For national brands, their SEO agencies, and their local partners, being displayed in the local pack has resulted in more foot traffic on the local level. However, Google has now announced that ads will soon be up for auction in the local pack, replacing 1 of 3 organic spots. You need to prepare. If you have 50+ locations, execution won’t be a piece of cake. This infographic lays out predictions and roadmaps from the leading local paid search experts at Balihoo.

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Sub-accounts have many other benefits.
They allow you to:
• Execute ads in the correct time zones.
• Set and pace individual location budgets.
• Easily diagnose problems at the location level.
some elements
Sitting at the top of search results,
and visually enhanced by the map,
the Local Pack gets great results
for any business in the top 3 listings.
The Local Pack is a group
of 3 Google My Business listings
included above the main results
of a local search.
Balihoo users see 90% reduction
in manual tasks, and decreases
in CPL of up to 60%.
Contact us to discuss your local paid
search strategy and how Balihoo
software can help to automate
sub-accounts, campaigns,
and ads across markets using your
own location data.
The Local Pack – BackgroundThe Local Pack – Background
The Bad NewsThe Bad News
How Will Local Pack Ads Perform?How Will Local Pack Ads Perform?
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Who Will Suffer?Who Will Suffer?
44
Who Will Benefit Most?Who Will Benefit Most?
55
How Should You Prepare?How Should You Prepare?
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The Good NewsThe Good News
How will an ad spot in the Local Pack change the game?How will an ad spot in the Local Pack change the game?
Coming soon
to Google
Ads in the
Coming soon
to Google
Ads in the
Local
Pack!
Local
Pack!
Don't have sub-accounts for each location?
If you don’t have Adwords sub-accounts yet, you probably should,
regardless of your Local Pack strategy.
Things
Big Brands
Need to Know
Things
Big Brands
Need to Know
Only 3 spots are available
in the Local Pack.
When the ads take effect,
only 2 will remain for
organic traffic.
If you’ve pushed your way
into the top 2, you’ll now get
about ¹⁄³ less return on your
investment. If you’re in the
3rd
spot, you’re about to get
pushed out of sight!
Both SEO and paid search are important.
Both areas require money.
Whether this hurts your business depends on how flexible your SEO budget is.
Brands launching NEW LOCATIONS will now be able to affect the Local Pack
instantaneously.
Currently, the makeup of the Local Pack is judged by citations of a location across
the web, rather than the SEO of the company’s own website. So even established
brands have had to wait patiently for a new branch to become visible.
Now they can jump to the front of the line.
If you want to optimize Local Pack ads
across your locations, you’ll need a plan.
This may be required
to run ads in the Local Pack.
GET READY TO LINK YOUR
GOOGLE MY BUSINESS LISTINGS
WITH INDIVIDUAL
ADWORDS SUB-ACCOUNTS
FOR EACH LOCATION.
GET READY TO LINK YOUR
GOOGLE MY BUSINESS LISTINGS
WITH INDIVIDUAL
ADWORDS SUB-ACCOUNTS
FOR EACH LOCATION.
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If your locations are
consistently in the top 2 now,
then buying the ad spot will
lead to near domination
of the Local Pack.
If you're already using local
paid search, now your ad
can be paired up with the
local map, providing more
context for searchers and
increasing qualified clicks.
Consumers trust Local Pack search results
more than the set of paid ads at the top.
After consumers get wise to the new ad spot,
performance is likely to drop, but probably not by very much.
Before searcher perception catches up to the new ad space,
ads in the Local Pack are expected to outperform other ad positions.
S E OS E OBrands that rely heavily on and aren’t ready to shift more budget
to local paid search may see
KPIs diminish.