Hotel Direct

On this listing, the phone number is prominent in both the ad and the landing page.

The copy also reassures searchers that they can access a mobile website where they know that booking will be easier. A nice touch.

It backs this up with a clear value proposition with the copy shorter for mobile, while the path to conversion is smooth. 

Hotel Direct has thought about the whole journey here and, crucially, has realised the importance of mobile in a localised search like this, actively targeting mobile users. 

Regus

Search for office space in Manchester and, even though it isn’t the first paid result, the Regus listing stands out: 

This is because Regus (or its PPC agency) has been smart enough to make the most of reviews and local ad extensions. The reviews not only provide some useful social proof for searchers, but also have the effect of making the ad stand out from the others. 

In addition, extra details such as the map link, directions and phone number provide useful tools for customers, and have the bonus effect of knocking the natural search results further down the page. 

NB: Google has recently announced that the phone numbers can no longer be added to AdWords text, and call extensions must be used instead. This means that searchers will see click to call links as in the Hotel Direct example. 

The reviews don’t show on mobile but the click to call link and directions are a great way call to action for mobile searchers

Booking.com

This result, for hotels in Newcastle, shows the value of local ad extensions. 

Local extensions increase your share of the results page and increase your CTR. If your business has relevant physical addresses, it is worth taking advantage of this functionality.

Local ad extensions are set up at campaign level within the AdWords interface. Details of how to add these extensions to your campaigns can be found here

As well as the map marker, ads with location extensions also receive an extra couple of lines of ad copy with the business address, telephone number and a link to directions.

In the example above, the red map markers (labelled alphabetically) correspond to the business listings you can see in the organic search results. The blue map markers (just visible on the screenshot) correspond to paid ads that are running location extensions. 

This, with the addition of review scores, gives Booking.com’s result greater visibility. 

Dentists

Again, we have two results which make use of local extensions – you can see the locations of the practices using PPC in blue: 

This means that the top two PPC listings have location information and contact numbers, which is useful for searchers. The second result has managed to squeeze some prices and offer details in there, which may give it the edge.  

Now let’s look at the landing pages. Here’s the page that Zero Seven sends you to: 

All very clever from a design perspective, but pretty useless as a landing page. If customers, like me, have to spend that much time working out where to click, then the money spent on the PPC ad is wasted.

Let’s hope people choose to phone instead. Oh, and it’s terrible on mobile. 

Smile, the second result, isn’t much better, though at least the site is easier to take in, and there is some useful information and clear contact details. 

In both these cases, while the PPC ads were good, best practice didn’t extend to the landing page. 

Airport parking

Airport parking is a competitive PPC term, and this example shows a couple of different approaches. The top result is taking up as much SERPS page real estate as possible with extra information on proximity to terminals etc. 

However, the second may be more persuasive to some, thanks to the review scores and the call to action to receive offers by email. That said, having entered my email address, I’m still waiting for my offers 20 minutes later. 

Both go to landing pages with clear calls to action. Here’s the landing page for the top result: 

So which is the best tactic? The persuasion that comes with reviews, or having the top result?