Does your local business need more customers? If course it does, whose doesn’t. How would you like your business’ online ad to appear whenever an Android phone or tablet user searches for your local industry using the Yelp mobile app? That capability exists now.  Google just announced Custom Search Ads, which will allow businesses to advertise when someone searches from within an app.

With Custom Search Ads if your business is closer than a competitor’s business across town from the current location of someone searching your market from their smartphone, you will be more likely that your business will rank higher than them in their mobile search. This is a feature win-win feature for both companies and searchers.

To get started with mobile search engine ads you need to optimize your company’s website for smartphones and tablets. You then need to use your paid search dollars to bring in those clients, and and Google is making it much easier for small businesses.

If you are a local Google Ads user you should enable the “Click to Call” feature in your Google Ads control panel. Google also offers small and midsize businesses their Ads With Offers, which allow you to make micro-targeted offers to search users.  Click-to-Call can result in a direct ROI from customer contacts, which can pay for itself. As smartphones continue to get cheaper and therefore make their way into the hands of more shoppers, optimizing your search campaigns for mobile platforms is a must.