Local pay per click advertising has been growing in popularity and there are those who enjoy debating whether it is actually a better method than local search engine optimization. The truth is that both methods are very effective when done correctly, but local pay per click does have some advantages over local search engine optimization. Here are some of the reasons I think it is better.

• Search engines work with you when you use local pay per click advertising, as opposed to eying you suspiciously. This is a big advantage, even if you have to pay for it.

• At the moment, there is very little competition in local pay per click advertising as most small businesses are focusing on SEO rather than paid advertising. This is a good time to jump in and get started with a program like Google AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing.

• Local pay per click advertising is also fast in comparison to local search engine optimization. While getting a good ranking could take months or even years with SEO, local pay per click allows you to get that same place in hours, simply by placing the best bid.

There are plenty of advantages to both local pay per click and local search engine optimization. They are both good systems and rather than pick one, I´d suggest using both to build traffic and popularity.

Most business owners know that you can really take a hit if you don´t know what you´re doing with local pay per click advertising. It´s something that you really have to be careful of if you don´t want to lose money. One of the most popular local pay per click advertisers is Google Adwords and most of these mistakes are specific to Adwords.

Forgetting to set negative keywords in Broadmatch. While the Broadmatch feature is a good one, allowing your ad can show up whenever your keyword is entered in a search phrase, it does have some setbacks. Using negative keywords helps the search engine avoid non-contextual phrases. So your local pay per click ad for film (as in cling wrap) won´t show up in a search for camera film.

Not testing more than one ad. If you just put one local pay per click ad out there, how can you know if you´re getting the best possible results? Try a minimum of three or four ads, with different headlines, ad text, etc.

Not tracking results. Anyone who runs a local pay per click ad campaign without tracking the results is setting themselves up for failure. You need to know what works best and where. Any statistics you can gather on your ad performance can help you make better decisions in the future for ad wording, keyword selection, etc.

Going for first place. While you might enjoy a little prestige by overbidding and getting your local pay per click ad to the top of the pile, it is often not worth the extra money you´ll be shelling out. Keep your ads cost reasonable and settle for second or third, your ad should perform just as well.

By avoiding these common local pay per click mistakes, you can spend less money and get more targeted traffic, as well as higher clickthrough rates. Knowing what you´re doing really pays off!

Local search engine optimization is all fine and good, but if you really want to grow fast, you need local pay per click, too. Getting ranked nice and high in Google will definitely bring in traffic for your keyword, but it can take a while to get that position in the search engines, whereas local pay per click gives you that extra boost instantly.

Here´s what Pay Per Click Journal has to say about it:

Of course, SEO has been around for a few good years. Pay per click is still relatively new and local search as local search even newer. Most small business owners are just now trying to figure out the search game, period. But if you can beat your competitors to the punch and figure out the rules to local search and local PPC then you’ll have a powerful marketing strategy down pat.

So, learning about local pay per click strategies could really pay off!

While your local pay per click ads may not actually be selling a product, they are selling the reader on the idea of clicking the ad to come to your site. However, you don´t want to spend too much money drawing in people who really have no interest in your business. That means you want to word your local pay per click ads very well.

Local pay per click ads have just two lines and a headline to get their point across, so you´ll need concise writing that gets to the point fast. Let´s take a look at the elements involved:

Headline
Your keywords need to appear in the headline, but this short sentence also has to be eye-catching. Without a great headline, your local pay per click ads will not work well. Having the keywords in the headline allows your ad to pop up when people perform relevant searches. For example, if you are aiming for the keywords “Chicago Bottled Water” those three words need to be in the headline.

Ad Copy
The two lines below the headline in the local pay per click ad are extremely important. Overly hyped words won´t work to grab people, they just sound spammy. Avoid using words and phrases like “Incredible”, “Unbelievable” and “Astounding”. They take up a lot of your word count and only make the ad look like a scam.

Instead, make an offer or solve a problem. You might want to divide your purpose and use the first line to state the problem (Are you suffering from obesity?) and the second to offer a solution (Try our free diet program). Letting people know exactly what to do (try, download, read) is a good way to get them to click on your ad.

Writing effective local pay per click ads can take a bit of practice. If you aren´t will to put in the time, you may want to hire a freelance copywriter instead.

For true business growth, you can´t expect word of mouth to bring you all your business. Local pay per click is a very cost effective method of advertising and is also a very good way to bring in targeted traffic to your website.

Local pay per click keywords are far more effective than general keyword phrases and will tend to direct traffic that is specifically looking for your type of business in your area. That´s what makes local pay per click so useful, you only pay for people who click on your ad. If no one clicks, you pay nothing. And people who do click will be those looking for local businesses.

There is an excellent blog on pay per click marketing. It isn´t exclusively for those looking to advertise with local pay per click, but all the information there is quite relevant and it is worth a read. I highly recommend checking out Pay Per Click Journal, another of the Brick Marketing blogs that is designed to help you run a successful business.

Local pay per click advertising can rapidly get out of hand and if you aren´t careful, you will end up spending too much for very few results. However, there are a few ways to help you save some money when advertising via local pay per click.

Keep your bid low. It may be tempting to get into a bidding war with the competition, but you will just end up spending more cash. If necessary, look for new local pay per click keywords to use.

Only use local pay per click advertising for worthy products. If you are selling very low-priced products, for just a dollar or two, make sure it´s worth your while to actually advertise them this way.

Figure out your conversion rate. How many visitors to your website equals a sale? That should be the main factor in setting your local pay per click bid. For example, if it takes 200 visitors to get one sale that gives you $30 profit, you don´t want to pay over 30 cents per click or you will be paying more than your product is worth.

Test different ads and keywords. Obviously, the higher the conversion rate, the more money you make, so it pays to find the best converting ads and keywords and use them often.

Using these tips will help you save money, but it is always a good idea to set a local pay per click advertising budget ahead of time and make sure you stick to it. That way, you´ll be sure not to overspend.

Local Pay Per Click is a very effective method of promoting your business . . . if you do it properly. Otherwise, it could end up costing you a lot of money! I can´t tell you how many people come to me having already spent a small fortune on local pay per click, without seeing results.

If you want to get started fast and be successful right from the start, it might be a good idea to consider local pay per click management. Hiring a company to run your local pay per click advertising campaign is a good idea for several reasons.

First of all, you will be getting skilled copywriters who probably know a thing or two more than you do about writing short copy that sells. Don´t underestimate the power of good copywriting, it is the only reason people will click on your ads.

Another reason to consider hiring local pay per click management is because they understand what is involved and will be able to test and track all ads . . . and know what to do with the information they record. While the average marketer can certainly learn these techniques, it takes time to learn how to do local pay per click well and you might find that it is worth paying someone else to do it for you.

Whether you decide to do your own local pay per click management or hire a company, keep in mind that it is definitely one of the most effective methods of advertising your local business.

If you use Google AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing then you’ll need to make sure that you include your competition in your settings. You can actually input specific websites that you want your ads to appear on. I highly recommend this. While your competition can opt to exclude your ads from running on their website, don’t assume that they will. Many AdSense users are not aware they can do that and some do not take the time to do it even if they know they can. It’s an opportunity for you to reach your target market through your competition’s website.

Some people might call this sleazy, but I don’t. It’s just advertising. Throughout advertising history, advertisers have sought to reach their target markets by putting up signs in places they know their market is going. And many times that means buying space on a billboard that is towering above a competitor’s store or advertising in a magazine that a competitor sponsors or writes for. You go where the customers are and your customers are visiting your competition’s website. It just makes sense to include those websites in your advertising efforts.

One way to make the most of local online advertising is to kick off a pay per action campaign. Pay per action is like pay per click but it also includes other clickable actions like phone calls and clicking to watch a video ad. Many of the local advertising directories have such services as do the major search engines. Here are some pay per action services you might be interested in and where you can get more information on them:

• Pay Per Impression - Google has added a pay per impression service to its pay per click advertising service.
• Pay Per Call - Superpages has a service for businesses to receive calls from mobile phones.
• Mobile Advertising - Google Mobile has a way for businesses to tap into the mobile market.
• Google AdWords - Google AdWords also offers audio campaigns and print advertising campaigns
• Pay Per Call - Citysearch also has a pay per call service and even lets you set up a toll free number to receive the calls.

Google AdWords has changed the name of its site targeting feature to placement targeting. If you’re new to pay per click advertising, all that really means is that you can opt to have your ads placed on select websites of your choosing. Google calls it the Content Network.

This is a useful strategy for local small businesses that want to take advantage of the benefits that pay per click advertising offers but that want to control where their advertising dollars are being spent. You can join the Content Network for your local area and advertise only on other websites within you geographic area. But there are now two ways to do that, not just one.

Before, you had one option - pay per click. Google is now calling it cost per click. In other words, you bid on your keywords and pay every time a visitor clicks on one of your ads. Now, Google AdWords has added a feature that allows you to select cost per impressions (CPM). You pay for every 1,000 impressions and the fees start at .25 per 1,000 impressions.

Why would you want to advertise using CPM? Google initiated this pay per click model because it wanted to offer an option to advertisers that want to promote their brand more widely. If you are a local business that wants to build brand awareness then you could put your pay per click ads on other local websites using the CPM model.

When it comes to local pay per click options, your choices in service providers are the same. But which one should you choose?

Which pay per click provider you choose for your local business depends a lot on your goals and the type of business that you are in. The pay per click options are not equal. But you have many choices.

Your three primary choices are the three big search engines:

• Google
• Yahoo
• MSN

Then you have a bevy of smaller companies from which to choose. But I wouldn’t go with any of the smaller companies until I went with one of the big ones first. The reason for that is you have a much larger chance of reaching your target market, even for local traffic, with one of the larger companies. But which larger company you go with for your pay per click advertising should be determined by two things primarily: Budget and industry.

Google, for instance, is going to cost more per click than either Yahoo! or MSN, or any other option. You might as well go ahead count that as a given. But the big factor to consider is what business you are in.

Yahoo! does really well catering to local small businesses in most industries. Yahoo! is especially a good place for most retail companies. But if you are looking for web-savvy traffic, Google is probably a better option. Do your research before you jump in and find out where the customers you want to reach spend most of their time.

When it comes to local pay per click, you have many options. Google AdWords may be the most popular pay per click option, but it isn’t the only one. You have more than one choice.

Your local small business might do well with Google AdWords. I’m not knocking it. But you should consider other possibilities. Here is a list of companies that offer local pay per click services. I encourage you to shop around:

• Yahoo! Search Marketing - Google’s leading competitor
• MSN AdCenter - Third in line. Not as popular as the other two, but not an altogether bad pay per click brand
• 7Search - A smaller pay per click company with some respectability and specializes in small business pay per click for companies that can’t afford more than 10 cents per click
• Kanoodle - Another small pay per click company
• Miva - A specialized pay per click company that targets specific industries and offers advertising on a network of websites
• ABC Search - Another smaller pay per click company with local geotargeting options
• LookSmart - A pay per click company with specialization in several vertical markets, including Auto, Cities, Education, Food, Health, Home Living, Money, Music, Recreation, Sports, Style, Tech & Games, and Travel

There are literally hundreds of pay per click options for the local business. You don’t have to stick with Google, although I would start there.

Pay per click has become one of the best advertising vehicles on the Web. Local pay per click will prove to be even better.

When you set up your local pay per click campaign, be sure to take a real close look at where your ads appear. There are two ways to set up your pay per click advertising campaigns when you use the most popular pay per click system online - Google AdWords. You can set it up so that your ads appear only on SERPs related to your keywords or you can use the content network.

If you use the pay per click content network, take a good look at where your ads appear. Your success could very well depend on that. If you have a daily budget of $5 and you exhaust that budget with ads that appear on websites not likely to send you traffic then you will just be wasting your money. You can tell Google not to place your ads on certain websites. Give this some thought and make sure that you tweak your content network settings often to keep your ads rotating most effectively.

There are more than one way to advertise your local business online. You can submit to directories, submit to Google and Yahoo Local, and of course you can’t forget local search engine optimization. There is also a growing new trend in local mobile marketing. One of the more powerful ways to advertise your business online is through the Yellow Pages sites like Citysearch and Superpages.

But there is one other way to promote your business online and it’s a way that many local business owners don’t consider right off, but it is very effective if you do it the right way. I’m talking about pay-per-click.

Yes, pay-per-click can be used for local online advertising. It can be used to drive traffic to your website and to qualify your prospects. Pay-per-click, of course, is not your only option, but it is an option worth considering and you should give it serious consideration. To learn more about pay-per-click advertising and how you can make it work for your local business, head on over to Brick Marketing for a free custom quote.

Are you a local business that relies on pay-per-click advertising to drive traffic to your website? If so, there is one thing that can significantly improve the results that you get from your local pay-per-click efforts.

Are you read? Drumroll ….

Your ZIP code.

No joke. Try this: Couple your keyword with your ZIP code in your ad. But if you do this then you need to make sure that your ZIP code appears on your landing page. By using your ZIP code in your pay-per-click ad, you ensure that your ad is optimized for any search that is made through the search engine’s local search. For instance, if someone is looking for a seafood restaurant in your area and they type in “restaurant” + your ZIP code then your ad should appear on the search results page. A compelling headline in your local pay-per-click ad will get the click … and you’ll get the money.