Sometimes, when two elements come together, they can create a lot of wonderful things. This is exactly the case of Google My Business and Google Ads (formerly known as Adwords), where marketers can combine the two and truly boost their business’ profile.
Yet we see so many of our clients thinking these two great features from Google don’t really need to interact. But if you merge them and let them help each other, your results can be truly fantastic.
And that’s what we’d like to talk about in this post.
What Is Google My Business?
At first, it was called Google Places, but now you know it by Google My Business, a product that allows you to create business listings on Google Maps and manage them, making it easier for people to find your name and actually visit you on location.
It’s pretty easy to use it as well: you create a listing, add important information and verify it (like the business locations, phone numbers, website, email address). That information will then be displayed on Google Maps, Google.com, and Google Earth when someone searches for you online
Let’s say you have a cafe in Melbourne and want to get more customers to visit you. You can create a Google My Business profile, and when people search “cafes in Melbourne, ” they get a list of all the businesses that fit this search. These listings come with customer reviews, so if yours are great, it can be an extra incentive for people to visit.
What Is AdWords?
AdWords or Google Ads are Google’s advertising program. With it, you can create online ads to reach more customers the moment they explicitly show an interest in your business – when they search for it. Either they search for you by name or they search the keywords you bid on, using Google Ads increases the chances of your website popping up in the search engine results pages.
We’ve written a lot about Google AdWords, how it works, how much it costs, and how to set it up, so we won’t get into all of that right now. Instead, we’ll focus on AdWords in relation to Google My Business.
Why Should You Use Them Together?
It all has to do with your intent or your goal for the marketing campaign. If you are an online business, then your goal is to get people to visit your website, and then convince them to take action, such as sign up for a free webinar or download an eBook.
However, if your business is not just virtual, but you have a physical presence ( brick and mortar) too, then you want to get more people through your door. As a cafe owner, it’s nice to know 1000 people visited your website when you see the number in Google Analytics, but we’re willing to bet you’re more interested in how many went on-location and bought something from the menu.
Most probably, you already have an AdWords account and a Google My Business profile. But, unless you let these two interact, the results you’re hoping for won’t be visible anytime soon, because the customers aren’t getting all the information.
Linking Google My Business to the AdWords Account
Google allows you to link your Google My Business account to your AdWords account and, if you do, you increase the chances of users seeing your location information.
Let’s put it into context. You want to create an ads campaign for your local business – the cafe. You’ll need to log into your AdWords Account, create the add, set the budget for your ads campaigns, and you’re live! When people search for the keywords you bid on, they have the chance of seeing your website and visiting it.
But, if your Google business profile is also linked to Google Adwords, then users can also see your cafe’s location info, which means they don’t have to click on a link and visit a different page (or pages) to find it. It’s all there. Instead, they can click on the address displayed in the ad and visit your business profile. Easy peasy.
It’s a great way for local businesses to really leverage the power of paid search and get more people through their threshold. If that sounds like something you’d like to do, we have a quick guide on how to link these two accounts.
How to Do It
First, make sure your Google My Business profile is completed and has all the relevant information on it:
- Double check the address and pin on Google Maps;
- Enter the email address and other contact information;
- Update with pictures or videos (always a plus when people can see what the business looks like).
Then, go to your Google Ads account and follow these steps:
- Click on the Ads & extensions button on the left page menu, then select Extensions.
- Click the + button and select the Location extension – this will let you add the business profile you need.
- Then, you have two options: link to an account you manage, or link to an account via email. Choose the one that’s best for you.
- Select “Link to an account I know,” and choose the business profile you need.
You may need to add some labels or update the name, but then you just hit “Finish” and you’re done.
Now when users are searching for local information that matches your ads, they can also view your local services ads.
Need More Support?
Local businesses have a lot of options for promoting themselves, and leveraging these tools can really be beneficial for them. If you need any help with Adwords management or Google My Business, you need the help of a Google Partner, which is what we are! Contact Australian Internet Advertising right now.
