Linking Adwords to Places

[seoWest]

I discovered my new client uses his G Places listings url (5 locations) as the link in his Adwords campaigns. When I asked him why, his reply, "I don't know why I do that."

However, it made me wonder if there could be an advantage to using a G+ Local or Places url in an Adwords campaign for a service-oriented business? Visitor has all the basic info. they need (i.e. address, phone, map, reviews).

I would definitely link to the main site or a relevant internal page, but since it appears to be working for him... I wonder if I should mess with it?

Dino

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Dino,

Not sure it hurts anything, but I'm with you and think it's wiser to link to site where you have more control. If Google has a bug and for example his phone is missing, then what? If you are always checking it that's one thing, but we know business owners seldom check their page.

 

[Phil Rozek]

Interesting, Dino. I agree with Linda.

My two cents:

It seems crazy to use a Google+ Local page as the destination URL. Your hands are tied in so many ways: You can't put any sort of opt-in form or other conversion element on it, so you can't track conversions. You can't control the display URL. You can't split-test different pages. Your QS may very well go to seed, because you can't really optimize a Google+ Local page. Perhaps the worst thing is that people just expect to be taken to a website, rather than to a Google property.

My burning question - and no need to answer this, by the way - is: how does your client know that using his Google listing as the destination URL is "working"?

 

[seoWest]

Hey Phil,

I always appreciate your "two cents" and agree with you 100% on all counts.

As for whether it's "working" or not... I think he was content in knowing if he clicked on the link, it went to the Places page he specified ;-)

Dino