The Power of Google Adwords

One of the most common questions I get from my clients is "How do I get to the top of the search engines?". To be honest, it's the toughest question I get. It's so hard to answer and accomplish, especially if you have a website that is brand new!! If your website is brand new that means you are going to have no page rank. Little or no page rank really means that google doesn't really know that you exist....so finding your website will not show up on the first page. Actually your website will show up several pages back which will do you no good!!

So what do you do? How do you get there? Why build the website if you can't get people to it? Well you build the website first to build your brand, get exposure from your offline marketing, and to show credibility. No matter what you MUST have a website for your business....that is the starting point. I always tell my clients a website project is a 2 part process. 

Step 1:  Build a visually attractive website that functions well, has good content, navigation is easy and relates to your business. 

Step 2: Now you must market the website to draw people to it!!

So back to the question....how do you get to the top of the search engines. I must tell you, this is NOT an easy task at all. It all depends on what type of business, how big of an audience you want to reach and how much you are willing to spend. Let's face it, if you want to make money you have to spend money. But how do you know what the best option is?

First Option is SEO....Search Engine Optimization. I'm sure you all have heard about SEO. Basically what SEO does is gets your website to show up on the first page of the search engines in the Organic Listings. This option is always the best for long term results. There are so many SEO companies out there it will make your head spin!! The problem with SEO is most companies will help you promote certain keywords to get you to the top of the search engines. Here is the kicker: often these companies can get you to the top with keywords that might not be productive or relate to your business. So ask questions about what words are they going to use and how effective are they! Second problem with SEO is that it takes time.....it takes at least 3 months to start seeing even the smallest return on your investment. So if you are stressed for time, this is not your best option.

Second option is Google Adwords.....also known as Pay Per Click Advertising. PPC is those sponsored ads that show up at the top of the Google Search and along the side. Check out the image below:

Actual Screen Shot that Shows my ad in the top 3!!

I typed in the search term south jersey website design and my listing came up 2nd on the first page!! That is called an impression when my ad shows up. If the person clicks on my ad and goes to my website, I get charged for that click. 

Let's do the Math!!

The price of that click above all depends on how much I was willing to spend on that keyword. On average I pay $2.40 for that search term alone! I know what you are saying, "Are you nuts.....that sounds like alot!".  I know I know but think about it....it just takes one click for me to land a job. Let's say it's a $1500.00 job that is contracted......that's a 62,400.0% ROI.....now that sounds like a no brainer to me!! But let's not forget about all the clicks you compile that do not lead to a job or sale....so you are paying for clicks that turn into nothing. Good point but let's average this out to be fair. 

Let's say you own a Limousine Company and you are promoting party buses. That party bus would net $3500 on a one day trip with an overall profit of $2000.00. Let's say on average you spend $500 a month on your Google PPC campaign. Let's shoot low and say you landed only 2 party bus signings from PPC that month that generated $4000 in profit after all initial expenses. That's a 700.0% ROI (Return on Investment). Now that I have mentioned the numbers aspect of PPC let me explain some basic pro's and con's of PPC. 

THE PRO's

Faster results

The most powerful aspect of PPC is that the search results are pretty much instant. By instant I mean you can start a PPC campaign today, set your daily/monthly budget, set your keyword selection and write some ads.....your search listings can start showing up as quickly as 24-48 hours!! With SEO, that will NEVER happen!!

Controlled Budget
Another PRO adwords argument is that you can control your budget. Meaning you can start off with a $10 per day budget and increase it as time goes on or decrease it also! You have control of how you spend your money. 

Target Your Audience
With Google adwords, you can control the location of advertising by city, state, zipcode, or general region. Let's say you own a basement modeling company and you want to promote basements but only in certain towns that have an abundance of basements....you can do that!! Let's say you want to avoid certain towns due to travel time...you can do that!!

Search Marketing
If someone does an exact search that triggers your PPC ad....that usually means they were looking for your type of business. They went seeking you as opposed to traditional mailed marketing (direct mail marketing, flyers) where you seaked out the end user!!

Tracking your Viewer
With PPC and the addition of Google Analytics, you can track where your clients are coming from, what search terms they used to find you, how long they were on your site, what pages they visited, landed on and exited. This is extremely valuable information because it gives you a better idea of what is working and what isn't!

Multiple Campaigns and Ad Groups
Let's say your business has multiple services that you feature. Some are more profitable and successful than others. You have the power to promote as many services or as little services as you want as opposed to traditional print advertising where you are limited to space restrictions. 

THE CON'S

The Learning Curve
I'm going to be 100% honest with you, PPC advertising takes some time to really figure out! It can be tricky because in order for it to really be successful!...it takes some keyword experimenting, ad writing experimenting and budget experimenting to really get a grasp for it. I would recommend reading up as much as you can on Google Ad Words before actually staring a campaign. There is plenty of content via You Tube, online blogs like this, and printed material. You can even contact Google to get more information. Going into it blindly can be frustrating and is not cost effective. Do your homework first!!

It Can Sound Scary but monitor your campaign
I had a client that set a budget at $10,000 monthly trying to promote new home construction. He set the max bid for all his keywords high and didn't monitor what words were actually working and triggering the correct calls and emails. His didn't convert one sale on his new home construction. If he would of properly set his budget and monitored his keywords daily....it would of worked out better! You must keep an eye on what you are doing!!

The bottomline here is PPC advertising can work for your business, especially if you are promoting a local business. I recommend doing your homework first and then be patient with your campaign. If you do these things then PPC will become a powerful weapon!

Check out my website at  www.robertcipolla.com for your Graphics and Website Needs!!