Advertise Your Local Business in Google Maps App

August 8th, Google announced that the release update to its Google Maps App will now include local ads spaces. The ads will appear at the bottom of the screen as seen below.

Once clicked, users will see details such as: Business's address, phone number, photos, reviews and more. Then they will be able to do the following Paid and Free actions.

Free Actions:

• Saving business information for later.
• Sharing a business with a friend.
• Starting navigating.

Paid Actions: (You'll only be charged for up to two paid clicks per ad impression.)

• The initial 'get location details' click.
• Get directions.
• click-to-call.
• clicks on the ad headline.

Minimum Daily Budget Added to AdWords Express

AdWord Express now has a minimum daily budget requirement based on your category choices. This may have been going on for a while, but we just discovered it a few days ago. We tried to set up a one-man office networking company with a budget of $100 per month, but we were required to bump it up to almost $150 per month by the AdWords Express platform.

Express now requires your minimum daily budget to be equal to or more than the cost per click to get your ad on the first page of the Google results. That actually makes some sense, but we also received a mailer from Google the same day soliciting the business for AdWord Express with conflicting information, saying:

"What it costs is up to you. Just set a budget you're comfortable with. You only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad to get more information."