads answer the 5Ws&H (who, what, where, when, why and how). 

Tip #2: Don’t waste money on unqualified clicks. Pick the right type of local ad for your business. There are three types: 

1. Local search ads – these offer a way for you to stand out among your competitors by offering your phone number, your address, hours, reviews, coupons, promoted pins or in-store promotions. Your Google My Business profile must be set up, claimed and verified for local search ads to work. Once GMB is up and running, you can directly advertise your business for given search terms so that your products or services  can be front and center when someone is looking for your category of business.
    
2. Local inventory ads – these are good for retailers who want to display their in-stock products in locations nearby the searcher; these require a shopping feed.
    
3. Local service ads – these ads provide qualified leads and are only available to certain industries (think service trades). In addition, you can consider call-only ads if you offer emergency service.

Tip #3: Set up your campaigns correctly. If you understand your audience and what motivates them, this will be easier for you. You’ll want to target your audience by desired geographic location and segment for who should see your ad. Be sure your ad content is spot on and optimized for voice search. Also be sure your campaign integrates with the rest of your digital marketing strategy. If you’ve never set up a Google ad campaign before, be sure to take advantage of the search engine’s extensive training guides. It’s important to note Google has a preference towards automating campaigns and taking over your ad spend. Be sure you understand the intricacies of campaign structure, targeting and bidding strategies or you won’t know if your campaigns are working. Just because Google can automate your ads doesn’t mean it should. Pay-per-click takes time and experience to be truly successful. 

In summary, to understand local digital advertising, you need to remember people use mobile and desktop differently when searching. Mobile searches usually surface local results, which appear higher in mobile results and are clicked more often if they are at the top of the list. 
 
Lastly, don’t forget to check out Christina and Ivana’s webinar to learn more about strategic digital advertising, including how to write a result-driven advertising plan and a bonus tip on using landing pages.

Photo Credit: Adobe Stock 

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