The new service relies on Google's click-to-call function, which allows advertisers to target ad displays based upon the user's location, automatically ranking closer locations higher up in the results listings and allowing the direct placing of phone calls, dialed from within the listings by the simple click of a link.
While privacy advocates worry about the implications of location-based advertising, Google users are required to agree to its terms and conditions — including the sharing of their phone number and current location — in order to use the new service, which offers many benefits both present and future, as new uses for the technology emerge.
"The ad appears as a banner text ad with a business icon that expands to show your business location on a Google map along with your ad creative, click-to-call phone number and option to get directions," Dai Pham of Google Mobile Ads Marketing Team, stated. "Since ads can be served based on the user's location, a potential customer will see the phone number and map of the store location that's nearest to them."
"By providing mobile consumers more options to connect with your business you can drive more traffic to your store, visits to your website or calls to your business," Pham added. "This new ad format is available on mobile devices with full Internet browsers and allows you to expand your advertising campaigns to reach highly engaged mobile users with relevant local information as they use their favorite apps or websites to check the weather, read the news, play games or pursue other mobile interests."
Advertisers pay when surfers click to call or visit the company's website. There is no fee when users simply check the map or get directions, and the cost is the same whether the click results in a phone call or website visit.
Pham says that getting started with location extensions for mobile apps and websites is easy for users of the Google Display Network.
"As a best practice, we recommend setting up separate location extensions campaigns for Search and Display networks," Pham stated, adding that advertisers should ensure that they have chosen within their account admin area to display ads "on iPhones and other mobile devices with full Internet browsers."
No special programming skills are required and a default icon is available for user's that do not have their own.
For adult retailers, clubs and other real-world venues, Google's mobile ad technology could become a staple of traffic, and ultimately, customer acquisition.