Google AdWords Learning Center - Local Business Ads

Local business ads are AdWords ads associated with a specific geographic location. They can appear when a user searches for specific businesses or services in the advertiser's selected geographic area. This option gives you a good way to reach local customers and to create local customer awareness.

For example, if a user searches on dentists San Francisco, CA, Google displays a list of dentists in or near San Francisco.

Local business ads are eligible to appear in two places:

On Google Maps (maps.google.com)
On Google and other sites in the Google search network

Local business ads are available for campaigns using keyword targeting only. These campaigns must be opted into the search network (or into Google search only) and target a specific region or city. To learn how, visit the Edit Campaign Settings topic.

Each local business ad should be associated to a business location within the campaign's targeted region. For example, if your campaign targets Manchester, England, you won't be able to create local business ads for businesses in London.

To enable local business ads to run on Google Maps and search sites in the Google Network:

The format of local business ads appear differently on Google Maps and on the Google search network:

Google Maps: Google Maps includes a map component for each local business ad. When a user clicks the ad title or the map marker, an info window expands on the map to reveal additional information about the business. When users click the URL in the ad or in the info window, they are redirected to the advertiser's website.

Google and the search network: A text-only version of each local business ad is automatically eligible to run on Google and other search sites in the Google Network. The text version has the same ad text and display URL as the enhanced ad running on Google Maps. In addition, a fifth line of text appears with the city (and state, if applicable) of your business.

When creating local business ads, follow standard text ad Editorial Guidelines. To learn more about local business ads, visit the Local Business Ad section in the Help Center.