Why is it important to have a sound paid local strategy? Macy Edwards talks us through her top three reasons.
Today we read news of more and more bricks and mortar businesses going into administration, despite investing hundreds of thousands in a state-of-the-art eCommerce website.
Yes, we can all agree online is where the money is made, however the customer experience (look, feel, touch, smell) will never go away – we still want an experience! Therefore, it will never fully be online (until the likes of VR take off… if it does).
So how do we get around this? Let me ask you; did you know that by developing an omnichannel strategy you can nurture both your online and offline customers? Google, Bing and Facebook have all been developing products over the last 3 years to support this. And when you harness them, you can truly maximise your sales strategy.
Below I’ve listed three reasons why it’s important to have a sound, comprehensive paid local strategy in the 21st century. Read on to learn more…
Reason 1… in the mobile space
Local inventory ads on mobile - you may have launched shopping ads, however on a mobile if you search “curtains near me” you will be shown an ad that slides between a “buy in-store” and “buy online” option, with the store option first.
As a result, you will see a drop in traffic if you are not at the very least running hybrid campaigns (where you upload a local feed to your shopping campaigns).
Reason 2… do you offer reserve and collect?
Well, assuming this is paid for online, your eCommerce target is boosted by driving local customers to ensure when they do go in store, what they’re looking for is there.
This feels to me like a fundamental goal of any B2C business – to give the customer what they want, and even better, remembering the customer is always right!
If you’re successful at this, you’ll be the one laughing!
Reason 3… this will make you look good
Let me guess, your business is reporting week on week drops of in-store visitors. But how is this being measured?
You can optimise your paid campaigns to target store locations, which can improve both brand awareness as well as customer awareness of your local presence. This is potentially a win-win - if you prove the online to offline benefit you could gain more budget to support the bricks and mortar side of the business.
We do this by using data driven attribution models, then correlating this with store visits by analysing local action data (from integrating with GMB). Better still, this data is starting to be imported to GA too – using custom conversion models never got more exciting.
Did this spark a few questions? We have a team of expert paid specialists with an extensive range of local experience; everything from a convenience store franchise, nationwide funeral service company to a home furnishings business reliant on their store performance.
Whether you’re small or big we can work with you to build an integrated strategy across Social, Google and Bing to drive stronger performance for your business both online and offline.
