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Serving up Localized Advertising Without Wasting Money

Bricks and mortar businesses, like chiropractic offices and dental clinics, are increasingly looking to the Web for online advertising opportunities. Some small-business owners are conducting their own local search paid advertising campaigns, also known as PPC, and many have signed up for programs that are managed by Internet yellow page companies. Here is some information I've gathered while traveling.

By Michael Dorausch, D.C.

Bricks and mortar businesses, like chiropractic offices and dental clinics, are increasingly looking to the Web for online advertising opportunities. Some small-business owners are conducting their own local search paid advertising campaigns, also known as PPC, and many have signed up for programs that are managed by Internet yellow page companies. Here is some information I’ve gathered while traveling that may help you save some money.

I am currently in Las Vegas attending an Internet conference (PubCon 2007) and I’ve been using the online access provided at the Marriott Renaissance Hotel that’s available in my suite. Whenever I travel I tend to browse through yellow page advertisements (if a hotel still puts books in the room) and research what kinds of small businesses are advertising to the local community.

Las Vegas is a unique community as its metro area receives a ginormous amount of tourist traffic. Most web-based related searches in Las Vegas are going to be centered around shows, hotels, restaurants, casinos, and such. As a result, non tourist related web sites may sometimes find it difficult to rank well in search engine results, simply because there’s such an information overload of entertainment and travel related search content.

Business owners in vertical markets like the industry of chiropractic health care, or the dental industry, may be more likely to go with a paid advertising model to ensure their information is appearing in the best possible location when search queries are made.

I will use chiropractic is an example, but these methods and models apply to nearly any service industry. Relaxing in my hotel room and performing queries for Las Vegas chiropractor, or chiropractic services in Las Vegas, are returning results for Internet yellow page directories, as well as chiropractic offices in the area.

Yellow pages styled sites are currently purchasing the most ad space on the Google page I am viewing. Companies include YellowBook, DEX, Local.com, and CitySearch (a popular directory of products and services). Beside the major yellow page companies there are some local chiropractic offices placing advertisements, as well as some not so local offices. The nonlocal offices are likely losing ad revenue, as they are nowhere in the geographical area that I’m in.

I took a look at one advertisement and it was for a chiropractic office in the state of Illinois. More specifically it was in the city of Barrington, yet the businesses advertising was appearing on my screen in Las Vegas. Refreshing the page I see advertising for a chiropractic group on English Road in Rochester, New York. This office is located in the 14616 ZIP code area, but ads are appearing nearly 2000 miles away. Scrolling down to the bottom of the page there is an advertisement for a chiropractic office in Gig Harbor, Washington.

Unless you have unlimited funds to brand the name of your clinic I really don’t think it’s a good idea for chiropractors to engage in local ad campaigns that appear in nationwide results. For offices that are doing their own ad management it’s good advice to check with your contextual ad platform (Google Adsense or Yahoo Ads as examples) and modify your account settings so that advertisements only appear in areas within a certain mile radius of your business. To my knowledge, all advertising networks offer tools to Geo target your ad impressions.

These findings are not unique to this industry as performing a search for a local dentist returned advertising results for dentists and Oregon, Michigan, and New York City.

Whatever small business vertical you may be in, tighten up your area for online display of advertising, so you can stop losing money on clicks that will likely not convert to new business.

planetc1.com-news @ 3:35 pm | Article ID: 1196897741

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