It has been a few weeks since Google announced their newest advertising product for local businesses: Google Boost. The new program is essentially designed to make it very easy (a caveman could do it ) for a non-ppc savvy local business owner to create and launch their own pay-per-click advertising campaigns right from their Place Page account. As Google describes it, Boost is

a quick and easy way for local businesses to market themselves and connect with potential customers in their area. Based on the information you’ve already provided on the Place page for your business, we provide a suggested ad description, a web or Place page, your business categories and a monthly budget. Once you’ve confirmed these four simple elements, our system automatically creates an ad campaign. Your ad may start appearing almost immediately when people in your area search online for products and services related to your offering. And what’s more, you’ll only pay when a potential customer actually clicks on your ad. To be clear, the ranking of Boost ads in the “Ads” section of the Google.com and Google Maps search results pages are based on relevance and quality factors; and Boost ads do not impact the ranking of your free, organic business listings.

At the time of that announcement, this simplified Adwords advertising feature was only available in San Francisco, Chicago, and Houston. As of today, Google is making the feature also available in:

• San Jose
• Seattle
• Wichita
• Charlottesville (VA)
• Atlanta
• Chapel Hill
• Orlando
• Washington D.C.
• Boston
• Cross Plains (TX)
• Portland (ME)
• All local businesses in Illinois.

To try out Boost, simply log into your Place Page account and if the feature is available, you will see an invitation in your account to start using it. Everyone else who is located outside of the cities listed above can fill out a form to be notified when Boost is available in their area.