After completing a thorough survey on an increasing number of mobile phone and tablet users, Google has tweaked its search ads feature in Google Maps to help both users and advertisers to locate each other. The tweaked feature will be available to users that have the newer version of Android.
Google discovered that over 94 percent of mobile users in America and over 80 percent of users in other countries had used Google Maps to locate local businesses such as stores, restaurants, hotels, etc.
Google has now made it easier for advertisers to reach out to users with an innovative idea by displaying their names above the location balloon as well as increasing the call to action probability with the “Get Directions” and “Click-to-Call” feature.
In fact, Google reported a 100 percent increase in click-through-rates in tests, which should please advertisers. The new “hyperlocal marker” feature also displays the distance from the user to the business location of the advertiser.
An additional tweak now enables users to directly visit the website of the advertiser by clicking on the advertiser’s name itself without losing access back to the Map navigation app.
A related study done by T-mobile using the search ads feature in Google Maps enabled the company to achieve a 13 percent click-through-rate. T-mobile realized that mobile users were on the verge of making shopping decisions on the go and providing them with the required shopping locations enabled the company to influence their final decision.
If you want to tap into the increasing mobile and tablet user market then you need to ensure your presence on Google Maps, especially if you want an influx of local customers towards your business. Make sure that you have an optimized website for mobile users, enable the “location” extensions within the AdWords tool for optimum advantage, and enable “ads” to display to “search partners” so as to reap the benefits of this innovative new tweak from Google.