Google Maps Advertising - How to do it and Does it Work?

Published by Darby Sieben | Filed under Google Adwords, Google Maps, Local, PPC Marketing

If you are a Google Maps user - you may have noticed that other icons are appearing on the maps other than the numbered bubbles. This is Google’s extension of their Adwords program where you can place your advertising directly on Google’s Maps. The following screenshots are from The Bra Lady, and yes, this is my Mom’s business.

How do you do this? Here is a high-level overview of the process.

Step #1 - you need to register yourself with Google’s Local Business Center. This process takes you through 6-steps of information with the final step being validation.

Step #2 - Go through the validation process - you can select a phone call, SMS or a post card.

Step #3 - Once validated - sign up for a Google Adwords account and build a local campaign. You will see the following message - “Since this campaign is locally targeted, we thought you might be interested in creating ads associated with your Google Maps business listing.”

Step #4 - Complete the specific local business ad aspects of the ad by selecting your image and the icon and your ad will appear on Google Maps.

Does Advertising on Google Maps Really Work?

This campaign for The Bra Lady has been running since the beginning of June. Early indications are, at least from the raw stats, that it is working. Let me explain - we are running two ads - one on Google Maps and the other on Google Search and its Search Network. In terms of click thru rate - the map ad is outperforming the regular ad by 1.42% - the map ad is producing a CTR of under 5%. As far as CTR goes - the map ad appears to be strong.

The average cost per click on the ad on the map is running slightly higher than the average cost per click for the regular Google Search and its Search Network ads. We are also using conversion tracking with the Map Page as the conversion meter. The converstion tracking is clearly showing that the Maps is outperforming Search.

The bottom line success factor is based on the number of new clients to the business. In this respect Google is contributing, along with her YellowPages.ca Ad to driving new sales. So in this case, the ads are working.