If you've ever searched Google for a kitchen showroom, you'll almost certainly have noticed the local business listings with the map near the top of the page.
Marketers usually refer to this section as the 'Local Pack' or 'Map Pack'.
For local kitchen businesses, it's one of the most valuable pieces of marketing real estate on the entire search results page.
That's because the people seeing it are usually searching with intent. They're not casually browsing for inspiration; they're actively looking for a kitchen showroom or specialist near them. They can also immediately see where you're based, your opening hours and, perhaps most importantly, your customer reviews.
Earning a place there organically can be a real game-changer for local kitchen businesses.
You may also have noticed that, from time to time, a sponsored listing appears in the 'Local Pack'.
Here's an example:
It's an incredibly valuable place for an advert to appear, but for years it often felt more like good luck than good management. Even if you were investing in Google Ads, there never seemed to be a reliable way of influencing whether your adverts appeared there.
In many cases, those ads appeared because Google chose to show them through campaign types such as Performance Max, rather than because advertisers had any real control over that placement.
The good news is that Google has recently made it much easier to become eligible for those sponsored listings.
To do that, you'll need a verified Google Business Profile that's linked to your Google Ads account using Location Assets, then enable the relevant setting within Google Ads.
If you're already running Google Ads, it's worth taking five minutes to switch this option on.
A quick Google search for 'Google Ads Location Assets' or 'Google Maps ads' should take you straight to Google's own instructions.
Like most things in marketing, success rarely comes from one big breakthrough. It comes from making lots of small improvements that gradually stack up over time.
This is one of those improvements.