Anyone doing pay per click marketing for any length of time knows that Google Adwords is the main playing field if you want to get serious traffic quickly. You would also know that setting up Adwords campaigns is complicated and often frustrating due to the fact that Google is less than forth-coming with all of the rules you’re supposed to follow if you want to compete in their auction-like pay per click advertising program.
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On this blog and with actual businesses in the real world, I’ve been talking a lot lately about pay per click marketing and how important it should be to practically anyone doing business online. And as I always say in those discussions I find Google fascinating as a business model because nobody really knows how they price their main product which, of course, is Google Adwords.
Well, lo’ and behold, Google must have heard me because they recently came out with a video that does a very good job of explaining how they price their ads and what we, as customers, can do to lower our costs and improve our results. (more…)
I’ve written before how I find Google to be the most interesting business on the planet. I say this not because they’re mad geniuses that are slowly taking over the world but because they have a business model that defies description.
As you likely know, Google has something called Google Adwords. You can pay Google to have you ads appear when someone does a search on the specific search term you wish to bid on. Without a doubt it is the fastest and best way to get laser targetted traffic to your websites.
But here is the thing about Google. They don’t REALLY publish their rules anywhere where they can be easily found. Instead, they say, “Open an account with us, tell us which search terms (or keywords) that you want to bid on and then we’ll get back to you with a price.”
A few years ago this was really cutting edge stuff. Now, it should be an every day practice but I don’t think it is.
I had a client who was a personal trainer and while he was an excellent trainer and a great guy he wasn’t exactly technically savvy. By that I mean he wouldn’t even check his email.
Having said that he did see the value in using the Internet to build his business so we build a very simple site with his phone number so people could cantact him if they were interested in his services. We then set up a pay per click campaign to drive traffic to the page.
After a couple of weeks, the site was getting a lot of traffic but he wasn’t getting a lot of calls. Here is the interesting thing though. When we added a contact form for people to complete (including a phone number where they could be reached), the response rate soared.
Unfortunately, this didn’t do us much good because the trainer wouldn’t check his email. But, we could set up his cell phone to receive text messages. This was a little complicated to do a few years ago but now that you can check your email on your cell, this is super simple to do now.
All you do is have your leads forwarded to your phone and you can follow-up immediately. Often, the first to the punch wins the prize and this is a great way to make sure you’re first to the punch. If a prospect has found your site, he or she would have likely found your competition as well.
Traditionally, I’ve been against pay per click (PPC) marketing as a means of traffic generation simply because it is a nuisance to set up and as soon as you stop paying the traffic stops. In other words it must be maintained and it isn’t as “leverageable” as other forms of marketing… if leverageable is a word, that is.
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