Online Advertising For Small Local Businesses

3 Jan, 2010 | Written by admin | under Local Search

If you are reading this article then there’s a good chance that you’re a small business owner looking to use the Internet to help your small local business. You may be on the fence as to whether or not it benefits your business or if it’s cost effective.

This article will show you how little money you can spend as well as some facts that will ease your mind and get you started in the world of online advertising.

Some small businesses are intimated by the idea of spending money on a new form of marketing they don’t understand. Let’s face it, many local business only know how to advertise local in newspapers and the yellow pages. Google being as big as they are… small businesses may feel it’s an expensive space to advertise in. Here are some bullet points that will help put things into perspective.

Local search means that you are only advertising locally not nationally.
You are going to advertise using very specific terms.
You will only pay when someone clicks on your ad.
You set the budget. Spend $50 or $5 a day.
You can, if you choose.. advertise only during your business hours

Feeling better?

No? Oh, you must still be concerned about the budget? I have worked with a lot of small businesses and honestly the average cost per month is approximately $400 per month. This will depend of course on your service and locale. Doctors can expect to pay more than a pizza place because of the competition, but doctors also tend to make more if they land a new patient. So it balances out.

Advertising online gives you a huge advantage over print advertising. You have access to data that will give you insight as to how people found you? You can even see what part of your city most people are contacting you from. This can help you with future advertising strategies both on and off line. There are even additional services that can allow you to track calls made to you buy you online ads. This will help you clearly measure if online advertising is working for you.

There are numerous videos that can show you how to set up a campaign. If you still have questions Contact me.