Google launches it’s new Beta version “Boost” an advertising solution which will help local businesses connect with potential local customers. Google already has “Google Places” a free advertising platform for local businesses where they claim their local business which will appear on “Google Maps” search results on both desktops and Mobile phones. “Google Boost” is the beta release of the expansion of this local business platform. These search ads can be created within the Places account and it is initially available only for the business owners within San Francisco, Houston and Chicago.
To create an ad campaign, businesses need to give the short description, website or place page, business categories and their monthly budget. Google system will automatically figure out keywords for the campaign and sets up the local ad which will appear on both Google Maps and Google sponsored links section. It will help the business owners get the most out of the budget they alloted. The basic performance data can be viewed in the Google Places dashboard.
Here is a snippet from Google Lat Long blog
Google Boost allows business owners to easily create online search ads from directly within their Google Places account. No ongoing management is needed after the initial set up, and this beta is currently available to select local businesses in San Francisco, Houston and Chicago.
Unlike Google Places, Boost is a “pay per click” advertising platform, just like Google Adwords. However, Boost allows for a deeper integration of your Google Places page into the Google Maps display. And this is especially relevant for mobile searches, which are growing exponentially as a percentage of total searches conducted by users.
Since there is no ongoing management needed after creating the ads and it automatically determines what keywords your business ought to bid, We will have to wait and see how the campaigns perform and whether the Small Business using them will see value.
Disclaimer: The post is completely based on individual thoughts and SEO Services Group bears no responsibilities for the thoughts reflected in the post
Boost has been up for one day now in parts of Houston, in some cases the local places now take up the entire page one! which will it seems to me run off some google users who want the most relevant content not the paid.
in other cases it is not the whole page but organic is limited. I can see when googles revenue goes up but many users are bound to bail for another search engine.
Hi, Thanks for your reply. Yes, I agree with you. The biggest impact of Google Places will be the disappearance of some of the organic results in the first page. They are forcing small business to use Google product instead of their website to show up in the search results. It clearly shows that Google wants more money.