Over the years we’ve been watching the percentage of Google searches that have a local intent, where consumers are looking for something nearby like your product and your local retailer. This statistic is important as we decide on where to spend local ad dollars. Do the printed Yellow Pages attract more consumers than Google search?
According to this article at MikeBlumenthal.com:
Ed Parsons, the Geospatial Technologist of Google, has indicated in a recent talk at Google PinPoint London 2012 that “about 1 in 3 of queries that people just type into a standard Google search bar are about places, they are about finding out information about locations. …this isn’t Google Maps just people normally looking at Google”.
The number of searches with local intent at Google has long been a topic of interest to marketers, directories and SEOs. In December of 2010, Google indicated that searches with local intent were 1 in 5 of all searches. Recent research by Chitka indicated that the number was closer to 1 in 4. Ed Parson, who should know, says that the number is 1 in 3. Based on Comscore’s September Core Searches that puts the total number of Google searches with some local intent is in the ballpark of 3.6 billion searches a month. Clearly not all of those show pinned results. It is not clear from Parson’t talk but it would appear that the 1 in 3 number applies to the desktop. If one were to then include mobile the % would obviously be higher.
If this is accurate, then there is no doubt that a Google local adword campaign has a very good chance of being more successful and more cost-effective than a newspaper ad buy.
So, how do you get your dealers to move ad dollars from the less effective newspaper to the more effective Google?
You put a landing page building tool inside of your traditional ad builder, you host the landing pages that the dealer builds (so you can easily monitor and track the results) and you automate the buy and bids to Google. You then encourage your dealers by co-oping the buy at 100% if they use your tool.
Not that difficult for you or the dealer. And, it works!