As a new company only a few months old, I’m spending a lot of time doing the types of things that we offer our clients. One of those tasks is getting listed in online directories. One such directory was the Yellow Pages.
Every link is important, so a free listing in the online version of the Yellow Pages is a no-brainer. It didn’t take long before I started getting calls from sales reps wanting me to upgrade my listing to a paid listing. And based on the number of calls I got and continue to get, I’m guessing that the Yellow Pages is hurting.
The fact is people don’t use the Yellow Pages as often as they used to, especially the printed version. If I want information on a product or service, I search for it on Google or Bing.
But I don’t like hanging up on people, so I listened to their pitch. They told me that the free listing I got is only good for a ten mile radius. If I want to be seen by thousands of prospective customers, I need to get a paid listing.
So I stick around long enough to hear what they want to charge me. For just $300 a month ($180 to $300 depending on who you talk to), I can get coverage for the entire St. Louis metropolitan area. For just $700 a month I can get coverage for the entire state.
Those numbers made me realize what an advantage location targeting is in search advertising. With location targeting, I can target anything from a few blocks around my business to the entire country or even the world, and the cost is the same.
But the advantages don’t stop there. I have a client who is marketing a number of different services. Some of those services apply to just the local area, some apply to a regional area, and some apply nationally. I can target each of those markets by creating separate campaigns.
Additionally, with location exclusion I can target an entire state and exclude certain areas of the state. I am doing this for my client. He wants to reach all of Missouri and Illinois on the regional campaign, but he doesn’t want to compete with businesses in Chicago and Kansas City, Missouri. No problem. I can exclude those metropolitan areas.
And unlike the Yellow Pages, where I’m locked in to $700 or more a month, I only pay when someone searches and then clicks on my ad.
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