Anymore it’s practically infeasible for a small business to survive without a burgeoning digital presence. All a small business used to need was a website. Nowadays, engaging social media profiles, ongoing search engine optimization efforts, online group coupon participation, as well as web and mobile app development highlight a handful of possible digital initiatives, with varying levels of effort. Another element that makes sense for a number of small businesses, and helps round out the digital marketing mix, is pay-per-click (PPC) ads.

Pay-per-click ads drive traffic to your website and are comprised of two primary ad types:

1. Query-based text ads that show up in the top and right rails of search engine results pages (SERPs)
2. Context-based text and image ads that are placed within websites that have opted in to the display network of a given search engine and contain content relevant to your set keywords

AdWords is the PPC provider and ad campaign management platform for Google and will be the platform referenced most frequently below. Powered by a bid-based model, where advertisers place and manage bids on search terms, PPC ads are a paid means of generating highly targeted traffic by way of highly relevant ads. Augmenting the traditional keyword research that is completed prior to setting up a PPC campaign is Google Insights.

Google Insights is a powerful tool for identifying trends in the online search habits of your target audience(s), allowing you to collect and analyze traffic data across specific regions (down to major metro level), categories (pre-populated keyword groups), time frames (2004 thru the present) and properties (top searches vs. rising searches). It has a wide range of applicability, depending on the type, scope and size of the campaign you’re aiming to run. Additionally, Insights will help you squeeze the most conversions – sales, sign-ups, form submission, etc. – and visibility out of your PPC campaigns. This post will focus on how you can use Insights, in conjunction with AdWords, to create a localized Google search pay-per-click campaign for a small business.

For the sake of example, pretend you’re running a bike shop in Columbus, OH, and looking to expand your business with PPC advertising. You have a fairly low budget to work with, so you want to make certain you’re targeting only the keywords most likely to bring real buyers to your website (higher conversion rates).

This can be achieved by identifying regionally relevant keywords, based on local interests and jargon, so that you are able to compose ads that use these terms to politely demand users’ attention:

1.) Use AdWords’ keyword tool to develop your initial, high-level list of keywords, based on relevance, traffic volume and competition. Don’t waste time accounting for all of the geographic and semantic variations just yet. After a few attempts and minor reconfigurations you’ll end up with broad terms, which you can use as your ad groups (high-level buckets that parcel your keywords and ads).

a. Road Bikes
b. Mountain Bikes
c. Used Road Bikes
d. Used Mountain Bikes
e. Bike Shop

2.) Now let’s drill deeper into these ad groups on a local level using Google Insights. If you try to use AdWords and add “columbus oh” to your search terms, you’re likely to receive zero data. Insights has more powerful local capabilities. By selecting United States > Ohio > All metros in the filter section (in the top-right), you can gauge keyword interest in your specific area. There are two metrics that are most useful:

a. Search Terms – Scroll down to the bottom, and you’ll see two columns: top searches and rising searches. Both of them will provide potentially relevant suggestions of further terms and phrases to add to your local keyword list. Continuing with our bike shop example, you can check the bicycle brands that Ohio bikers are interested in, as well as “hot” terms with rapidly rising search volumes, and insert them into your keyword lists and ad copy. These keywords are much more useful than the original AdWords suggestions, because they provide the most recent data in a specifically targeted location.

b. Interest Over Time – This shows the popularity of your keywords over time and can be expanded or constrained as you see fit. This is most suited for identifying any search seasonality, as you can learn when your market is most likely to search for your keywords, and limit your AdWords campaigns to those according windows. As you can see with bikes, the summer months are the most popular. No surprise there!

Remember that the AdWords and Insights complement each other and should not be used exclusively. Insights can provide relative data for comparison between keywords and locations, but absolute search numbers can only be found using AdWords. To maximize the relevance of your ad campaigns, I recommend running your keywords through Insights on a monthly basis to keep up on the latest trends and uncover any breakout searches. Maintaining a consistent keyword review schedule will also allow you to identify negative keyword opportunities – search terms for which your ads could show up that do not relate to your business.

How have you used Insights to improve the performance of your PPC ads?