Okay, so let’s say you read through our blog post on Google AdWords and decided that starting paid advertising from scratch seemed a little daunting. If you don’t have the funds to invest in an AdWords campaign through a digital marketing agency, a Google AdWords consultant is your best option. With this service, you can work with a tight budget and still learn the basics to get you started on a campaign. We’ll get you set up with an account, show you around the system and give you personalized advice on how you should allocate your spend based on your target audience and competition. If you’re not located in Kansas City, we can provide remote help using email and Skype.
In this post, we’ll go over some ways that paid advertising can benefit your business. Referencing stats and case studies, we’ll show you how paid advertising (when done right) can generate revenue on a scale greater than a billboard. Think about it: The average American spends about 48 minutes driving each day. However, they spend 7 hours on their computer each day. A digital billboard allows you to monopolize on this screen time.
Google Search Partners
Affiliate sites for Google Search Partners include YouTube, AOL.com, Ask.com, Dogpile.com, Lycos.com and others. These partner sites change frequently, and Google has not disclosed a full list of their partner sites (they really like their secrets). A good rule of thumb is to look at search partner performance by ad group and move poorer performing ad groups into their own campaign. If you’re not keeping careful track of your Partners campaign, you may experience startling jumps in your bill. That’s what happened to this company—they didn’t thoroughly read through the fine print and suffered the consequences. When proceeding with paid advertising, you should be sure to check your ad spend daily to ensure there are no mishaps in your campaign.
SEO vs. AdWords
You may be leaning more toward SEO because it’s considered an ‘unpaid’ form of revenue funneling. There are a couple downsides to this tactic though, and you have to take into account your business goals before making a decision about which you want to go with. SEO can take 6 months to show results, and it’s a time-consuming process. We recommend combining both paid and unpaid tactics, since you can then utilize your SEOd blogs in your paid ads. With more traffic and backlinks to those landing pages, you increase the organic ranking of the landing page. This comes in handy if you cancel your AdWords campaign—you can still take advantage of the traffic that was brought in while the campaign was running.
The Myth About Clicks
What many don’t understand is that few clicks don’t necessarily equate to little revenue. If you’re a development company, for example, one lead can bring in triple the amount that you were spending on your ads. It’s not reassuring to think about, but luck really plays a huge part in marketing success. You can increase your chances of success though by A/B testing and checking your campaign performance daily. If you notice that there are a large number of people clicking on your ads on Sunday mornings, allocate more of your budget to this sector and raise your maximum bid. We recommend PPC especially for businesses that have a product or service that is high dollar-per-sale and within a niche field. Paid advertising has its risks, but you can improve your chances of success through careful research and testing.
PPC Case Studies
Say It Visually
Say It Visually, a company that produces videos explaining concepts and services to clients, sought out a Google AdWords consultant to map out their paid advertising plan. They started a pay-per-click campaign through Google AdWords to see what one hour of ad runtime could get them. The company was able to quickly create a campaign by leveraging their previous SEO work (keyword research and target lists by category). Within one hour, one of their clicks became a high-quality lead. They spent $243 in ads within 3 months, but they gained $70,000 in sales from just two leads. This case study shows how SEO and paid advertising work together; Because the company already had a keyword list compiled, half their work was already done.
Counseling Service
A mental health counselor in Littleton, CO decided to get the word out about their new business using Google Search Advertising. Their budget was limited, but they were able to maximize the impact of their ad copy with call-to-actions (ie: ‘get in touch to schedule a visit’). Plus, their keyword selection was carefully crafted for the area they were targeting.
They began with words like counselor, Littleton counselor, counseling services, local counselor, etc. These were modified broad match keywords, so the words didn’t necessarily have to be in a specific order when someone searched them so long as the phrase was included. Two of their keywords—‘counselor’ and ‘Littleton counselor’—greatly outperformed the rest of their keywords. They chose to target the zip codes surrounding the office, limiting drive time to 10 minutes. This allowed them to adjust their bids if a zip codes didn’t perform as well. Over the span of 2 months, they spent $520 and acquired 6 clients (average CPA of $87). Even though the average revenue per session was only $85, you have to take into account the lifetime value of those clients. Since most clients go in for 12 sessions, that’s $1,020. So in reality, this counseling service received $6,120 in revenue.
Accor Hotels
Accor Hotels wanted to stand out in the competitive hospitality landscape during a time when online and mobile travel booking was the most prevalent. They wanted to drive online traffic, increase click-through rates and expand their brand awareness. The solution? Google AdWords extensions. They increased incremental conversions by 14% and boosted click-through-rated by 19% using sitelinks, form extensions and review extensions. Plus, they had a 9% increased CTR with local extensions and a 4% increase with call extensions. They also used image extensions, social annotations and seller ratings. Beyond just clicks, Accor Hotels was looking to increase the online conversions made on their site. They achieved this by shortening the conversion path to their website; When someone searched for their brand, sitelink and form extensions would pop up to give consumers an in-depth look at what they could expect from the landing page.
To increase offline conversions, the company made it easy for searchers to make calls directly from the ads. This was especially relevant for searchers who didn’t have time to fill out online forms—travelers on the move. Call extensions and location extensions made this possible. Their successful campaign is a testament to the effectiveness of AdWords extensions. If you’re a business that gets a lot of phone calls for reservations, we recommend using the call extension to make this process simpler for the consumer. A Google AdWords consultant can help you choose the extensions that will work best for your business needs.
Benefits
What makes AdWords so popular is that it delivers measurable results, can be highly targeted and works great for remarketing. With remarketing, your paid ads are shown to users based on their previous web activity on your site. These ads are shown on both the Google Display Network and Partner Sites. What makes it so effective is that you’re going after the people who have already shown an interest in your product or service. With location targeting, mobile targeting, language targeting, time targeting and auto-targeting, you can be sure that your ads are reaching the optimal demographic for conversions. Unlike traditional advertising, AdWords lets you know exactly how much traffic and how many conversions you generate. With comprehensive reports, you don’t have to rely on guesswork.
AdWords Stats
Courtesy of White Shark Media, here are some statistics that illustrate the effectiveness of paid advertising:
- Google processes three billion searches/day
- There are over 4 million Google Advertisers
- Businesses make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on AdWords
- The top 3 paid ad spots get 41% of the clicks on the page
- There are over 2 million businesses on the Google Search Network
- There are over 1 million businesses advertising on the Google Ad Display Network
- Google’s display campaigns reach 80% of global internet users
- 70% of mobile searchers call a business directly from Google Search
The good thing about these numbers is that they show how popular paid advertising is. However, this popularity also means you’re going up against some big players. By seeking out a Google AdWords consultant, you gain the tools to keep up with your competitors without draining your ad spend in the first week.
Contact Us
You might be asking ‘why can’t I handle a campaign on my own? I can check out the study guide if I need help’. The short answer is that you can set up a campaign on your own and get the ball rolling, but you’re going to have a lot more luck if you’ve utilized a Google AdWords consultant to map out your demographics and pick keywords that will generate revenue. That’s not to say that you couldn’t do a great job on your own—maybe you can! But for those who would feel more confident getting an outside opinion from AdWords certified experts, contact us! We also specialize in Cost-Per-Click, Mobile Ads, Internet Ads and Mobile Search Advertising.