Bringing Together Google My Business & AdWords
Recent research shows that 50% of customers visit a store within one day of searching for local information on their smartphones. If you are a bricks and mortar business that wants visitors, you will want to claim your free Google My Business listing to help mobile search users find you. Note too that this isn’t restricted to those searching from mobile phones, you can also reach people searching from their tablets and desktop computers. Bottom line – make sure you have a Google My Business listing set up for the chance of your address and phone number to be found in the Google search results.
What’s Changing?
Google has just announced a feature upgrade whereby your Google My Business account will be linked to your AdWords account. This works through your AdWords location extensions. With this upgrade any businesses who have manually entered location extensions will automatically have Google My Business profiles created for them based on the details in their location extensions. You’re better off setting up your own Google My Business profile and making sure it’s verified and that all the details are correct, rather than waiting for this upgrade. See below for the details.
How Will This Affect My AdWords Account?
On October 2014, if you are currently using location extensions in your AdWords campaigns but have not created a Google My Business listing, your account will automatically be upgraded. Google will set up a new business account for you, they will do this by taking the name, address and contact details currently used in your location extensions to create a Google My Business account and link the accounts together.
Anyone who had administrator access to your AdWords account will now also have administrator access to your new Google My Business account.
Once the upgrade is complete, we recommend checking in on the location settings of your campaigns to ensure that they appear as expected. If your address does not appear as it should, you can log into your new Google My Business and edit accordingly.
After October 2014, Google will be removing the option to enter location extensions manually. The only way to include location extensions in your AdWords ads will be to set up a Google My Business listing. You can find out exactly how to do that here.
Once you have created your new business listing you will need to link the account to your AdWords account. This can be done in a few easy steps:
- Log into AdWords and click the Ad Extensions tab
- Select View: Location Extensions from the drop-down menu
- In the drop-down menu select Upgraded
- Click +Extension. You’ll be prompted to link and use your Google My Business account
Now, once a user performs a local search that your ad qualifies for, the user will also see location extension for your business.
Don’t Like The Sound of This?
You can opt out of this automatic upgrade by completing this form. However, you will lose any existing location extensions that may have been entered manually, as they will no longer be supported in AdWords. Your ads and campaigns will continue to run as normal, they will just be missing location extensions.
We see this as another great opportunity to reach users, particularly those who tend to search when on the go, with local relevant content. Remember to take a look at your Google My Business profile, verify your information and make sure all sections are complete.
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