The Agony and Ecstasy of Marketing Your Website in Google: Part 1 – Search Engine Marketing
There are three ways that you can get your website to appear on page one of Google. They are Search Engine Optimisation, Search Engine Marketing and creating a listing in the Google Local Business Centre.
In this article we’ll look at the pros and cons of Google AdWords Search Engine Marketing and in the next ClickTips article we’ll look at the pros and cons of Search Engine Optimisation.
If you need a quick refresher on the terminology, read what you can, and can’t, pay for in Google.
The third way to appear on page one of Google, if you have a business with a physical address, is to create a free listing in the Google Local Business Centre. Find out how to put yourself on the Google map.
The Ecstasy of Marketing your Website in Google using paid Search Engine Marketing
If your website is not appearing in the Organic results for all your main keywords, using Google AdWords (AdWords is the name of Google’s Search Engine Marketing program) to put your website in the Sponsored Links section is a good way to drive traffic to your website.
Your ads can be up and running quickly
While it can take several weeks for a new website to even be listed in the organic results, your AdWords ads can be appear in Google the same day you set up your account, having a quick impact on your web traffic.
Traffic is targeted
In AdWords, your ad only is only shown when someone searches on one of your chosen keywords, so your ad appears exactly when someone is looking for what you have to offer, generating highly targeted traffic.
You can also write your ad copy so that you only pay for right kind of clicks. For example, if I’m selling an ebook for $23 and I only want to pay for traffic from people who might consider buying the ebook, adding the cost of into the ad copy diverts people who are looking for a freebie.
Get a great start to your Twitter
Marketing. Ebook only $17
Get a great start to your Twitter
You can track return on investment
By having a well set up AdWords campaign, with carefully chosen keywords and an effective landing page, you can get good value from your AdWords investment.
Google provides data so that you can track the amount of clicks you’re getting, the cost per click for each keyword and the click through rate (how many times your ad is clicked on as a percentage of how many times it is shown).
Google also offers conversion tracking, so you can track exactly how many people take a certain action, for example, signing up for your e-newsletter, and how much each sign up costs you.
Note – Your website needs to be set up in a certain way to allow conversion tracking. If you need advice, contact us.
Low cost clicks
The cost you pay every time someone clicks on your ad in the Sponsored Links is relative to:
- The maximum amount that you are prepared to pay
- The maximum amount that the other advertisers are prepared to pay
- The quality of your ad campaign.
There are still some industries that aren’t too competitive, where the cost per click is between $0.50 and $1.50, or maybe even 0.30c or less.
Not all visitors will “sign up” though, so it’s useful to consider how much a web visitor is worth in terms of the value it brings to your business.
A low number of qualified, targeted visitors who spend time on your website can be more valuable than a high number of visitors who bounce away quickly without doing anything.
The Agony of Marketing your Website in Google using paid Search Engine Marketing
High cost clicks
As more and more people use AdWords, the cost per click for everyone else running ads on the same keywords can increase.
For example, because the search engine marketing space is so competitive when I advertised on words related to “search engine marketing”, the cost per click was more than $10, which used up my small business budget pretty quickly!
For other highly competitive industries, like “web development” or “IT”, you may need to pay as much as $5 to $6 per click to even get your ad to appear.
Lack of conversions
As mentioned earlier, once you’ve paid to get the visitors to your website, ideally you want them to act.
In a perfect world that action would be purchasing a product or enquiring about your product or service. However, it is difficult to get this type of conversion if your web visitors aren’t yet ready to buy, so try offering something that is a lower risk decision, like signing up for your e-newsletter or downloading a free ebook. Once you have the visitors’ contact details, you can market to them regularly until they are ready to buy.
Badly managed campaigns
There is a lot to know about managing AdWords and new users can waste money quickly if the campaign isn’t set up right.
Also, your cost per click changes as other company’s start or stop advertising, so it’s important that your account is monitored regularly.
Google offers free online training at the AdWords Learning Centre
Google can shut your account down
If AdWords are important to your business, being shut down is the greatest possible agony!
Make sure you understand Google’s policies because if you aren’t complying, they can shut your account down and you are never allowed to run an AdWords campaign for again.
Stay tuned for Part 2 – The Agony and Ecstasy of Search Engine Optimisation.
