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Just figured out my website was invisible to local customers for a whole year | Amarillo Small Business - Opinions Matter

iris_jones89•6mo ago

Just figured out my website was invisible to local customers for a whole year

I run a small auto detailing shop off I-40, and I could never understand why my online ads weren't pulling in more Amarillo folks. I was spending about $200 a month on them. Then last Tuesday, a customer came in and said, 'I found you because I searched 'car wash near me' on my phone.' I always set my ads to target 'Amarillo, TX' but I never checked the 'include surrounding areas' box. My ads were only showing to people whose GPS location was pinpointed inside the city limits, missing everyone in Canyon, Bushland, or even just on the outskirts. I fixed it in five minutes. Has anyone else in town had their geo-targeting set too narrow without knowing it?

3 comments

3 Comments

anna5676mo ago

My old company's tire ads were set to a 5-mile radius from the shop. We missed every trucker stopping at the Pilot station 6 miles down the road. I started setting a 15-mile circle and adding the next county over by name. Tripled our calls from road crews in three months. You gotta think about where people actually are, not just the town on the map.

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vera5036mo ago

So when you added the next county by name, did you just target the whole county or pick specific towns in it? I'm trying to figure out if a blanket county add is worth it or if I should be more picky.

morgan9155mo ago

Yeah seriously, @vera503 you gotta be careful with blanket county adds cause sometimes they're too broad and you waste money. I run a small landscaping biz and we had the same issue targeting around our shop. What worked for me was picking the big towns and also adding the names of the highways and major intersections near us. Like, instead of just "Springfield" I'd put "I-55 exit 89" as a location target. That caught all the construction crews passing through. Also I found adding the two closest counties by name but limiting the radius to 10 miles from the shop for each one helped cut the junk leads. You really gotta think about what roads people use to get to you, not just the town lines.