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Should Local Businesses Use Twitter?

Twitter is the big buzz on the Web, but if you sell or service locally should you consider Twitter a must have in your marketing arsenal?

Personally, I feel based on strong Twitter use for my own business and that of my clients that Twitter is best used by businesses that are selling nationally or globally. Typically we see responses to tweets from around the world and just not the local service area. Based on that interaction, unless you have the budget for Twitter on top of money set aside for Google AdWords and Facebook, I would not consider tweeting practical for targeting local customers.

I do however feel that if your budget is limited that you should still consider social media, but maybe move Twitter down on your list or priorities.

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What is an AdWords View-through Conversion?

Some of the terms used in Google AdWords can be confusing and this is one of them. A view-through conversion is a conversion you have had from the content network in a 30 day period when you are advertising with a display ad. The user did not click your ad, but saw it – confusing right?

First, it used to be that someone had to actually click your ad and visit your website for a conversion to be recorded. Not so anymore, just seeing your ad and visiting a content site will set the cookie that when a user does go later (in a 30 day period) to your website to buy, a conversion is recorded and noted in the AdWords control panel as a view-through Conversion.

It is important to remember that this is only for the Google Content Network and not for Google.com or search partner sites ads and only available for image or display ads. This type of conversion is not recorded for a text ad shown in the content network.

For more in-depth information on view-through conversions visit the AdWords Help Center.

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How Do You Get Images Next to Your AdWords Ads?

Clients have asked me several times how competitors are getting images in their Google AdWords ads, here’s how.

First, to have images show you must set up an account and created a structured data feed in the Google Merchant Center. The data feed will contain product information, a description, pricing, links to images, and location on your website. Once loaded you can link your Google Merchant account with your Google AdWords account using Product Extensions.

If you want to try Product Extensions check out this article on how to do that that even contains a link to set up your own Google Merchant account.

Product Extensions are just one of the extensions that Google now makes it easy to use in Google AdWords. Recently added was location extensions and phone extensions for click to call. What is new is that now you can even set up a tab in your AdWords control panel to get quick information about activity on your special extensions.

If you want to enable the new tab to view interaction with these new extensions in your Google AdWords account check out this blog post from AdWords.

I think using extensions is an excellent way to expand the reach and relevancy of your Google AdWords program. Make sure you have enabled these things in your own account for better performance.