Google has long been the dominant player with online ads of almost every type, but it looks like they are getting ready to become the leaders in local ads as well. They are set to grow their local ad sales 42% from now until 2022. This will take their local ad sales from $19 billion to $27 billion.
Google’s local ad budget has already surpassed that of all the commercial radio stations in the US (11,000+ of them). Radio ads are one of the best known forms of local advertising.
By 2022, estimates suggest that Google’s ad market will also pass all of the full power commercial TV stations, which are another icon of local advertising.
Google, along with other major digital platforms like Facebook, have some significant advantages over other local ad options like radio, TV, and newspapers. The biggest benefit is that digital ads can be much more targeted, compared to the other options that are mostly focused on getting as many eyes as possible to see or hear them, even if those who do see it won’t be interested.
This type of growth will help to make Google and other digital systems the main source of advertising in the future. What are some facts about Local Marketing?
1. 88% of consumer local business searches on a mobile device either call or visit the business within 24 hours. (Nectafy)
2. 46% of all searches on Google are seeking local information.
3. 97% searched online to find a local business (Source: Hubspot)
4. As of June 2018, Google accounted for over 72.47% of all global desktop search traffic, followed by Baidu at 13.47%, Bing at 7.64%, and Yahoo at 4.74%. (NetMarketShare)
5. 86% of people look up the location of a business on Google Maps
6. 72% of consumers, who search for local businesses, end up visiting stores within five miles. (Hubspot)
7.  97% of people find out more about a local company through the internet in 2017. (BrightLocal)
8. Among these consumers, 12% search for a local business on a daily basis. This is a slight increase from 2016, where 11% searched for local businesses daily.
9. 92% of searchers will pick businesses on the first page of local search results.
10. 46% of all Google searches are local. The same article revealed that 60%)of the people who search for local business use smartphones. (Hubspot)
11. During holiday seasons, 76% of consumers prefer shopping in physical stores. (Geo Marketing report)
12. 70% of customers visit a store based on information found online.
13. 56% of local stores are yet to claim their local listing on Google. It is free to list business in either Bing Places for Business or Google My Business.
14. More than 50% of ‘near me’ searches result in a store visit. (Mediapost)
15. Between 20% and 25% of organic traffic converts to a lead.
16. Search beats social media by more than 300% as a traffic source. (imForza)
17. Companies dedicate 9% of their marketers’ time to SEO. In return, they convert 15% of the leads to sales. The study shows that marketers use 16% and 11% of their time on Social Media and email marketing respectively. Yet, they only realized 13% and 11% in conversions.
18. 61% of digital marketers treat search engine optimization as a top priority.
19. 85% of retailers rated Search Engine Marketing as the most effective acquisition tactic. A majority of retailers trust SEM. Retailers rated SEM higher than direct mail (15%) and offline advertising (8%). (Forester)
20. 61% of marketers value ranking high on search engines. (Hubspot)
