Google Local Business Ads (Beta) Launches
Google AdWords and Google Local are working together to bring response driven advertising to local businesses with the new Beta offering of Google Local Business Ads. (Yes, the Google Map ads with the cool AdWords ad & logo in the tack balloon.)
Available for small or big brick and mortar businesses in the US, Canada and UK, Google Local Business Ads merge both mapping, text and search offerings from Google – resulting in a trifecta of effective local advertising.
From Google :
Whenever a user enters a query that matches advertisers’ chosen keywords and business information, up to three local business ads may appear as “Sponsored Links” below the user’s Google Local search results. The ads display in two parts: a highlighted listing in the search results column and a map marker that expands to show additional business details when the user clicks on the ad title or the marker itself.
The highlighted listing consists of your business name, two description lines, your URL, and your business address, all of which is gathered from Google Local’s business listings.
The info window that expands from the map marker displays an optional phone number and image, along with the standard business information.
Finally, a text-only version of each local business ad automatically runs on Google.com and other sites in our search network. The text version has the same ad text and display URL as the enhanced ad on Google Local. A fifth line of text shows lists city (and state, if applicable). The text-only version of your ad is ranked and priced just like any other text ad running on Google.
For a step by step How To on starting a Google Local Business Ads campaign, on Search Engine Watch (highly recommended) Barry Schwartz has put together an awesome run through complete with screenshots from his experience with uploading a campaign for his RustyBrick development business.
