One of the the things that it seems to take awhile for people to understand is how local search advertising is different from local newspaper advertising.
Many people new to writing a keyword ad for Google Local immediately relate it to newspaper advertising and think you need to have a promotion going or it won’t work.
We’ve done several studies over the past several years and it almost always seems to come out the same, the click-thru rates for an adword talking about a promotion or not talking about a promotion work about the same.
Just recently we tested ad copy with and without an offer and three of the four top performers did not have an offer.
Consumers searching on Google have for the most part decided they need a new lawn mower, set of tires, dishwasher or whatever and are looking for a good place to learn more about the product. So, you don’t have to lead with a special offer, it’s more about convincing the consumer that you know what you’re talking about and can help them decide what is best for them. And, that message plays out on the landing page.
In our last test we were able to prove that if a dealer spent $1,000 on Goolge local they would get over 1,000 consumers to come to their landing page without offering any discount. The thought of spending $1,000 on a local newspaper ad without an offer is almost laughable to most dealers, that would be like throwing money away.
The longer brands encourage their dealers to spend money on newspaper advertising without offering an Internet solution too is also like throwing money away.