YOU'RE REACHING TWO KINDS OF PEOPLE
It seems like the following advice is only for real estate people, but the idea applies in a lot of places. There are two kinds of people looking for your business:
1. A person who lives in your area (your city or state) who may type in "real estate," or "dentist," or "churches," or "restaurants" and expects the results to be from that area-only. You be will there when he comes looking for you.
2. A person may not be in your area at all (or else Google's system can't tell where he is), but is still asking for your area's services. He goes to Google and types in "movers in Palo Alto," "Palo Alto real estate," or "hotels Palo Alto," hoping to get Palo-Alto-only results. He may be traveling on holiday; he may be planning a move; he may be an investor.
He may in fact be from Richmond. But he could be down in Jacksonville. Or way out in Texas. Or in Kentucky. Or Beijing, or Kayo. But he's still searching on Google for you, and he identifies Richmond by name.
Either way, you need to be there, ready to open the door if he happens to come a knocking.
REACH THE FIRST PERSON
Now, because you're aiming at these two kinds of people, you can set up two different Google campaigns for them. Here's how to do just that. When you're first setting up your campaign, select your taget region.
Then you choose your country, followed by your state/province, and even a city or group of cities.
REACH THE SECOND PERSON
If you were advertising for real estate in California, you'd set up a nationwide campaign, possibly even an international campaign, but with local terms like "Los Angeles real estate" and "Yorba Linda real estate." After all, there are likely to be people from all over the country, and maybe even outside the country, who are doing searches on these terms.
So you'd grab a map or a listing of cities from a web site and create a keyword set like this:
California real estate LA real estate Healdsburg real estate Villa Real real estate Santa Monica real estate Buy homes California Buy homes San Francisco Buy homes Bakersfield Buy homes Sausalito
To do this the best way, you would combine a large list of general keywords (the same ones you used on the regionally targeted campaign) with a large list of cities and towns, and then use a spreadsheet to mix and match them together.
Either way, you will end up with a huge keyword list: 95 percent of them will probably never get searches, and the other 5 percent may only get a few. However, it won't cost you anything to bid on these keywords if nobody clicks, and when people do click, they'll only be five or ten cents. You won't get a whole lot of traffic, but what you do get will be bargain priced. You should also still buy generic keywords in your local campaign, but these local keywords in a nationwide campaign will bring very cheap clicks, mostly.
Your real estate Google account would be arranged like this:
Campaign #1: California Targeting Only Group 1: Real estate Group 2: Buy homes
Campaign #2: National Targeting-entire USA Group 1: California real estate Group 2: Buy homes California
Now you have both bases covered, and you'll be getting as much traffic as possible for your local market. The key is that you're not leaving out people in other geographic locations who may be seriously looking for what you happen to offer.
You can also use your business's address or latitude and longitude, and target all searches within a radius that you select. Google even gives you the advanced option of choosing your own customized set of coordinates that you want to target.
HONE YOUR CHOPS ON A LOCAL TEST CAMPAIGN BEFORE YOU GO NATIONAL
One age-old advertising practice is to test ideas in a smaller market before you spend big bucks to try them out in a larger one. Nowadays, the risks of going national instantly if you have a good product may seem small because after all, you're paying for one click at a time, you can set a daily budget, and you can turn your traffic on and off at will. But that doesn't undo the value of trying your product in one small geographic area first.
For example, if you sell advice to investors, you might start just with investors in New York State. The advantage? You don't need to worry nearly as much about your daily budget. If your cash reserves are limited, you can choose this smaller market to start off in, and if in the first few weeks or months it's not profitable, you're not forced to shut the entire thing down for fear of quickly going bankrupt. Make the sales process profitable in a smaller market, and then go national.
At that point, you're able to take on the big boys in the worldwide market because you know that the mechanism works like clockwork in the small market, and every dollar you send out comes back with more dollars attached. This is also an excellent way to keep competitors from knowing what you're up to, if they don't live in the cities you're targeting. - 17943
It seems like the following advice is only for real estate people, but the idea applies in a lot of places. There are two kinds of people looking for your business:
1. A person who lives in your area (your city or state) who may type in "real estate," or "dentist," or "churches," or "restaurants" and expects the results to be from that area-only. You be will there when he comes looking for you.
2. A person may not be in your area at all (or else Google's system can't tell where he is), but is still asking for your area's services. He goes to Google and types in "movers in Palo Alto," "Palo Alto real estate," or "hotels Palo Alto," hoping to get Palo-Alto-only results. He may be traveling on holiday; he may be planning a move; he may be an investor.
He may in fact be from Richmond. But he could be down in Jacksonville. Or way out in Texas. Or in Kentucky. Or Beijing, or Kayo. But he's still searching on Google for you, and he identifies Richmond by name.
Either way, you need to be there, ready to open the door if he happens to come a knocking.
REACH THE FIRST PERSON
Now, because you're aiming at these two kinds of people, you can set up two different Google campaigns for them. Here's how to do just that. When you're first setting up your campaign, select your taget region.
Then you choose your country, followed by your state/province, and even a city or group of cities.
REACH THE SECOND PERSON
If you were advertising for real estate in California, you'd set up a nationwide campaign, possibly even an international campaign, but with local terms like "Los Angeles real estate" and "Yorba Linda real estate." After all, there are likely to be people from all over the country, and maybe even outside the country, who are doing searches on these terms.
So you'd grab a map or a listing of cities from a web site and create a keyword set like this:
California real estate LA real estate Healdsburg real estate Villa Real real estate Santa Monica real estate Buy homes California Buy homes San Francisco Buy homes Bakersfield Buy homes Sausalito
To do this the best way, you would combine a large list of general keywords (the same ones you used on the regionally targeted campaign) with a large list of cities and towns, and then use a spreadsheet to mix and match them together.
Either way, you will end up with a huge keyword list: 95 percent of them will probably never get searches, and the other 5 percent may only get a few. However, it won't cost you anything to bid on these keywords if nobody clicks, and when people do click, they'll only be five or ten cents. You won't get a whole lot of traffic, but what you do get will be bargain priced. You should also still buy generic keywords in your local campaign, but these local keywords in a nationwide campaign will bring very cheap clicks, mostly.
Your real estate Google account would be arranged like this:
Campaign #1: California Targeting Only Group 1: Real estate Group 2: Buy homes
Campaign #2: National Targeting-entire USA Group 1: California real estate Group 2: Buy homes California
Now you have both bases covered, and you'll be getting as much traffic as possible for your local market. The key is that you're not leaving out people in other geographic locations who may be seriously looking for what you happen to offer.
You can also use your business's address or latitude and longitude, and target all searches within a radius that you select. Google even gives you the advanced option of choosing your own customized set of coordinates that you want to target.
HONE YOUR CHOPS ON A LOCAL TEST CAMPAIGN BEFORE YOU GO NATIONAL
One age-old advertising practice is to test ideas in a smaller market before you spend big bucks to try them out in a larger one. Nowadays, the risks of going national instantly if you have a good product may seem small because after all, you're paying for one click at a time, you can set a daily budget, and you can turn your traffic on and off at will. But that doesn't undo the value of trying your product in one small geographic area first.
For example, if you sell advice to investors, you might start just with investors in New York State. The advantage? You don't need to worry nearly as much about your daily budget. If your cash reserves are limited, you can choose this smaller market to start off in, and if in the first few weeks or months it's not profitable, you're not forced to shut the entire thing down for fear of quickly going bankrupt. Make the sales process profitable in a smaller market, and then go national.
At that point, you're able to take on the big boys in the worldwide market because you know that the mechanism works like clockwork in the small market, and every dollar you send out comes back with more dollars attached. This is also an excellent way to keep competitors from knowing what you're up to, if they don't live in the cities you're targeting. - 17943
About the Author:
George Kristopher, a respected expert in Adwords Management, manages several thousand dollars worth of PPC advertising for a variety of different businesses. Claim Your Free Video on "The 4 Dirty Secrets Most PPC Management Companies Don't Want You To Know" at George's PPC Management site
