Big news for local businesses from Google this week, “your location-specific business phone number will display alongside your destination url in ads that appear on high-end mobile devices”.  So, users with iPhones/mobile devices will be able to click-to-call the phone number associated with your ad.

Specifics

• In your campaign settings, you must be opted into display on “iPhone and other mobile devices with full Internet browsers”.
• Need to enter the phone number you want users to call.  This can be done in two ways.  If you already have your phone number in your local business listing make sure you have the two accounts linked to each other.  Or, you can manually enter the phone number under the locations section of your campaign settings.
• How do you see the results? In the Campaign tab, click on the Filter and views drop down to Segment By then to “Click Type”.  This break down the URL clicks v. the calls.
• How will you be charged? This is the great part, a click-to-call is the same as a normal click to your website.
• Where will your phone number be placed in the ad? It will appear as a 5th line of ad text in your ad.

This is great news for local businesses because it allows you to control even more information you put online about your business, manage your reputation and help customers find/call your local business more easily.

If you’re a local business running PPC on Google, have you already added phone numbers to your mobile ads?