Most bowling proprietors are familiar with digital marketing, using vehicles like Facebook, Instagram, email campaigns, etc., to create awareness and drive traffic. While these have proven to be effective ways to increase your visibility, additional tools are available today that allow you to target the exact audience you want, regardless of whether they use social media. This is what is referred to as digital advertising. If you want to reach virtually everyone in your market, you need to expand beyond Facebook and Instagram ads, as you are missing out on one-third of the adult population.
Don’t get me wrong, both Facebook- and Instagram- targeted ads have been used by bowling centers for years with great success. Taking your online marketing to the next level can be done through the Google Ads platform and can reach 90% of the adult population – even those not using Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. This could be a huge market that is unaware of your existence or, at the very least, needs to be reminded to come in and visit.
Similar to Facebook and Instagram ads, Google Ads can be targeted to very specific demographics. For example, suppose you are running a program for college students.
In that case, you can target the ads only to appear where college students are online, regardless of which social media vehicle they are using. Promoting a summer kids’ program? Then targeting parents of school-age children with the details will boost your program’s success. For example, if you’re running the Kids Bowl Free program, we’ve seen as much as a 40% increase in sign-ups as a result. The Google Ads platform will deliver a much larger audience than other social media tools. And in this case, more is definitely better!
Besides reaching new audiences for your center, you can use a pixel to track your website visitors. Then, you can ‘follow’ that person around the internet with reminder ads about your facility. You have already seen this from large companies, where one visit to Ford, Marriott, Delta Airlines, and the like results in ads popping up everywhere you go online. That is no accident! Imagine being able to remind people about your business after they visit your website – that is what we call a hot prospect.
Surveys have shown that customers are 70% more likely to buy when retargeted, meaning that they need to be reminded multiple times before they buy from or visit a business. This is why Facebook and Instagram ads have been so successful for bowling. People need to see your business repeatedly, and these ‘follow-type’ ads are a great reminder to generate a return visit. Just think about the impact you can have if your target audience is 30% bigger than your social media audience!
Google Ads allows you to set up your ad campaign to use pay-per-click (PPC), which means that you only pay for the ads clicked on. Typically, these ads will send the click-through to a specific page on your website, providing excellent tracking of results and improving the user experience if they get the exact content they clicked on. This also means your website needs to have current information and look sharp! If you are not sure about your website’s performance, get a review from a company that specializes in bowling websites.
While the Facebook platform is relatively easy to use for paid ads, the Google system is much more complicated. This more sophisticated platform provides a significant advantage because Google Ads can reach anyone online, regardless of whether they use social media. To avoid the typical new user’s trial and error and get maximum results, you should consider using a company with expertise in setting up and monitoring Google Ads. This will save you time and will be a more innovative use of your budget.
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