
First things first know who you're talking to. Austin is a city with a lot of different people and interests that are easy to find. First find out more about your audience. You might want to make buyer personas. These are made up people who show your ideal customers' age gender job goals and problems.
Learn more about your audience by using tools like Google Analytics. You should look closely at both demographics and behaviors. What words do they type in to find things? What time do they go online? Make ads that are relevant to what they like and make sure the copy is interesting enough to get people to click.
Create campaigns that are only for certain areas. There are many different neighborhoods in Austin. For instance South Congress and downtown are not the same. Make sure your ads are relevant to the area. If your business is near UT Austin you might want to change your ads to make them more appealing to students and faculty.
Now that you know who your audience is let's talk about keywords. Choosing the right ones is both an art and a science. Start with a wide range and then narrow it down. This is a great tool for this Google's Keyword Planner. Type in general words that are related to your business and look for ones that get a lot of searches but don't have a lot of competition.
Use keywords that have long tails. These phrases are more specific and less competitive than others. They usually get better leads people who know what they want and are ready to buy.
Don't forget about bad keywords. These keep your ads from showing up in searches that aren't related to what you're selling. This saves you money and makes more people click on your ads. If you own a fancy coffee shop you can stop people from finding it when they search for "cheap coffee in Austin" by adding "cheap" as a negative keyword.
This is where creativity really comes out. You can stand out with good ad copy. Your PPC ad is like a short sales pitch for your business. Be clear brief and persuasive. Get people interested or make them feel something.
Start with a good title. People will see it first so make it interesting and useful. Add more information to the body text but keep it short. You should always have a strong call to action (CTA). Use verbs like "Find " "Enjoy " or "Save."
Don't be scared to use ad extensions. They add things like phone numbers extra links or special deals to your ads. They can help you get more views and clicks.
You wrote great copy for the ad. Now make sure that the landing page is just as interesting as the ad when people click on it. The ad and the landing page should be able to talk to each other without any problems. If the ad says there will be a discount on organic beauty products make sure the landing page shows off those products well.
Be aware of how fast things are. A page that takes a long time to load could make people not want to buy from you. You can use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to check out your site and improve it. Like everyone else people in Austin value their time.
Your landing page should also have a clear call to action just like your ad. If you want someone to sign up for a newsletter or buy something make it clear and interesting.
Your PPC campaign isn't over yet. Think of it as the beginning of a plan that can change. Look at your metrics on a regular basis. Key metrics like click through rate (CTR) conversion rate and cost per click (CPC) can tell you a lot about how well something is doing.
If an ad group isn't doing well don't be afraid to make changes. You can change the keywords the bid or the headline. Use built in tools like Google Ads' Performance Planner to see how changes might affect performance.
Stay on top of the latest trends for every season. Austin's culture changes over time like when South by Southwest (SXSW) comes around. Pay attention to them and change your campaigns to take advantage of these chances.
Finally be patient and do something. It takes time to get results but making changes along the way helps the campaign grow. Learning and changing are parts of the process. You are always changing how you are seen and remembered.
There is no one size fits all PPC for small businesses in Austin. Make it fit your brand your audience and your city. With these tips you'll be ready to not only compete but also win.