Over the past several years digital advertising has grown from a small niche idea online to a marketing strategy that is used by virtually every type of business around. Most people, however, think that this type of advertising is primarily used to drive traffic to a site for brand recognition or online sales. The fact is, however, that it can be used very effectively to actually drive traffic into a traditional brick and mortar store as well. You just have to learn the proper strategies to get it done.
Bing Ads has just published their latest in a series of posts that are designed to help small business owners drive this type of in person traffic. If you own a small business with a brick and mortar location, make sure you take a moment to look at the different tools and tips that Bing Ads has provided.
Location Extensions
This may be the most obvious of the tips they provided. Bing Ads allows you to add to your traditional digital ad with your location information. This way you can advertise your product or service, and then at the bottom have your physical address. This is a quick and simple way to get people to see where your location is so they can come to your shop. When people are looking for a store in their area, they don’t want to have to go to a website and then look around until they find this type of information, which is why this is such an important tool for all small businesses.
Targeting Local Customers
When trying to get people to come into your store, you need to make sure your ads are being displayed to people within a local geographic area. If your shop is in Florida, for example, you don’t want your ad showing up to people in Michigan. This is where geographic targeting can be so important. Find out how far away people are willing to travel from to get to your shop and then you can set your geo-targeting settings for your ads.
Combine Keywords & Location
If you are running a local bike shop in Springfield, make sure the keywords you are targeting include the location information too. People in that area are likely to search for things like, “Springfield Bike Repair” or something similar. To generate organic traffic, make sure you perform SEO strategies that will help you rank for those types of searches.
Take Advantage of Sitelink Extensions
If your website has a map or other similar feature on it, you can use sitelink extensions to help highlight this information. When people see that your store is located nearby, they are much more likely to visit. Make sure this type of information is clear in your ads using this convenient Bing Ads tool.
Of course, there are many more ways that you can use Bing Ads, or any digital advertising, to help generate additional local sales. The trick is to experiment with your different options and see what works best for you.
