Connor BrookeGoogle Boost is an advertising opportunity for businesses to target local customers which is tied to Google Maps. Google describes Boost as a “search advertising program” which provides a very simple way to advertise your local company in search results. Google Boost creates an ad for you that will appear when a local business of your type is searched for on Google.
In order for a business to participate in Google Boost, you first need to fill out and claim your company profile on your Google Place Page. According to Google, there’s a Place Page for every location on Earth, providing information about each place. Your business’ Place Page on Google Places provides you a free listing appearing on Google and Google Maps, listing basic information about your business, such as days and hours of operation. Once you have your free Place Page account updated, Google will offer you the opportunity to participate in Boost.
Google Boost uses the basic information you provide on your Place Page to design a pay-per-click advertisement that will appear when your search criteria (such as business type and location) are searched. As a Boost participant, your ad is eligible to appear in the “Sponsored Links” section of Google.com and Google Maps search result pages.
All you need to do to participate in Boost is to provide a brief description of your business and a link to either your website or Google Place Page. In fact, the Boost signup page will actually make suggestions as to your business description based upon the information you provided on your Places Page. It further assists you in setting up your account by suggesting the appropriate categories in which your business listing should appear and a monthly advertising budget. Once you make and confirm your choices, Google will automatically set up your Boost advertising campaign and your ad will begin appearing on Google and Google Maps pages. Your location will be identified with a blue pin on Google Maps as well.
Top 10 reasons to be excited about Google Boost:
Google Boost offers many benefits for advertising locally.
- Advertise locally – When your business is situated in a specific location and relies upon local business, advertising that’s specific to your locale is highly effective. Even when your business is “brick and mortar,” most patrons will look you up before doing business with you, so any means used to be discovered by local shoppers is important.
- Your ad can appear in the “Sponsored Links” section of Google.com and Google Maps search result pages. While in no way guaranteed, your Google Boost ad is a paid ad and as such can be displayed in search engine results like any other, depending upon it’s relevance to search criteria.
- You control the content – Although Google Boost suggests ad copy and keywords, the content of your ad is completely up to you. Like any pay-per-click advertising campaign, you may tweak it whenever you want to optimize its effectiveness.
- You control your budget – You establish a budget according to the resources you have available for this avenue of advertising and that’s the most that Google Boost can cost you. There are no additional costs involved.
- You only get charged when your ad gets clicked – As is the nature of pay-per click advertising, you are only charged when someone clicks on your ad. This assures you that your advertising budget is being spent on actual exposure.
- Appears on search results pages on Android and iPhone devices – This means customers can access your ad from their mobile device – which indicates they are probably already in your local area and are likely to stop by.
- Growing market – This is new technology that began in only a handful of markets. After a relatively short period of time, it’s scope has widened to include all U.S cities.
- Easy – Setup is simple and no further work is necessary on your part once your account is set up.
- Quick – Almost immediately upon setting up your account, your ad will be available to come up in search results.
- Cutting edge – Being an early adopter of this new technology puts you in the enviable position of your ads facing less competition. You can gain some advertising traction by setting up your account early in the game when your ads will be among a select few.
There is no doubt that advertising based on your location is advantageous to local businesses. When your customers are searching for your type of business in your area, Google Boost will help you get found quickly, and easily.
Will advertising on Google Boost benefit your local business?
Author: Debra Leitl is the Mentor in Residence at eMentormarketing.com you can find her on twitter @MentorMarketing. Her specialty is interactive marketing with a focus on ecommerce and online marketing strategy. She has over 15 years of professional experience in online retail, ecommerce consulting, and new business development.
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Connor Brooke.
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Debra, great post and information. Seems to me that if Google is offering the Place Page at no charge to customers it is to the businesses advantage to use it. If we’re competitors and you build out your Place Page with content, images and video, and I don’t, the advantage in a search will be yours. Businesses should jump on this right away.
Google Places are here to stay (what ever the name ends up being) and a business owner needs to take advantage of this free means of advertising. By claiming your free page with Google Places you will bring more targeted customers to your business faster than traditional organic methods.