Local Ads are important to Marketers, but challenges still exist

Ron Dinger - October 8, 2008

Marketers are taking advantage of local targeting options, but certain issues remain with the channel that are confusing marketers and limiting the full growth of the space. In a recent survey from Marchex, conducted by Sterling Market Research, “national advertisers have a significant interest in doing more local online advertising, but are missing opportunities because they remain confused about the best tactics, traffic sources and measurement tools available.”

Some main points from the survey – 90% of marketers that are using local ads are not targeting below the state level (Zip, City, DMA). 45% of advertisers are not using unique messaging for each local market. 33% of advertisers cited cost as the main reason they aren’t more involved with local ads. Issues measuring campaign effectiveness was another common reply in the survey.

The good news is that most local ad networks are listening to advertisers and offering more flexibility with targeting and measurement of ads, which should help reduce any frustrations that advertisers are currently experiencing.

Some ways you can assure that your local ad campaigns are effective:

– Utilize a unique phone number or call tracking for each locally targeted campaign to properly measure call volume from each market.
– Use distinct local messaging/offers in ads for each market.
– Serve landing pages with a local flavor for each market.
– Track actions in each local market separately with analytics.
– Assign a separate budget to each locally targeted campaign.
– Diversify your traffic beyond paid search only.

If you are looking to target your demographic on a local level, MoreVisibility would be happy to help you formulate a strategy for successful locally targeted ads.