The Cheshire line: why a Wilmslow click costs more and converts better

South of the airport the account changes. A search typed in Altrincham, Wilmslow, Knutsford or Macclesfield carries the town's name more often than a Manchester search does, the click costs more because the businesses competing for it charge more, and the enquiry that follows is worth more, because the person typing it is buying a kitchen, a private treatment or a car rather than comparing prices. An account that covers Manchester and Cheshire from one campaign averages the two and reads neither. The fix is a Cheshire campaign of its own, with its own budget, its own bids and a report that shows the two sides apart. Our own Search Console shows the pattern on a small scale: searches for a PPC agency in Cheshire reach this site at a position in the mid teens, and they are typed with the county, not the city.

What the two sides look like in one account

The last row is the one most accounts cannot fill in. Without a value per enquiry from the business, a Cheshire campaign always looks expensive beside a Manchester one, and the budget drifts north to the cheaper clicks, which is the wrong direction for a business whose best jobs come from the south.

Build the line into the account

1. Two campaigns, Manchester and Cheshire, each with its own daily budget, so that the cheaper clicks cannot spend the dearer campaign's money.
2. Cheshire targeted by the towns the business serves, by name, with the presence setting; not a radius from the airport, which pulls in the city's southern suburbs and averages the line away.
3. Ad groups by town where the search terms show the town is typed, with the town in the headline and a page that names it; one ad group for the county-wide searches with location insertion set at town level.
4. A bid ceiling on the Cheshire campaign set from the enquiry value, not from the Manchester campaign's cost per click. A dearer click that converts to a dearer job is the cheaper click.
5. Negatives for the Cheshire towns that share a name with somewhere else, and for the Manchester campaign the Cheshire towns themselves, so that the two do not bid against each other.

Which businesses the line matters for

• Home improvement with a showroom or a van: kitchens, bathrooms, landscaping, windows. The Cheshire enquiry is larger and slower.
• Private health and aesthetics: physiotherapy, dentistry, cosmetic treatment. The Cheshire searcher books a consultation rather than asking a price.
• Prestige motor trade: the search carries the model and the town.
• Professional services with a local office: an Altrincham accountant is searched for as an Altrincham accountant, not a Manchester one.
• Not for: anything bought on price alone, delivered from the city regardless of where the buyer is, or searched for without a place. Those accounts keep one campaign and one read.

The test is the search terms report sorted by town for ninety days. If the Cheshire towns appear and their enquiries are worth more, the account has a line it is not reading. If they appear and the enquiries are worth the same, leave the account alone.

The airport, and the line it draws

The line is not the county boundary; it is the airport. South of it the towns were built around the railway to the city and priced around the people who commute on it, and their searches read like it: the town in the query, the service named precisely, a willingness to travel to the right provider. North of it, in Wythenshawe, Sale and Stretford, the searches read like the city's. A campaign targeted by postcode district will split roughly along the M56; a campaign targeted by borough will not, because Trafford straddles the line, with Hale and Altrincham on one side and Stretford on the other. Target by town and let the search terms report confirm where the line falls for the business; it is a little different for a dentist and a landscaper.

Three mistakes in a Cheshire campaign

• Copying the Manchester ads. A Cheshire searcher who typed the town wants the town in the headline and a page that shows work done there. The city ad, with the city's name, loses the click.
• Bidding to the Manchester ceiling. The Cheshire click costs more because the job is worth more; a ceiling copied from the city campaign leaves the Cheshire campaign out of the auction in the hours that matter.
• Reading the campaign at thirty days. Cheshire enquiries arrive more slowly and convert over weeks, with a quote and a visit between the click and the job. Ninety days and the quote values are the first honest read.

What the report shows after the split

Two blocks, one per campaign, each with spend, clicks, cost per click, enquiries and cost per enquiry, and under the Cheshire block the enquiry value the business supplied and the return it implies. A Cheshire cost per enquiry twice the Manchester figure with an enquiry value three times higher is the better campaign, and a report that only showed the first number would have cut it. The targeting guide beside this one covers the radius, postcode and borough settings in detail; this guide is about why the settings should split the county from the city in the first place.