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Digital Advertising

PPC in Lancaster: Challenges and Advantages

admin | Oct 11, 2018

More and more local businesses are considering or already investing in paid search advertising. As a leading digital advertising agency in Lancaster, we’ll tell you what works and doesn’t work in our community.

paid search advertising lancaster pa

Paid search advertising is one of the best ways to advertise your company online. Sometimes called pay per click (PPC) advertising, this type of ad shows up when someone is looking for your brand, your type of product or service, or your competition. PPC ads can show up for keywords that you could never rank for organically. Plus, they are great for local businesses, as you can target your ads based on the search, demographic, or location.

Here in Lancaster, we’ve worked with local businesses of all sizes and advertising spends across dozens of industries. Here’s what we’ve learned about the challenges and opportunities for PPC campaigns in Lancaster.

Challenges for PPC in Lancaster

Duplicate Lancasters

Did you know that there are 21 different communities in the United States that use the name “Lancaster”? And our Lancaster (city in Pennsylvania) is not even the largest one; the title goes to Lancaster, California.

If you do not have your Google Ads settings properly configured, you may be running ads to people in every Lancaster, not just Lancaster, PA. We frequently see this when we perform a PPC audit – companies have wasted thousands of dollars for ads targeting people in these other Lancasters.

With their Ads platform, Google has created a system that’s accessible for most small businesses. But without the support of a paid search specialist, your company may have incorrect settings like above and be wasting your advertising budget on the wrong audience.

Significant Competition (In Certain Industries)

For high-value products and services, there are always competition for search terms. No matter where you go, personal injury lawyers and expensive software will have a high CPC. But here in Lancaster, there are certain industries that have higher CPCs than elsewhere in the nation. That’s because there is more competition locally within those industries.

Industries that see higher CPC here in Lancaster:

  • Furniture
  • Outdoor Living
  • Lawn Care/Landscaping/Pest Control

Conservative Spenders

Lancaster County’s rich history of Plain Communities, farmers, and working class families all tend to skew towards conservative beliefs and behaviors, including how they manage their money. This frugal mindset has lessened but still prevails in the 21st century, making it harder to sell big-ticket items online. This means that advertisers may need to craft different messaging for their Lancaster ads than the ones running along the Main Line suburbs of Philadelphia.

 

Opportunities for PPC in Lancaster

County-wide Targeting

Lancaster is unique because it is a the name of a city as well as the whole county. Moreover, people that live in surrounding communities – like Ephrata, Lititz, and Millersville – will often search for Lancaster terms. This makes the task of creating and targeting ads easier; using Lancaster language will resonate with those living anywhere in the county.

Growing Community

Over the last few decades, Lancaster City has become a vibrant community known for its arts, food, and creativity. At the same time, the surrounding communities have grown both in families and in retirement homes, making Lancaster County a fast growing community here in the Mid-Atlantic.

Lancaster (along with York and Harrisburg) is the 44th largest DMA in the country. This means there is a substantial amount of people in our area, which in turn leads to more searches, clicks, and leads. Yet our ads are not priced like the other major markets, nor have the search results become flooded by large brands and big-budget advertisers. All this means is that the fields are ripe for smaller, local brands to compete in the paid advertising arena.

Affordable CPCs

While Lancaster is close to the major metropolitan communities of Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC, the bids for search ads are nowhere near as high as these cities. This makes Lancaster an attractive option for regional companies who want to see their ad dollars go further.

 

Turn to the Local Paid Search Experts

PPC advertising is an affordable way to target your potential customers online with your brand’s message. Yet without the right strategy, you can quickly spend your budget on the wrong audience or keywords that don’t convert. That’s why it’s important to have a paid search specialist on your side. At YDOP, we have a team dedicated solely to helping our clients see more results from their digital advertising efforts.

To see how YDOP can help with your paid search campaigns, contact us to set up a meeting.