A Tool that May Be More Powerful than You Think
Most small business owners get frustrated with their advertising because they have no way of knowing whether the ads got them as much new business as they expected. A lot of times they are focusing on traditional methods such as ads in newspapers, magazines, trade journals or the yellow pages. The problem with traditional marketing is that it’s too scatter shot and not well targeted. If your advertising has you feeling frustrated, you may want to consider using Google AdWords. It offers very distinct advantages so let’s take a look at exactly what it is and how it differs from other advertising.
What is Google AdWords?
Google AdWords is a form of advertising that is offered on the Google search engine.
When people search on Google, Google serves text based ads, also known as “sponsored links,”
related to the search phrase that was entered. The ads are displayed across the top and down
the right hand side of the search results page.
Google ads target your ideal audience.
Unlike other forms of advertisements, these ads are highly targeted because you are able to designate
which keyword searches your ads will be served on. This way, you can make sure your ads are seen by
people who are searching for your products or services at the exact moment they are interested.
You can also choose to have your ads served only in specific areas in order to focus more closely
on your target audience, especially if it’s a local or regional one.
Google ads put your business in front of customers fast.
Google AdWords gives small businesses a way of reaching their target audience quickly in a way that
can get you listed on the first page of the search results, and even on the very first day your ads run.
This is a major difference from a process known as “search engine optimization,” or SEO, which can’t ever
guarantee a first page listing and can sometimes take 6 – 12 months from implementation to see any positive
results. (To be clear, SEO does have its place in your marketing plan - it’s just not the fastest way to reach
customers.)
Google ads offer highly measurable results.
Google AdWords give you a highly measurable way of knowing how your ads performed. You can see how many times your ads were served to people and how many people actually clicked on the ad to visit to your website. You can even track how many of those visitors signed up for your email newsletter or purchased something from your site. This is much different than other forms of advertising where you don’t know for sure how many people saw your ad or whether or not any of them did something about it.
Google only charges you when someone clicks on your ad.
With Google, you are charged only when someone clicks on your ad. This is known as a “pay per click” system and it makes Google AdWords a very low risk type of advertising compared to other marketing techniques. For example, spending $500 on Google means you received $500 worth of actual visitors to your website. When you spend $500 on an ad in a magazine, however, you’re never really certain how many visits you’ll get, if any.
Google allows you to set the maximum price you are willing to pay for each click on your ad. With Google, you get to determine how much you are willing to pay for each visit to your site. For example, if you want to get as many visitors as possible without paying more than $0.50 per visit (aka ‘click,’) you can specify that as the max amount you are willing to pay and Google will serve your ads accordingly.
Google has no minimum budget requirement and lets you cancel your ads at any time.
Google also has no minimum spend requirement to get things started. You can spend as much or as little as you want. In addition, unlike the types of ads that force you to commit to a specific length of time (for as long as a year for things like the yellow pages,) Google allows you to cancel your ads at any time. You can start and stop them as often as you like, whenever you want. This offers you the flexibility to manage your marketing budget better and to meet any seasonality aspects of your business.
As you can see, Google AdWords offers a fast, flexible, and effective way of getting more business from the right customers, making it a compelling tool to add to your marketing mix.