Location Extensions - Understanding the Local Opportunity

For clients who are interested in tapping into the local opportunity, we offer a feature in AdWords called location extensions. Location extensions allow you to include relevant business addresses with your clients' text ads based on a user's location and search terms.

There are a number of benefits to location extensions. With location extensions, you can offer more information about your business to customers who are close enough to visit your business, or who are already searching or browsing for information related to your business. Location extensions attract user attention by displaying an address as another line of text on Google.com and with a custom icon on Google Maps.

Perhaps the most important benefit of location extensions for larger accounts and agencies is the ability to create and edit ads at scale. For each text ad you create, AdWords can automatically generate multiple ad variations by matching your ad with relevant business addresses you've uploaded to the Local Business Center. When you edit an ad, your addresses will be displayed with the new ad text immediately.

Check out the following steps to get started with location extensions. You can find these in the Settings tab in your account.

1. You can use local targeting to select the locations you'd like to target.
2. Select the option to "show relevant addresses with my ads" to enable location extensions.
3. Sync your Local Business Center account with your AdWords account.
* If you update or add an address in your Local Business Center account, it will automatically update in AdWords
* If you don't have a Local Business Center account, you can sign up here. You can also manually enter addresses into AdWords, but with this option, there is a nine address limit per campaign.



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While the Local Business Center was designed for primary business owners, non-business owners, such as agencies, can still sync AdWords with Local Business Center as long as they are a representative for a given business. If you are representing a business with more than ten locations, you can submit a bulk upload to the Local Business Center. While bulk uploaded data is not verified and may not show up on Google Maps, the addresses can be used for location extensions. Bulk uploading will not require verification by a phone call or postcard with a PIN.

For more information and best practices for implementing Location Extensions, please visit the AdWords Help Centre.

Posted by Kelly Blackford, Agency Training Team
This is a partial cross post from the Adwords Agency Blog