In an effort to encourage more business owners to take advantage of its Tags advertising program, Google Places is offering a 30-day trial to users who sign up by July 23.
The Tags program was one of a handful of features rolled out in April when Google revamped its Local Business Center and re-branded it as Google Places as part of a larger push to capture more local searches and advertising dollars.
Tags offer local businesses an opportunity to enhance their Google Maps listings with a note about special offers, coupons or just a link back to their website.
The upsold listings include a small yellow tag graphic and an adjacent line of text. These yellow tags help businesses stand out in a sea of red pins, and when clicked, show users more detail about the special offer or announcement. For some companies, it’s simply a way to get users to click through to their own website directly from Google’s map or listings view, without having to click through to an individual listing first.
Like Google AdWords, Tags are labeled as “Sponsored” but it doesn’t appear that the presence of a tag has any influence on the order or placement of listings. Rather than the pay-per-click model made famous by AdWords, the Tags program costs a flat fee of $25 a month once the 30-day promotional period is up.
