With a growing move toward local search by consumers looking to purchase products or services in their areas, businesses that are trying to sell their wares in a local market need to make sure that they are not only embracing, but also understanding the local search market. Running the same pay-per-click ads in a local search environment that you do in your regular campaigns is a sure sign that companies do NOT understand local search.

Loren Baker, over at Search Engine Journal has an excellent article today about the mistakes being made by Dunkin Donuts in their local search pay-per-click campaign.

From Search Engine Journal:

But wait just a moment, something is wrong here. Dunkin Donuts is not offering me a coupon for some free munchkins during my drive-in coffee buying experience or even marketing their spill proof lids, nope, they are trying to sell me something completely different in this Yahoo Local search result. Something totally irrelevant to the Local Search experience : "Shop the Dunkin Donuts online store for delicious coffee and coffee accessories. Try the holiday special: buy 2 pounds of any coffee for $10.99."

Loren then goes on to offer up some great words of advice for how Dunkin Donuts could change up their local search PPC ads. Suggestions like dayparting, a shifted product focus and upselling on a landing page all make great sense and could be applied by almost any local business looking to run search engine ads.

Well worth a read and some thought if you're selling any products through a brick and mortar store.