Boosting footfall with Google Ads: A PPC guide for UK retailers

Local businesses are operating in an increasingly complex environment. While online visibility remains essential, the core challenge for many is converting digital interest into measurable outcomes. Specifically, increased footfall and in-store revenue.

Given that roughly 46% of Google searches have local intent, this presents a significant opportunity for business growth. Paid search advertising offers a clear opportunity to close this gap. It allows local businesses to position their brand directly in front of nearby consumers who are actively searching for specific products or services. However, success depends not on visibility alone, but on strategic use of the tools available.

This article explores how key Google Ads features can support local business goals, particularly for organisations with physical premises that rely on footfall, regional brand recognition or in-person conversions.

Performance Max local campaigns

Performance Max campaigns are designed to reduce complexity while expanding reach across Google’s ecosystem. For businesses with physical locations, the local-focused configuration of Performance Max enables automated ad placements across Google Search, YouTube, Gmail, Maps and Display.

The strategic advantage here lies in coverage and efficiency. Google’s machine learning manages bidding and placements according to your business objectives, such as in-store visits or phone enquiries. In practical terms, it means potential customers searching locally (whether via Maps or traditional search) are served relevant, timely messaging at scale.

Crucially, these campaigns can be optimised for location extensions and store visit conversions, providing clearer attribution and performance insights across channels:

Local inventory ads

Local Inventory Ads offer a direct way for businesses to showcase their products to potential customers directly on Google's search results page and shopping tab. A key advantage of these ads is their ability to highlight real-time inventory status and current pricing information. 

When a potential customer searches for a product that is available in their local area, Local Inventory Ads display the product image, price, and crucially, information regarding its availability at nearby physical store locations. These ads are particularly effective for retailers looking to capitalise on local demand and provide customers with the option for immediate purchase.

Geo-targeting

Geo-targeting remains one of the most impactful yet underutilised tools within Google Ads for local businesses. By narrowing campaign reach to specific locations (such as postcodes, city radius or custom regions) businesses avoid wasted spend and increase campaign relevance.

This is particularly valuable for service-based organisations with strict delivery zones or licence restrictions, and for retailers with a highly localised customer base. Granular location targeting enables message tailoring, regional offer customisation and more accurate performance reporting.

From a cost-efficiency perspective, the ability to exclude locations with low intent or irrelevant traffic can significantly improve return on ad spend:

Barcode & QR code promotions

One of the ongoing challenges for physical businesses is connecting online activity to offline behaviour. Google’s QR code and barcode promotion extensions provide a practical solution.

These extensions allow businesses to generate unique scannable codes directly in ads. Customers redeem offers in-store by scanning the code at checkout, enabling a clear link between online engagement and in-store sales.

The data collected (which includes user engagement, conversion times and campaign performance) offers marketing teams deeper insight into which ads are driving real-world outcomes. It is a valuable feedback loop for campaign optimisation and allocation of future budgets.

Aligning your business for local PPC campaigns

While the tools are readily available, local PPC success requires more than technical implementation. For businesses aiming to drive footfall and in-person transactions, alignment between digital marketing and operational goals is essential.

This includes:

• Clear KPI definition: such as store visits, in-person purchases or regional brand awareness
• Ongoing campaign performance: monitoring and geographic testing
• Coordinated messaging: across platforms to reflect in-store offers and stock
• Staff readiness: to manage increased in-store engagement prompted by campaigns

With the right structure and internal coordination, PPC campaigns can support not just marketing targets but broader business outcomes such as inventory velocity, customer lifetime value and location-level performance.

The local digital landscape presents both a challenge and an opportunity. For decision-makers seeking to convert online engagement into physical footfall, Google Ads offers a mature, data-driven solution. From campaign types built for store visits to product-level targeting and location-specific messaging, the platform enables highly targeted, measurable activity.

For businesses looking to review their local digital strategy or scale their use of PPC effectively, our eCommerce consultants offer tailored guidance.

Book your free consultation to explore how targeted advertising can support growth across your physical locations.