Just about every business that focuses on their local area knows what the Google Local Pack is. It appears right at the top of the Google search results page, usually in instances where a user has searched for a particular local service, and for 3 lucky businesses, they get shown right above everyone else with their business name, address, and phone number highly visible.
Our WordJack team dedicates a lot of work for our local business clients to boost their chances of appearing in this local pack whenever someone does a local search for their service. Usually, it’s a pack of three organic (unpaid) results that appear. But very occasionally you may see a fourth local business appear in the local pack and it would have a small “ad” tag beside it, indicating it’s a paid listing:
Get Me Some of Those!
So you may be asking, “How do I get that kind of ad placement? How do they get to appear in that search result?” Keep reading.
You buy this ad placement in a fairly indirect way — but there is a list of things you need to do to make sure you qualify for a Local Pack ad placement. The short version is “be running a Google Ads campaign that is eligible to appear in that search result.” The detailed version is to ensure:
- The keyword you’re targeting matches the keyword being searched
- The geographic area of the searcher matches your ad’s geographic targeting
- The search area is local to the physical location of your business
- Your campaign has not spent your budget for the month or the allowable budget for that day
- Your bid price and ad quality are high enough to appear as the preferred ad for that search
- Your Google campaign has location extensions activated
- Your Google ads account is linked to your Google Business (GMB) profile (so Google knows what your location actually is!)
Let’s dive into that last point a little deeper and review the process for linking a Google ads account to your Google Business (GMB) profile.
Linking Google Ads and Google Business (GMB) Profiles
Before you begin, you need to make sure you have access to your Google Business (GMB) profile and your Google Ads account within the same Google email address.
If WordJack is managing your Google Ads account, this means we may request that you give access to a specific WordJack email account so we can link this for you.
This animation shows how to go to business.google.com and add a user to your GMB listing (your WordJack Marketing Manager will provide a specific WordJack email account).
If you want to link your Google Ads account and GMB listing yourself, here’s how to do it:
- In your Google Ads account, click “ads and extensions.”
- Pick “extensions” then “+” to add an extension.
- Choose “location extensions.”
- Then click the option “link to a business profile manager account I know.”
- Check your business profile manager account is shown, and click continue.
- If you have multiple business listings in your Google Account, it’s really important that you choose the option to limit the locations that are synced with Google Ads and enter the exact name of the business listing that the Google Ads will run for.
- If you get a match, then all you need to do is click finish, and the location linkage has been established.
Now you’re all set! I’m not going to aim to run through the entire process of how to set up and manage your Google Ads account in this article. But this linkage to your Google Business (GMB) profile is often overlooked, and it’s a critical step in ensuring your ads are eligible to show as Local Pack ads.
