Who said retail was dead?
According to the National Retail Federation, brick and mortar retail stores had a net increase of over 4000 store openings in 2017.
For each company that closed a store, 2.7 companies opened stores.
Although department stores stayed the same, Superstores thrived.
With e-commerce achieving a sales growth of 24.8% in 2017 compared to the previous year, mark my words, it’s booming.
But consumers are still flocking to local stores. The main reasons in-store shoppers prefer local over online stores are the issues they face with online shopping:
- they can’t physically inspect the items
- loss of power to negotiate a better deal
- shipping costs
- logistics (waiting for delivery)
- entering personal information online
- difficulty in returning items
Local foot traffic is still a major of part retail.
And one of the biggest trends marketers can’t ignore in 2018, is the rise of ROPO.
Research online, purchase offline.
This is the consumer habits of bargain hunters and thrifty shoppers looking for better deals locally.
The purpose of this type of marketing is to drive foot traffic to store and business locations so that they can avail of local promotions or services.
Google AdWords released new innovations that you can incorporate into your campaigns.
These innovations can help you improve your CTR you and make sure your ads are profitable.
Along with the existing features and extensions, I’ve detailed six Google AdWords hacks that can drive more local foot traffic to your store or business.
Hack #1: Location ad extension
When your physical storefront is the main place where conversions occur, you need to include your store address in your ads.
A location ad extension displays your store’s address within the ad.
Here’s what showed when I searched for “computer repair seattle.”
By including your address in your AdWords campaigns, people are more likely to trust your company.
Showcasing your store as a physical entity gives customers a sense of comfort buying from a business that feels real.
Here’s how to enable location extension in your Google AdWords campaign.
First, go to the Google My Business homepage and click “Start Now.”
Next, you’ll need to search for your business, if it already exists and claim it.
If you cannot see your business, make sure you verify your business with Google before actioning this step.
Once your Google My Business account and listing are live, go to your AdWords account to link your accounts.
Find the “Ads & Extension” tab and click on it.
Next select “Extensions.”
Click “create ad extension.”
Select “Location extension” from the drop-down menu.
You’ll be then prompted to use your locations from your Google My Business account.
Your location ad extension should now be enabled. And your business location should be now shown in your ads.
This simple hack gives your online ad a physical location.
To get more shoppers in the door, Google has made location extensions and store visit measurement available on YouTube.
The following is a location extension example, from a YouTube ad by IHOP restaurants.
By including location extensions in TrueView in-stream and bumper ads, viewers can engage with your brand and see your store’s location, business hours and directions to the store.
Implementing store visit measurement into your YouTube campaigns, you can see what ads and extensions are performing best and driving in-store foot traffic.
Hack #2: Promotion extension
You don’t need to invent complex marketing campaigns to drive more foot traffic to your store.
By accommodating the needs of mobile users, you can boost more sales.
You can also increase local foot traffic by implementing promotions in your online advertising campaigns.
A promotion ad extension displays your store’s current promotions within the ad.
This will show details of a percentage discount beneath your ad as showcased in the image above.
And it can also show prices on products in-text ads.
You can add additional details to your promotion, e.g., promo codes or minimum order values.
Using promotion extensions in your ads can drive awareness to your deals and promotions. You can also choose what device you’d prefer your ads to show on, e.g., targeting mobile users.
The ability to schedule the promotion for particular times or days during periods of high-volume foot traffic can generate higher click through rates.
Wordstream reported that their clients saw an increase in CTRs of almost 10% from using promotion extensions.
How to add a promotion extension to your AdWords campaign, follow these steps.
First, sign into your Google AdWords account.
Then, follow the steps mentioned in Hack #1, to navigate to the ad extension drop-down menu.
This time you’ll want to select “Promotion extension.”
Next, you’ll be prompted to set up your promotion.
For this example, I’ll set up a Mother’s Day promotion on flowers.
Click “Occasion” and select from the drop-down.
Next, enter in details of the promotion.
You can choose the promotion type, whether its a percentage, monetary or “up to _” discount.
Enter the item and your website URL.
Next, select the dates you want to run the promotion for.
In the “advanced options” you can select to target only mobiles or extend your promotion.
And you can also target specific times, to optimize your ads for store open-hours and higher foot traffic times.
More on that later.
Next, you’ll want to save your promotion.
Google will then review your ad. Once confirmation is received, your ad will be live.
Running AdWords promotions can also improve your ad’s relevance and quality score.
By increasing your CTR, you have a better chance of your ideal customer seeing your promotion.
Creating more awareness of in-store promotions you’ll drive more customers to your store.
Promotion extensions are only available in the new AdWords interface. These new innovations were built exclusively for the new AdWords experience.
Google also provides a Best Practices guide to help you get the most out of the new interface and optimize your ads.
Hack #3: Click-to-text message extension
Offering instant communication with potential customers is an excellent way to drive local foot traffic.
According to Google data, 65% of consumers would consider using messaging when scheduling an in-person appointment.
Or when looking for information about a product or service.
Grand View Research forecasts a rise in the use of chatbots.
With the chatbot market value expected to increase to $1.25 billion by 2025, the chatbot industry is expected to witness significant growth.
Innovations in AI and machine-learning technologies will enhance features of chatbots.
https://blog.kissmetrics.com/local-adwords-tips/
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