Happy Friday! Here are a few closing thoughts on my topic this week: Google AdWords. Don’t miss this great post from Hubspot today: 5 Ways To Get Out Of The Pay Per Click Weeds. Have a great weekend!
Google AdWords and the Hunt For Red Tomatoes
July 30, 2010 By View Comments
When AdWords Makes Sense, Make The Most Of It
July 29, 2010 By View Comments
For everything there is a season…
…a time for every activity under heaven. (Ecclesiastes 3:1) Even AdWords.
Yesterday I wrote about how AdWords can be a black hole for a small business marketing budget. Today I want to point out a few circumstances in which AdWords makes sense.
Sometimes AdWords is the right thing to do.
According to a great post yesterday on Hubspot Inbound Marketing‘s blog called 3 Strategies to Run an Effective Google AdWords Campaign, one good reason to use AdWords is if your website is brand new and you’re not sure which keywords to focus on for your organic search efforts. AdWords gives you a chance to test different keywords’ popularity. Another reason to justify your PPC spending is if you’d like to reach “audiences different from those drawn from organic search and thus maximize your reach to potential customers.” (Hubspot)
Want better results? Let me show you the world in Google’s eyes.
If you need to use AdWords, a great exercise might be to put yourself in Google’s shoes. If Google isn’t seen as reliable, then Google goes go out of business. While we’re busy using them to market to our prospects, remember that they’re Google’s prospects first. If serving up our ads is not what Google thinks is best for their customers, they will either not serve them up at all, or they’ll make it much more expensive for us.
What makes a good ad from Google’s perspective?
A good ad is the sum of three parts:
- The keywords we choose to target
- The ad copy we write
- The copy on the landing page
If Google doesn’t think those three things go together like a hand in a glove, then we’ll be paying more, or the ads won’t be seen much at all. There are many sources for information on what makes a good AdWords campaign, especially Hubspot’s post, so I won’t recreate the wheel. But the thing I think is usually underestimated is the power of keeping things simple and keeping these three elements in sync.
Keeping it simple: Now jump into the shoes of the searcher.
You need an A. You decide to look for A online. You type A into the search bar. You see ads come up promising a good deal on A. You click on the ad… but there’s no A. There may be lots of B, which is close, but you were looking for A. B might be on the next page or even implied, but if you don’t see A, are you going to stay on that page? Or click away as fast as you can to go back to the other search results because you have other things to do and you just need an A.
So the best idea for the vendor selling A is to target the keyword A, include A in the ad itself, then make sure that the promise of the ad is fulfilled on the landing page with lots and lots of good A. Google will reward you with a lower CPC and more impressions. They like it when our prospects are getting what they search for. That’s Google’s job. They want to help us do ours better too.
AdWords: Ditchable? Or A Necessary Evil?
July 28, 2010 By View Comments
AdWords pays for things I love…
It’s the primary source of Google’s revenue, and I do love my Google. It’s easy to get the impression that AdWords is a necessary part of any web marketing strategy and that social media is sort of a poor-man’s alternative. For some, ads help bolster brand exposure and increase a certain kind of traffic, but for most, it’s a waste of valuable marketing dollars.
Today, a blog post on the New York Times‘ blog You’re The Boss called “Trial and Error With Adwords and SEO“ describes the journey of Catherine Wood Hill and mother Michelle Wood, co-founder of La Grande Dame. She spent thousands on Adwords and purchased email lists only to discover that:
- After spending $13,930 on AdWords, they made only $3,838 in sales.
- Out of a purchased e-mail list of 500,000 names, only 15 actually bought anything.
Not to be a complete spoiler (you simply MUST go read this article), but here is the juiciest bit:
Eventually, Ms. Hill chose to lose the P.R. specialist, ditch the e-mail list vendors, and skip AdWords altogether. “Now, I do everything myself,” she said. She concluded that successful S.E.O. had three components: the content on your pages; getting other sites to link to yours; and the way in which your site is coded. “I can control the first two on a daily basis,” said Ms. Hill, who has no coding background.
(From Trial and Error with AdWords and S.E.O. By ADRIANA GARDELLA)
Interested in more success stories like hers?
I’ve been a fan of Bernie Borges’ podcasts for some time now. On his website, Find And Convert, he has a section called Success Case Studies Podcasts where you’ll find a treasure trove of great examples like Ms. Hill’s. Don’t miss these favorites:
- Florida Aquarium Dives Into Social Media Waters – how a local aquarium went from a simple website and traditional ad platforms to using social media. One of their tweetups more than doubled their forecasted attendance over a 10-day period.
- A Step-By-Step Social Media Development Plan – Perfect for anyone who thinks social media will never work for their industry. See how David Carothers becomes a “Marketing 2.0 Maven” in the sexiest industry of all: risk management.
