This Tiny Tweak Using Google Ads Dynamic Location Insertion Increased Conversions by 267%

Though we certainly have no shortage of smashed goals, we don’t always call out the heroes behind those wins. Recently, we successfully used Google Ads dynamic location insertion for a client that operates a multi-regional home services company.

If you’re working with a digital marketing agency, we hope they are smashing every goal you have together. For us, this test blew the door off the hinges. You’ll be impressed by this example of a geo ad customizer success story.

The mastermind behind this incredible win story is Steve Cockey, our Associate Director of Online Advertising.  While he’s perhaps the most avid baseball fan we have, he’s also like the Einstein of PPC management.

In analyzing the search queries that were generating clicks for our client’s PPC ads, Steve noticed a clear trend. People were specifically seeking out home services companies located nearby, for example, “home services in Elkridge, Maryland” or “home services in 90210”.

Digging in a bit, Steve found that roughly 30% of all non-branded queries contained some sort of location-based modifier, like city, ZIP or even neighborhood.

It turns out that Google Ads has an exciting  – but underutilized – feature that enables marketers to dynamically insert a location straight into ad copy based on a user’s IP address.

What a perfect solution!  Though conversion rates were already impressive, Steve saw a unique opportunity to leverage Google AdWords ad customizers in order to automatically insert a user’s location.

(We’re covering some of that magic separately in the coming weeks.)

Anyway… he went to work.  Steve copied the highest performing ad group and changed only one thing: dynamic geolocation in the ad headline.

In the new test ad group, if a user’s IP address indicates that they are searching Google for “vinyl siding” from within Towson, MD, we can dynamically serve up an ad with a headline “#1 Siding Company in Towson, MD.”

The AdWords Dynamic Location Insertion Results

We expected a lot out of this change.  Looking at the data that drove this decision, it was absolutely a no-brainer.

Frankly, we were still floored.

First, click-through rate increased 79% and conversion rate increased 65%.  Naturally, Google applauded our increased engagement by giving us better average position for this ad group (up 20%).

In turn, we experienced a 24% decrease in cost per click and a 53% decrease in cost per conversion.

The most astounding stat actually underlies these other dramatic improvements. By mentioning the location of the user with geo ad customizers, we increased raw conversions by a whopping 267%.

For example, a user may search for “general practitioner in Columbia MD” but their IP address is registered in the town of Elkridge, MD.  Logic can be developed in Google Ads to use the keyword “Columbia, MD” instead of the IP’s registered geolocation of Elkridge, MD.

Why would you do this?  Perhaps a user works in Elkridge but needs a doctor closer to home in Columbia.

This is an advanced tactic, but we’re happy to recommend ways to set this up. Just drop us a line.

Quick Primer on Dynamic Ad Insertion
The golden goose of Google ads: Geo Customizers with Nick Brown
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