AdWords has long been the leading PPC advertising channel. Run by Google, it can prove incredibly successful for those companies that get it right.
You may already know a bit about this advertising technique. It involves creating a short text ad consisting of a headline, two lines of text, and a URL. You then simply pay every time someone clicks the ad and visits your site.
One major benefit is that it is highly measurable, so you can find out which ads are working and then improve on them to keep on boosting your conversion rate. You get access to targeted leads who are looking for the products and services you provide at that exact moment, and it is also the quickest way to appear at the top of the search engines.
Now you can experiment with another trick in your ads – the ability to insert your phone number into the ads and encourage people to call your business direct from search.
Google’s Call Extensions – How They Work
Google calls these ‘call extensions’, and they appear as your telephone number directly within the ad. They show up as a clickable button, and they display to anyone searching using a mobile device that is capable of clicking phone numbers.
This is important because of the shift towards mobile search, especially when it comes to local businesses. According to Google, 94% of searchers use their mobiles to search for local services in the USA, and 77% of these occur either at home or at work, where desktops are probably present.
Benefits of Call Extensions
One of the major benefits of these ads is that they allow you to take advantage of people on the move, which is especially useful if you run a local businesses. Imagine someone in your vicinity looking for your service while they are out and about. After performing a quick search, they can then quickly call you up and check what time you close or whether you have the product they are looking for in stock.
You can also set your ads up to only display the numbers when you are actually available to take the calls, so you will never have people calling you up and getting no answer.
Google claims that call extensions can increase click-through rates by between 6% and 8%, so this could be a great way to increase your conversions.
Click-to-call ads also cost the same as a standard PPC click, so you can budget for them in the same way, and this makes it easy if you are already running an AdWords campaign.
New Feature – Buy Buttons
And it does not stop at phone numbers – Google recently launched Purchases on Google, which will provide advertisers with the ability to include a ‘Buy’ button in their ads. This is currently only available in the USA, but it is likely to make its way over here any time soon.
Let Us Help
We can set up your PPC campaign for you, whether you want standard ads or ads with mobile numbers. At Web Results Direct, our Google AdWords Certified Professionals have helped many of our clients enjoy higher conversions and excellent ROI from AdWords, so let us help. You may find out that it is the perfect way to drive more calls to your business.
