A range of strategies to help you turn local search interest into store visits, including Google Business Profile optimisation, attributing store visits to Google Ads campaigns, running local campaigns in Google Ads and using local inventory ads.
More than 85,000 UK businesses launched online stores or joined online marketplaces in the first half of 2020, in response to Covid-19 and lockdown restrictions. McKinsey estimated that the pandemic forced ten years’ worth of digital adoption in the space of 90 days as shoppers turned to online shopping and thousands of businesses turned to online channels in the hope of survival.
While the UK economy is on the path to recovery, the country has more online businesses than ever before and, for many, the focus is now on getting customers to walk through the door again. In this article, we look at how you can use digital channels to bring retail foot traffic back into your store.
If you look at this Google Ads Help page, the first tip Google has for driving in-store sales from online ads is to build your digital storefront on Google Business Profile. The search giant calls this the “essential first step towards driving and measuring visits” to your business locations and there’s no better place to start.
With an optimised Google Business Profile account, you’re in the best position to drive in-store visitors from organic and paid search.
Throughout the pandemic, Google has updated Google Business Profile and its integration with local search and Google Maps. This is the perfect platform to help people discover your business, keep them informed about any changes (eg: opening hours) and drive footfall to your business locations.
If you need help with setting up your Google Business Profile account, take a look at our tutorial video:
We’ve also got a series of articles on setting up and optimising Google Business Profile:
In Google Ads, you can track shop visit conversions to see when your ad campaigns inspire users to visit your business. This is crucial for attributing value to campaigns that generate footfall. Without this attribution, you can’t determine which campaigns are bringing customers to your business, measure results or optimise campaigns to increase footfall.
Google outlines three key benefits of using shop site conversions in Google Ads:
The only limitation is that users must be signed into their Google Account and opted into location history in their account settings for shop visit conversions to work.
As long as these two requirements are met, Google logs the location of users who interact with your ad, whether they’re at home, at work or on the move. When the same user then visits your store, Google connects this visit using their location data to register the visit.
When Google detects a store visit, it then asks the user for feedback to confirm they did, in fact, visit your store and it also asks select users about their experience in your store. This data feeds back into Google’s algorithm to verify its location tracking and machine learning models are working properly.
In Google Ads, you can also run local campaigns to target potential customers in your nearby area across Google Search, Maps, YouTube and the Google Display Network.
Local campaigns are an optimised campaign type so you have to keep this in mind while using them. You provide Google with your shop location(s), campaign budget and assets when creating the campaign and Google automatically optimises bids, ad placements and asset combinations to deliver ads to nearby prospects and maximise store visits.
Google uses machine learning to match your ads to users across its products and you’ll normally find most of these impressions occur in the local pack of results in Google Search and Maps.
As with any campaign where Google automatically optimises bids, you sacrifice some control so you have to keep a good eye on performance to check that local campaigns are always justifying the ad spend.
You can edit certain aspects of your local campaigns after they’re up and running, including assets, audiences and locations – more details here.
Local inventory ads are one of the most powerful ad formats for driving in-store visits. The ad format allows you to show local searchers that you have the products they’re looking for, in-stock and ready to buy.
Google outlines three key benefits of running local inventory ads:
Another key benefit of local inventory ads is they show for searches demonstrating a high purchase intent and, typically, an urgency to get their hands on a product. For example, if someone types in a query like “Sony TV near me,” they’re showing a clear desire to visit a store with relevant products in stock – either because they want to see the product in-person or they want to buy one right away from a store that has the item ready and waiting for them.
You’ll also find local inventory ads are particularly effective when locals are in a rush to get their hands on a product when demand is high or time is short. The obvious example is Christmas when people need to buy everything they need before the shops close on the 24th but local inventory ads are also great for situations like a sunny bank holiday weekend when everyone’s rushing out to get their hands on BBQ goods.
People want to know a business will be open when they pay a visit so make sure your opening hours are always clear for local searchers to see. Promote your opening hours in your ad copy for local campaigns and use ad scheduling to only show these ads during opening hours.
This way you’re only spending money on local ads during the times you’re ready to welcome customers and they’re always informed about your opening hours.
Also, make sure your opening hours are always up-to-date in Google Business Profile as this information shows in local search results and Google Maps. If you need help with adding or updating your opening hours in Google Ads, we show you how to do it in this article.
Whether you made the online transition to cope with Covid disruptions or you’re looking to make the most of the economy opening back up, search marketing is the perfect digital channel for generating footfall and online traffic.
The strategies we’ve looked at in this article build your local search presence to make you more discoverable for people in the nearby area and we’ve also seen how you can target people ready to buy through local campaigns and local inventory ads.
If you need further help with local search or maximising post-Covid recovery, you can speak to our search marketing team by calling 023 9283 0281 or emailing us at [email protected].
An accomplished digital marketer with over six years’ experience in local SEO and content for SEO, with a proven track record of hitting KPIs. As a proactive and enthusiastic member of the team, Sally brings a fresh energy to her work that sees her manage her accounts with both logical and lateral thinking, garnering great results for her customers across a range of industries. As well as talking at local events about all things SEO, you can also find Sally travelling the world, trying new foods and enjoying time with her dog, Pedro.
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Categories: PPC