By Natalie Kleopfer, Account Coordinator

Looking to enhance your local and mobile advertising efforts? Learn how Google’s new updates can help.

On October 19th, Google unveiled several new mobile ad features and formats that will have a significant impact on pay-per-click (PPC) advertisers. Here’s a rundown of some of the key changes:

The distance between a user and an advertiser’s business is now factored into mobile search ad rankings. Local already accounts for 40% of mobile searches and the addition of proximity as a scoring factor will only cause that percentage to rise. Search Engine Land suggests that marketers start using  Location Extensions, a feature in AdWords that allows the addition of dynamic addresses to ads. While previous ads only allowed description lines and a URL, Location Extensions lets companies include their  names, addresses and phone numbers, too. This, combined with the new proximity factor, will help businesses drive more mobile traffic at a lower cost.

Another new Google feature is custom search advertisements for apps. Google will now place relevant ads in searchable mobile apps. If a user has an app that lets them search for a local movie theater, he or she will now see relevant movie theater and film advertising within the app.

Circulars, a new Google advertising format, is not restricted to mobile. Here’s how the new format works: When a user clicks on a search or display ad, he is directed to another ad featuring pictures and relevant products or offers. If the ad is viewed on a desktop computer, the user can email it to his mobile device. He can then take it to the business location to redeem the offers. This format is currently being tested with retailers Best Buy and Macy’s.

For more information about Google’s new offerings, visit the Google Mobile Ads Blog.

By Kinnick Wheaton, Account Coordinator

As Google innovates, consumers post reviews and social media booms, marketing strategies must heed to the importance of the local search result.

It has been said that 2011 will be the year of local and mobile search. Already, local search innovations are popping up everywhere. This seems a natural progression now that mobile devices are capable of efficiently browsing the internet and new apps are created daily to facilitate local interactions. The strength of “local” in the SEM industry is indicated by Google’s local-favored search result innovations, the increasing importance of online reviews, and what local businesses are doing—or should to be doing—to keep up a vibrant online local presence. The trend of “going local” must not be ignored when managing a marketing program for any kind of business.

The most evident local innovation is the way Google organizes results for certain queries. Google posts local results before organic results and paid ads for queries it believes to be locally related. For example, when searching for weather or pizza, the initial results are that of local pizza joints or real-time weather forecasts. These results are enhanced by Google toolbar’s My Location feature, which allows users to define and alter their current location by entering a zip code or city/state location.

Similarly, Google Instant, another recent innovation, has also been a larger player in the growth of local search. With Google Instant, results change depending on whether the search is taking place on a mobile device or PC because Google assumes that users using a mobile device are more locally focused.

Posted by: Nicole Johnson, Marketing Coordinator

Ever heard of “location-sensitive mobile advertising?” It sounds fancy, but it’s just a term that encompasses a combination of two tactics that are becoming bigger and better every day – local search marketing and mobile advertising. The major players in the game (Yelp, Google and Facebook) are paving the way for new growth in this arena.

Yelp offers a smartphone application called “Nearby” for its mobile users. The app allows easy mobile access to any coupon or offer posted on a local business’s Yelp profile page. Users can also use the app to find businesses located in close proximity to their immediate locations.

Similarly, Google released “Near Me Now,” a feature that is automatically available to any user who accesses Google using an iPhone or Android phone user a 2.0.1 version or newer browser. The feature gives users easy navigation to restaurants, banks and other businesses in their areas. The mobile search engine results page serves up 10 local businesses and features three Google Adwords paid listings. Keep in mind that the Near Me Now link only appears if users give Google permission to access their locations with GPS tracking.

Posted by: Nikki Burmaster, Marketing Coordinator

The importance of local online search strategies has increased exponentially within the last year. Implementing and continually optimizing local search techniques give businesses, especially those in very competitive industries or those with smaller marketing budgets, a leg up in the online marketing space.

Companies with local listings on the three major engines receive preferential treatment on results pages, showing in the top few listings when served. This is a major advantage considering the integration of paid ads, tweets, videos and more in many search engines’ results pages that are pushing actual organic results lower and lower on the first page.

In addition to higher search engine results, many listing services allow companies to add coupons and messages featuring current promotions or recent releases. Some local listings offer mobile integration, displaying search results with click-to-call features and local ad extensions that populate maps, directions, reviews and more.

Posted by: Janessa Seewald, Account Manager

The latest statistics show that more than 40% of searches within search engines have local intent. For local business owners this means that not only is important to have a website, but to also focus on optimization of your local business listings. Some best practices to consider when developing and optimizing local business listings include:

• Claim your business listing and ensure it is updated. This may sound obvious, but you would be surprised how many listings some businesses already have that they don’t even know exist or are outdated. Claiming the listing you want or that is the most accurate, will allow you to make updates on a regular basis which is very important within the eyes of the local and larger search engines.
• Select the most appropriate categories for your business listing. In most cases you are given several options and can choose more than one category. Make sure you don’t select too many categories as this can dilute the significance of your listing for the most appropriate and relevant categories; however, you also don’t want to select too few categories as this may make it difficult for potential customers to locate your business when searching.
• Include important product and/or service keywords related to your business within the title of your listing. This will not only help increase your rankings within the search engines, but also make your listing stand-out amongst the competition.

Similarly to optimizing a website, optimization of local business listings can take time and involves several more factors than the ones listed above, but starting with these few tips will help start your listing in the right direction.