Month: July 2012

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Afraid to Test AdWords Try Google AdWords Express

Some clients may be selling a service or product that may not be a wonderful match for Google AdWords. There’s a great way to test if AdWords is right for you before taking the big plunge in regards to set up fees and click charges.

First, this is why AdWords may seem not be right for your business:

  1. Your products or services are priced higher than other competitors in your market. For example, you may only sell products bundled into a four pack and your competitors will sell singles. This makes your superior product, seem more costly than the competition.
  2. Your service is unique but costs more to buy due to your expertise. Others who do not have your longevity in the industry may be selling what seems to the consumer the same service but at half the price.
  3. You are offering coupon codes to discount your products and promote them widely on the Web, but when a consumer reviews your product (which they can buy elsewhere) head to head on the Web without using the discount your product and shipping may be higher.

Second, this is how you can test AdWords for your business with minimal set up expense:

  • Set up a Google Places account or claim your listing. Then use AdWords Express within the control panel to show ads in up to a 50 mile radius to test the waters with your AdWords program.
  • Although this is a local test and not a national test, for just a few minutes in set up, and no keyword entry, you can try out Google AdWords to check the viability of your product or services on Google AdWords.
  • When you set up a Google AdWords Express account, Google will set your cost per click, create a simple keyword list and even create your ad text.

Third, when should you consider the test successful?

  1. If your traffic and phone call level have improved from this limited scope test, it may be time to consider a full Google AdWords program. I recommend moving to this new level only if you have the budget to truly test a four to six month period at an ad spend of $500 to $2,000 for a 30 day period.
  2. If you got lots of clicks and no sales or phone calls, I would recommend that you review your position in the market to one see how you can clearly differentiate yourself from low price competition, re-align selling policies and prices to be more competitive in the consumer’s eyes, and evaluate if there may be alternative ways to cost efficiently promote your products and services other than Google AdWords.

If you are looking to move into a three or four month AdWords evaluation program after testing the waters, we’d be a good match for your needs. With a strong focus on sales and lead conversions, our service and honest advice will identify if AdWords is the place for you. We have recently introduced a new program called Local Start. In this program we set up a Google AdWords Express account for you. Check out more details on Local Start.

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Twitter May Be Better Than Facebook for Your Business

It used to be that I felt that every business should have a Facebook page. With the changes that Facebook has made this past year, I am starting to rethink Facebook’s importance and consider that businesses may be better served by a strong presence on Twitter instead.

Although Facebook still owns the social marketplace and is the place that consumers spend a measurable amount of time, Facebook has made it very difficult for a business to establish a vibrant presence easily on their platform. I am finding that new business pages without additional marketing will simply not grow a “like” or fan base quickly or easily.

On Twitter, additional follower numbers can be grown fairly quickly with good updates AND follower interaction. I have seen that updates alone are not the key to growth on Twitter. It is the combination of the manual addition of new followers, creation of lists, and interaction with followers that helps an account to grow and for messages to go viral.

When a follower retweets your status update (that may potentially link back to your blog or your services), your link exposure and potential to reach new customers is tremendous. With regular interaction on Twitter you will find that there are certain people you can really connect with that you can use to reciprocally push out each other’s content. If these Tweeps (Twitter friends) have “klout” (measurable Twitter or social impact) or a larger follower base, the result of clicks in to your content can result in increased traffic and potentially a better SocialRank score.

Both Google and Bing are watching SocialRank and have stated that they will be using this metric in their organic search algorithm. To what degree is SocialRank important to organic placement, that we simply don’t know. What I do know is that with the changes on Facebook, it is by far easier to grow, connect with others, and funnel traffic to your website by Twitter than by Facebook.

If you are looking for help to establish or grow your Twitter presence, I invite you to review our affordable Twitter services.