Posts Tagged ‘google adwords’

Writing cheques to make yourself look bad

May 14, 2017

James Bond Museum

I was doing a review of the marketing activities with a new home improvement client a few years back.

In the previous year, they had spent €15,000 on Google Adwords in the UK bringing the right search traffic to the website of their UK operation.

They weren’t convinced about how successful this investment was and they asked me to review the campaign.

The lack of success was simple to figure out because the €15,000 was being used to drive traffic to their website, which was outdated and made them look like an old fashioned, backwards operation. You could easily understand how this traffic was not converting because, like me, I am fairly sure that the people who looked at the website were not inclined to do business.

Not only were they wasting money but they were damaging their brand – an important and very simple SEO tip is to make sure you have a website that makes people want to do business with you!

My simple recommendation to them was to stop the campaign immediately, upgrade the website and then, and only then, start up the Google campaign again.

I was told that there was no budget for a new website and instead they decided to increase their Google Adwords budget in the hope that bringing, even more traffic would somehow improve the results they were getting from the previous campaign.

Whether it is..

– Advertising when your store is a mess
– Putting a cheap sign over your premises
– Paying for an advert and not designing it properly
– Getting cheap business cards
– Bringing traffic to an outdated website

..the message is always the same.

Never, ever, write a cheque to make yourself look bad.

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion Communications, a full-service agency that offers Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Missing the low hanging fruit!

October 7, 2012
Low Lying Fruit!

Will the penny drop ?

“If I do a search for what we do online we’re nowhere to be found” barked my client down the phone. This was obviously a big deal to him as well it should be!

After all this was the low hanging fruit – the potential customers out there who have already decided that they want what you are offering and are searching online to find it.

“We didn’t do your website for you, it hasn’t been optimised properly which is part of the problem and if you make a few simple changes it will make a big difference” I explained.

“Ok, ok, I must get onto the website crew” he eventually calmed down, “Is there anything we can do for now?” he asked.

I suggested a Google Adwords campaign to ensure he had a web presence (in adverts) where key search terms were used – at least until his website would start performing organically.

“Perfect, it’s vital that our website always comes up first” he explained, “Can you do it ASAP?”

He was right – for his sector a strong web presence was an absolute priority.

We quickly put the Adwords campaign in place and this corrected his lack of web presence immediately. For a reasonable daily budget we ensured that all relevant web traffic found his website and this was done on a pay per click basis – you only pay when a user clicks on your advert and comes onto your website.

A few weeks later we had a review meeting with our client – we covered the PR coverage and we also discussed the effectiveness of his advertising spend, which he was looking after himself.

As I had set up the Google Adwords campaign for him I gave him a detailed report showing how many times his adverts were shown, how many times the adverts were clicked upon and the traffic that came onto his website as a result.

We could see in detail the keywords and search terms that had generated the most traffic and the cost of each of these.

Budgets were a little tight he explained because he had committed to a long term advertising plan (obviously to a good salesman – or woman as it turned out to be) with a particular publication (no problem there) and a local radio station (totally wrong demographic ….but he got a cracking deal!).

“I want to stop my Google Advertising” he declared.

Hmmm, “No problem, but you do know when we stop that advertising when anyone searches for you online, they just won’t be able to find your website? ” I explained.

“I want to stop it” he repeated.

His sudden stance staggered me – despite the previous declaration of intent by this fairly clued in operator he still opted for an advert that he could see in the paper and hear on the radio rather than pay for this online Adwords “stuff” that absolutely guaranteed a web presence for hot leads, the low lying fruit!

I had nothing to gain from the argument, I had explained the “risk” as clearly as possible and he had just made up his mind.

Ah well … that penny will drop all by itself when the low lying fruit drops somewhere else! (I’m waiting for the call ..)

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

(I did help him with the optimisation of his website, which will take a while to fully kick in – he is now appearing on page two for relevant Google searches instead of page 8!)

Fuzion offer Web Marketing services including Google Adwords campaigns for clients

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Google Adwords and when you should try other forms of “Sniper” Advertising

July 18, 2011
Fishing for customers

Fishing for new customers!

I am a big fan of Google Advertising  used as part of marketing campaigns for our clients fishing for new customers – the Google Adwords platform is really valuable and I often refer to it as “Sniper” advertising.

Instead of your traditional “blanket” type advertising on newspapers or other media with your Google Adwords campaign you can target anyone that is searching for your products or services – effectively you can target the “low lying fruit” – those people who have already decided that they want what you have to offer.

If you are not found you are not in the game.

Google Adwords operates on a bidding basis whereby you “bid” on particular keywords or phrases – when someone searches for these your advert will display (if you are bidding competitively enough) and if the user clicks on your advert they will be directed to whatever page of your website you have specified. That’s powerful stuff – bringing them right to what they were looking for.

The great thing is that these campaigns operate on a Pay-per-click basis, which means you only pay when your advert is clicked on.

This sounds like an automatic recipe for success but there is no guarantee that the customer will order or enquire – once they arrive at your website you need to ensure that the content excites them sufficiently so that jump into some form of action.

Google Advertising

To Google or not to Google?

Google Adwords Tips

There are many tips for making the most of your Google campaigns:

  1. Avoid broad match – make your bids either “phrase match” or [exact match] (Google either of these phrases and you will find explanations)
  2. Build up Bidding gradually – start low and nudge your campaigns up slowly, keyword by keyword
  3. Quality Bidding – be careful with your adverts – split your campaigns into different groups, write separate adverts for each set of keywords and specify an appropriate landing page for each. Optimise your website ensuring that important keywords are catered for.
  4. Variations – work on your keywords – spend some time working on all the different variations and add geographic variants of these (PR in Dublin etc)
  5. Google Suggestions  – the Adwords software will help you with word variations (make sure you add these in “phrase” and [exact] match formats)
  6. Know your Margins – don’t go beyond what is sensible for keyword bids (pause keywords that are too expensive)
  7. Measure SEO – make sure that you are not bidding on keywords where you are performing well organically
  8. Position First is not necessary – sometimes Position First can be a lot more expensive than 2nd or 3rd, which may make a lot more sense
  9. Reporting – set up your reports and keep an eye on the keywords that are using up most of your budget – make sure it makes sense to spend money on these keywords
  10. Be Patient – people might come to your website a few times before they purchase – would you buy 1st time you visit a website
  11. Awareness – while orders and enquiries might be the ultimate goal other benefits could include awareness in the sector
  12. Compare Value against Traditional Advertising – Google Adwords is another form of advertising – compare the effectiveness of your budget against what you are getting in other forms
  13. Database – Once you get people to your website try to get them to sign up for any form of database (newsletter, Facebook or Twitter)
  14. Content Placement – Avoid content placement adverts in most cases (where Google places your adverts on various websites on the net)
  15. Professional – Get help from a professional when you are setting up your campaign but ask for training on how to use it (if you do not know what you are doing Google can be a hungry beast!)

(I’m sure you can add many more tips – I will gladly include other suggestions!)

Facebook advertising

Facebook Advertising a serious player?

While Google is a great form of online advertising it doesn’t always work and there are times when you should consider switching budget to either Facebook or LinkedIn advertising.

With both of these platforms you target a “fixed” advert(s) and pitch it to a certain demographic of people – these adverts operate on a pay per click basis in the same way as Google. (LinkedIn is the more expensive of these platforms).

The demographic options with both are quite different and as you would imagine LinkedIn is much more suitable for Business to Business advertising.

When advertising here it must be remembered that the person using the platform has not executed a “keyword search” – they are merely using the platform – this probably means that the “click” onto your website is probably less valuable or less immediate than with Google.

I would consider these platforms as an option when:

  • Your keywords are just too competitive, and as a result too expensive on Google
  • Your product or service is quite new and people do not yet know how or what to search for
  • Your objective is more about awareness and branding and building a following (Facebook)
  • You want to advertise to your prospects in a more social or specifically business environment (Facebook/LinkedIn)
  • You want to target people with declared special interests (Facebook)
  • You want to target people who work in particular industries and who hold particular job types (LinkedIn)
  • Demographics are more important that search keywords

A superb feature of Facebook advertising (this is why Google are starting to target the social media space with Google +1 as it is a real threat to their revenue) is that you have the option of bringing users to your facebook business page – here you hope they will “like” the page when they get there and then you will enjoy a cumulative effect with all your advertising efforts.

Once you have an interested person on your page you can then excite them with your content, which should lead to plenty of business over time.

Summary – Pay Per Click

Pay per Click advertising is still growing and should be seriously considered as part of your marketing mix. Now there are even more options online and it is important that you understand each of these and explore how these could work for you.

Each of the platforms present unique opportunities, which if executed properly should bring extra business to you.

Pay per click? – It’s just a click away, what are you waiting for?

Google, Facebook or LinkedIn

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion and runs Pay Per Click campaigns for a wide range of clients

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Posted in Advertising, Online Advertising, Social Media, Web Marketing | 2 Comments »

Sniper Marketing

February 21, 2011

Online Marketing

Should your be more specific?

If you throw enough mud at a wall then eventually some will stick! – you have often heard that expression and when it comes to advertising and in particular at a time when most people are carefully watching their budgets. It can cause problems when it comes to justifying spend in this area.

Influenced by this very argument and also because it often makes total sense, where appropriate we encourage most of our clients to allocate some of their advertising budgets to on-line Pay Per Click advertising, or sniper marketing as we like to call it.

With some of the recent and new on-line tools it is now much easier to target your exact target audience for your product or service, just like a “sniper” would. Why advertise to everyone just to get the attention of a narrow more exact target audience?

With a combination of Google Advertising, Facebook Advertising, and even LinkedIn advertising it is possible to target your customers very specifically.

Most of these initiatives operate on a pay-per-click basis so you only pay for results, even though you can also achieve some visibility for free with those who do not click on your adverts. Just to replay that in simple terms – You only pay when someone has clicked on your advert and come to your website or facebook page. You do not pay every time your advert is shown.

To briefly explain how each of the platforms work:

Google Adwords – here you select (or bid on) keywords that when searched by a user will activate your advert. You can limit your adverts to a specific area or location. You can actually go further and specify which page on your website the user will land on when they click on your advert. Let them find exactly what they want as quickly as possible.

Facebook Advertising – This is quite different to how Google works. Here you target demographics – you can specify types of people in different areas and even with declared special interests. With adverts here you have a choice of bringing bring them to your website or your Facebook business page (this can be very effective in building followers on your page).

LinkedIn Advertising – Advertising here operates more like Facebook with the exception that the environment is much more corporate. You can target types of people, making choices about location, company size and even levels of seniority.

With all of the above options you can control your campaigns by setting daily budgets and also by limiting how much each click will cost. Google reporting in particular can provide you with very valuable information about your customers. (they are all relatively easy to set up but I would strongly advise seeking professional help setting up these campaigns as you can easily make expensive mistakes – they never refuse your money!)

To support this activity you might also consider email marketing – use an on-line email newsletter service (there are many good value options such as MailChimp and Constant Contact and for more sophisticated requirements you could try Newsweaver) to your database of contacts, reminding those who you have already developed a connection with of you and your services.

This sniper approach to marketing can work for all types of businesses as diverse as:

The Ballroom Dance teacher who can target engaged women in Cork with his adverts for dance lessons to get them ready for their first dance at their wedding (there are 1,210 of within a 20 km radius of Cork City!) – Facebook is perfect for this.

The Tax Consultant who wants to target senior executives in Ireland for specialist tax advice – this can be done by advertising on LinkedIn.

We find that on-line campaigns can work very effectively as part of an overall campaign for clients to achieve their objectives.

Could this be something that would form part of your Marketing Plan in 2011?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion Communications

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