Do You Need An SEO Consultant?
MerchantCircle conducted a survey and found that most small businesses would put all of their marketing budget into SEO if they could only choose one channel. These are interesting results. Why is it that small businesses would choose SEO over social media or traditional media?
I believe the answer is quite simple. Quite frankly, it’s the most effective and most cost efficient marketing channel.
SEO allows you to attract the type of customer you are searching for by “pulling” them in based on their own active search for information that you have to offer. And even today, the best converting traffic for most websites is traffic that comes from search engines. It’s almost a no-brainer.
But how many small business owners actually know how to conduct a search engine marketing campaign using the latest best practices for SEO? The answer: Not many. So who is going to do the actual work of optimizing their website?
It may be time for you to consider an SEO consultant. There are really three kinds of SEO consultants.
- The do-it-all consultant who analyzes your website and looks for opportunities to better your on-page and off-page SEO for increased search results. Then they implement a strategy approved by you.
- The assist-you consultant who analyzes your website and makes recommendations that you follow up on and implement.
- The hybrid SEO consultant who uses a combination of these two strategies and the two of you work together.
There are pros and cons to each type of consultant. Whichever is right for you is your call, but now is the time to consider an SEO consultant for your business for the upcoming year.
Is SEO Getting Harder?
Aaron Wall is punching at Google again. This time he’s accusing the search giant of favoring big companies like Wal-Mart. At the expense of small companies. Here’s what he says specifically:
In the meantime, I expect Google to keep increasing search complexity such that it’s prohibitively expensive to make & market a small independent commercial website. That will force many smaller companies to live inside the Google ecosystem, with Google ranking the Google-hosted pages/products/locations for those companies, so that they can serve ads against them and get a bigger slice of the revenues.
In other words, small business owners will be forced to use Google-powered site hosting products because they won’t be able to afford to pay professional SEOs to do their optimization work. Meanwhile, big companies like Wal-Mart will be favored in the search engines unless small businesses use the Google-hosted sites, which will serve up ads and increase Google’s revenue at the small business owner’s expense.
Somehow, I don’t think that business model would work well for Google. What would happen when small business owners discover the game is rigged against them?
SEO is already plenty difficult for most small business owners. They either have to take the time to learn how to do it themselves, and most of them don’t have that kind of time, or they have to pay a professional anyway. Forcing small business owners into a corner doesn’t seem like a plan that would benefit Google.
Small Business Saturday – Are You Celebrating?
It might be too late to make the announcement, but did you know that today is Small Business Saturday? You can learn a little bit more about it on the Small Business Saturday Facebook page.
The sponsors of this movement – American Express – are offering free in-store signage and e-marketing materials. Of course, today is the day so it might be too late to take advantage of some of these offers. But there’s always next year.
Meanwhile, the page was set up to help small businesses take advantage of holiday shopping. Other resources available through the page include:
- Share An Offer – Which allows you to create an offer for your small business that shoppers can take advantage of.
- Create A Facebook Page – Free.
- Create A Video
- Get Twitter Followers
- Create A Buzz On LinkedIn – One of the best bets for small business owners.
You can also join the Small Business Saturday e-mail list and forum. That might be a good way to promote your business today, especially if you do any online marketing.
The event is sponsored by American Express. If you accept American Express, why not take advantage of Small Business Saturday. If not this year, then look for it next year.
What’s The Most Effective Social Media Website?
According to a recent survey, Facebook is the most effective social media website. Surprised?
A look at the numbers is really telling:
Very Effective:
- Facebook = 36%
- Twitter = 14%
- Video sharing = 14%
- LinkedIn = 10%
- Review sites = 7%
- Google+ = 5%
- Local/daily deals = 5%
- MySpace = 1%
Moderately effective:
- Facebook = 47%
- Twitter = 32%
- Video sharing = 23%
- LinkedIn = 24%
- Review sites = 12%
- Google+ = 7%
- Local/daily deals = 6%
- MySpace = 2%
Don’t use the site:
- Facebook = 4%
- Twitter = 24%
- Video sharing = 47%
- LinkedIn = 38%
- Review sites = 65%
- Google+ = 70%
- Local/daily deals = 76%
- MySpace = 81%
I don’t think anyone is surprised that more than 80% of small businesses aren’t using MySpace. What is surprising is that 76% of small businesses aren’t using the local and daily deals websites. Or that 65% aren’t using review sites.
While it’s easy to say that Facebook is effective for the small businesses that are using it, it’s really difficult to compare it to sites they aren’t using. Can we really compare?
Who’s to say that review sites and local deals sites wouldn’t be more effective if more businesses didn’t use them?
The question on everyone’s mind is whether or not there is a social media site poised to give Facebook a run for its money. Right now it seems that Google+ might have the mojo, but getting small business owners to try it seems to be the challenge.
If you are a small business owner and you’re ready for social media, are you going to try Facebook? Do you see an alternative?
The Rise Of The Google Business
Google is not just a search engine. In fact, for many businesses it’s a life source. There are many ways that Google as a company helps small businesses, or can. Here are some of the best services that Google offers for small businesses looking to establish a presence on the Internet.
- Sites – Need a website? Google Sites allows small business owners to establish a basic website without having to pay for hosting.
- Gmail – Gmail provides e-mail addresses for millions of online marketers and business owners.
- Blogger – Google’s Blogger service allows anyone to establish a blog online – even for business.
- Images – If you use images on your blog or website, you can get unlimited hosting with Picasa.
- Image Editing – Edit your images with Picnik.
- Video Marketing – Start your own channel, host and market your videos (and your business) with YouTube.
- Offers – Promote your business through Google Offers.
- Reader – Keep tabs on your competition and other important industry news blogs with Google Reader.
- Alerts – Monitor your reputation and important topics with Google Alerts.
- Code - Create awesome products with Google Code.
- Trends – Research popular search trends you can respond to within your niche.
- Custom Search – Create your own search engine and use it for your website.
- Google+ – Go social with Google+, Google’s own social networking website.
- Checkout – Take payments on your website with Google Checkout.
- Calendar – Stay organized with Google Calendar.
- Documents – Create and share your business documents with Google Docs.
I’m certain these are not the only Google services you can use for your business. You can find more through Google’s service listing page.
I’m also not saying that I recommend all of these services. In some cases there is a better alternative. For instance, PayPal is a much better payment service than Google Checkout, but if you were so inclined you could feasibly run your business using Google Checkout and take credit card payments through your website (you can do the same thing with PayPal).
In this century, Google provides small business owners with many services that allows you to run your business entirely on Google.
5 Things To Remember About Video Marketing
Video marketing is one of the 21st century’s most powerful vehicles for branding and small business marketing. You can produce powerful videos that stay live on the Web for a lot less than you can spend on TV or radio advertising – vehicles with a limited shelf life.
Still, ineffective video marketing can cost more than effective marketing in other media. Make sure you are doing it well.
Here are 5 things to keep in mind about video marketing as you strive to get your business in the minds of consumers:
- Shorter videos do better – Don’t go for the 2-hour documentary or 10-minute infomercial. Instead, go for the 30-second or 1-minute quickie. You’ll be a lot more effective.
- You don’t have to hire actors – You want to keep your video budget down. Use a slideshow or voice over artist. A full scale production isn’t necessary.
- Distribute widely – Don’t just distribute your video through one channel. Go as wide as possible.
- Promote through social media – “Push out” your videos through social media in order to “draw in” your prospects.
- Drive traffic to your website – Use videos to drive traffic to your website, then close the sale.
There’s no secret recipe to video marketing. There are good sound principles that are still in development. No one owns the best practices monopoly. Be creative, experiment, and make your message strong.
Facebook Takes Google On
For years now Google has encouraged advertisers to spend money on Google AdWords by giving away $50 credit to new advertisers. In many cases, if you set up a new Web hosting account, you got this credit from your host. Google is still doing this.
Now, Facebook has joined the party.
Starting next year, Facebook will give away $10 million in free advertising to small business owners.
There’s more to the story than Facebook merely wanting to steal your business from Google. That would be nice for Facebook, but they really want you to start advertising on their platform – even if you continue using Google AdWords.
Most small business owners haven’t figure out how to use social media as a marketing tool. But they understand advertising. With 800 million + users, Facebook has a huge opportunity for small businesses to tap into the company’s user base and that’s why they are willing to give you $50 in free advertising to get you to at least try it.
I think the opportunity is a great opportunity for small businesses. Google AdWords has proved to be a very effective marketing channel for businesses that have tried it. Facebook’s advertising platform is a different animal, but it’s an animal worth riding nonetheless. Pay per click is no longer a search engine advertising tool; it’s gone social.
Online Prospecting: Is It Like A Garden?
Prospecting is something that every business has to do. Methods change, but the prospecting continues. In the last few years, many businesses have found it more profitable to perform their prospecting online.
One online prospector likens the process to gardening. Here’s why:
- Prospecting is like “growing,” not “killing” – a reference to the war analogy
- You can’t control everything. Embrace uncertainty because when you are a gardener you deal with Mother Nature and no one controls Mother Nature. You can’t control your prospects either. Nurture them instead.
- Prepare to be disappointed and surprised. Sometimes what you think is a sure thing turns sour while other things you didn’t think would happen turn into huge successes. That’s cool.
- Take out the weeds. These are bad employees, worse customers, and other things that can kill your business.
- Things change. Embrace the change. You can get by without that “necessary” component of your business. Be prepared for the worst and deal with it in reality.
- Be persistent. Gardening is a little-bit-every-day thing. Never give up on it. If you do, your garden will die (and so will your fruit). Your business is just like a garden. Be persistent.
When you consider that prospecting for new clients is more like gardening than war, you’ll spend some time nurturing your prospects and treating them like a harvest.
Do You Shun Social Media?
When it comes to using online marketing tools, it seems that small business owners still haven’t put a lot of value on social media. That’s interesting because those same small business owners do put a lot of value on word of mouth advertising. They say it’s important.
The reason I find this puzzling is because social media is the new word of mouth. But I understand how some people might not see that.
If you consider that Facebook is the most trafficked website online and that it’s the new social club (without the drinks), then you might get a glimpse into why it might be useful to do some business networking through there. But don’t just take my word for it. Ask the people who are using it.
Then there’s LinkedIn. People asking questions and answering them. Introducing each other to connections. That sort of thing.
A lot of referrals take place through social media. Twitter. Facebook. LinkedIn. Google+. Even Quora. But if you talk to small business owners, you wouldn’t know it.
I’d recommend picking a social media website – any one will do – spend 15 minutes a day for two months just figuring it out, meeting new people, interacting in small ways, and see where it leads you. What would it hurt?
Should You Use Affiliate Links?
When building your small business website, the one you’re going to use for promoting your local service business, should you include affiliate links and promote products that aren’t yours?
There are two ways to think about this question. The first way is to consider those affiliate links exit holes. Anything that causes the site visitor to leave your website is an exit hole and it means you lose a sale. Does the commission you’ll make on that affiliate product make up for the income you’re going to lose by not acquiring that customer? If not, then you shouldn’t use the affiliate link.
Another way to look at this is that you’re going to lose some of your site visitors anyway. Not everyone is going to buy your product or use your service. They may not be in the market for your service right now or they might not be the right target for your service. Either way, you’re not going to make the sale anyway so why not offer them something else instead?
Both of these points are valid. You’ll have to decide which way of thinking appeals to you and decide to use affiliate product links based on your own goals and desires.
If you do decide to use affiliate links on your small business service site, do so with these things in mind:
- Use them sparingly.
- Don’t make the affiliate products the main focus on your site – that should be your services.
- Place affiliate links where they won’t draw undue attention to themselves, but will be attractive and get clicked on by people who aren’t interested in your service today.
- Think about your web design first. If affiliate links and widgets won’t look good with your website, then don’t use them.
Is Internet Marketing Less Expensive?
Is Internet marketing less expensive than traditional marketing. It is in many cases, though not always.
In times when the economy is struggling, every small business wants to save money. That’s understandable. But what many small business owners end up doing is killing their marketing budgets, which leads to less business. You really don’t want to kill your marketing just when you need it most. So what’s the alternative?
How about redirecting that budget to online marketing where it can be easily tracked, controlled, and measured?
Television and radio advertising, long-running staples for most small businesses, are just not what they used to be. TV ads are expensive. Radio ads are not as much so, but your audience is limited. And newspapers ads are not as effective as they used to be. Internet marketing, however, offers several channels and marketing solutions for small businesses that are quite affordable – and effective.
For instance, PPC advertising allows you to set your own budget. You choose how much you are willing to pay for a lead, and you don’t pay for that lead until you receive it.
Even if you do use PPC advertising, your marketing budget could exceed that of your traditional marketing budget. The difference, however, is that it is easily trackable and you can measure your results a lot more effectively, not to mention that PPC advertising often leads to increased business on a scale that TV advertising can only envy.
So is Internet marketing less costly than traditional marketing? It depends on how you measure cost. In many ways, it is less costly and more effective.
Do You Worry Too Much?
An article at Marketing Pilgrim says that small business owners worry about obtaining new customers. In fact, they lay awake at night thinking about it.
Is that you? Do you lay awake at night worrying about where your next customer is coming from? Don’t. It could come from any number of sources – if you take action.
Prospecting for new clients takes time. And it is costly. More costly, in fact, than retaining the customers you already have. But if you don’t do it, what will happen? Many small businesses find out what happens when they are no longer providing a service after two to five years.
You can’t let worry freeze you. Running a small business is about taking action to attract new customers and keep the ones you have happy. Here are a few tactics that other small business owners have used to do just that:
- Built a website
- Employed search engine optimization on their website
- Drove traffic with pay per click advertising
- Produced online videos
- Engaged in e-mail marketing
- Spent time on social media
All of these tactics are effective if employed correctly. They’re not the only tactics that work, but they do work. They are much more effective than worrying. So stop worrying and start taking action.
How Often Should You Blog?
So you’ve decided to start a blog to promote your business. That’s a good move. But how often should you update your blog?
That’s a good question. The answer is, It depends.
How much traffic would you like your blog to receive? How serious are you about search engine marketing? Do you want the search engines to crawl your blog often and update their search engine listings accordingly? Are you doing it for fun or for profit?
Blog marketing is not a hit-and-miss proposition. It is a commitment. The more often you do it, the more likely you are to see positive results. That’s how it is with just about anything. Right?
The search engines view each of your blog posts as a single web page. But they also pay attention to your entire website. Every time yo update your site, they send their spiders back to crawl it. Update it every day and you’ll get crawled every day. That means each blog post you write has the potential to achieve high search engine rankings in addition to your site as a whole achieving those rankings.
Every blog post is a new opportunity. The more opportunities you have, the better your marketing. So how often do you think you should be blogging?
The Benefits Of Social Media Marketing
A new report from Social Media Examiner details who is engaged in social media marketing, why, how they use it, and what benefits they are deriving by using it. It appears that small businesses and sole proprietors are making the most use of social media marketing and reaping the rewards in a big way.
The top benefits of social media marketing, as reported by those who are using it, are (in order of most beneficial):
- More exposure for the business (88%)
- Increased traffic to the website or subscribers (72%)
- Improved search engine rankings (62%)
- New business partnerships (56%)
- Qualified lead generation (51%)
- Reduction in overall marketing expenses (49%)
- Higher number of closed sales (43%)
It’s difficult to argue with these results. If you are the type of person who looks only at the number of sales generated, you might look at this list and see a glass half empty. But look at the number again – 43%. That’s almost half the small businesses using social media getting increased sales. But look at the rest of the numbers.
Even if you don’t see more sales, increased exposure for your business is certainly a benefit. More traffic and higher search engine rankings are benefits you shouldn’t ignore. If you’re getting those and not getting more sales, then you might need to tweak your landing pages.
Social media isn’t going anywhere, and small business owners who employ it effectively are getting huge benefits. We think you can too.
iPhone Apps: A New Marketing Opportunity
Mobile marketing is not something we talk about much on this blog, but I would like to address an emerging opportunity for small business owners. iPhone apps.
It seems that everyone is interested in having their iPhone app now. There’s a good reason for this. iPhones are popular, almost everyone has one, and everyone who has one is tuned in through apps. In the future, iPhone apps are going to be the way many people log onto the Internet for routine business.
Think about this.
- If you own a book store, you could have an iPhone app that lets people put a book on hold – right through their iPhone.
- If you are the owner of an auto parts store, you could let people order their car parts through their iPhone, and even schedule delivery.
- Own a restaurant? Put your menu into an iPhone and take carry-out orders.
- Own a bowling alley? You could have an iPhone app that allows your customers to bowl on their phones, and when they’re not iPhone bowling they can reserve their lanes.
- A gardener can have an iPhone app that reports soil conditions based on weather, time of year, etc.
There’s really no limit to what you can do with an iPhone app. If you have an imagination you can come up with all sorts of things. The time for small businesses to take advantage of marketing and customer service through iPhone apps has come. Are you ready?
Businesses Turning To Internet Marketing To Cut Costs
Big business turned to IT decades ago. They had the money to buy huge mainframes and to pay for the dedicated staff to manage them. What those mainframes could do in an hour often took dozens of workers to do in several hours. Small business has toyed with IT, some with a great deal of success, others with not so much success. It seems that small businesses are once again looking at IT as a means to cut operating costs. It’s interesting to note that Internet marketing is one of those driving forces.
According to SmallBusinessNewz:
nearly 36% of small businesses are investing in improved email marketing campaigns, 28% are looking at Google Adwords and 21% are looking at Facebook advertising.
They also report that 30% of small businesses are investing in “virtualization, business intelligence and collaboration“. Business intelligence (or competitive intelligence) has been a primary motivator for many medium to large businesses where dedicated staff research competitors across the broad spectrum of the Internet – especially social media.
One of the driving forces into the future will be the introduction of smarter software that will deliver better analytics of social media activity. We are already seeing better analytics coming out of Facebook, other social media sites will not be far behind. One of the best indicators of how successful Internet Marketing is becoming is the fact that traditional marketing sources, print, television, and radio, are now crying poor and bemoaning drops in sales, viewers, and listeners.
Today, you can create a highly successful video ad for far less than the cost of a television ad. Where television charges tens of thousands of dollars for some 30 second ad spots, you can publish and promote a video of any length, almost for free, across the Internet. You may not get the same audience, but when you can produce 20 or 30 videos for the same cost as one television ad – savings are fairly obvious.
We are only touching the surface when it comes to cost cutting. Cloud computing is yet to make a huge impact yet the potential for savings could be huge for small businesses. Internet marketing is just one dimension, but its success will drive ventures into more cost cutting activities using IT and the Internet. The ride is going to be interesting.
Google Starts Small Business Blog
Google’s blogs seem like they get a fresh start every day. From PPC and analytics to Google AdSense, Google has something to say about all kinds of things. The latest topic is small business.
The Google Small Business Blog will address the following topics of interest to small business owners:
- AdSense
- AdWords
- Apps
- Gmail
- Analytics
- Google Docs
- Google Places
- YouTube
- Upcoming events
- And other small business topics
It seems that the small business blog will cover a lot of topics that are already covered on other Google blogs except that you’ll be able to get a lot of the same information under one umbrella. It also looks like a way for Google to promote all of its offerings targeted toward small business owners. So is it safe to say it’s self serving?
I’d say that’s an unfair statement. It’s about as self serving as any other small business blog. The difference is, this one’s published by Google. So what does that mean? Two things, I think:
- The information will come from a credible source
- And the information will be naturally biased toward Google’s products
Both of those are a positive. But I wouldn’t stop reading your other Internet marketing blogs.
The Most Important Local Search Criteria
Local search is becoming more and more important all the time. As more small businesses come online and try to compete at the local level, local search will grow in importance.
Several Internet marketers answered a poll and discussed which local search criteria are the most important. Interestingly, most of them agreed on the most important criteria. After that, there was more disagreement but, again, you’ll find a large number of the marketers agreeing on the most harmful local search factors as well.
The top 3 most important local search criteria, according to the poll numbers are:
- Claiming your Place page
- Your business address listed in the city of the search being conducted
- Picking the proper categories for your Place page
Another positive local search factor that is worth mentioning is the number of Internet Yellow Pages and directory listings you have. Many of the marketers in the poll seemed to think that was important.
Regarding negative factors, the following negative factors were chosen as important to stay away from:
- Multiple Place Pages with the same phone number
- Not showing your address on your Place page
- Multiple Place Pages with the same address
- Listing a PO Box on your website without a physical address
- Multiple Place Pages with the same business title
Interestingly, many of the marketers involved in the poll thought customer reviews were important as well. It could be that negative reviews might have an influence in your rankings, but that is subject to debate.
If you’d like to see the results for yourself, you can see them here. It’s quite a read.
Twitter, But Don’t Be Boring
An article in the New York Times about small businesses that Twitter offers a few tips on how to Twitter as a small business owner and one of the rules is “Don’t be boring.”
In fact, we summarize this article with the following points:
- First, listen – Twitter is great for listening to your target audience. You can get some great feedback from your followers.
- Don’t be boring – Emphasis mine. Hey, keep it interesting, or entertaining.
- A live FAQ – Answering questions that your followers submit is better than having an FAQ on your website. It’s live and interactive.
- Create a focus group – This format takes getting feedback a step further. It’s an interactive focus group. The example in the NYT is a bakery that invited followers to show up at the store and taste a recipe then give feedback on it. That’s one way to get them into your store!
- Start a soapbox (for thinkers) – This is a pretty popular Twitter strategy, but one that works. Submit links to interesting articles about your niche. Make them interesting! But you are getting people thinking and if you do this well you’ll turn those links into interesting questions that your followers can answer.
- Start small – Really, there’s no shame in being small. You don’t have to have 100,000 followers to be successful with Twitter. Some of the most successful Twitterers have only 1,000 followers, or less.
Twitter is a useful tool and nothing to be afraid of. Take some time to familiarize yourself with it before you jump in. Then, when you’re ready, develop a social media strategy for your Twittering.
Facebook Could Have Made A Huge Mistake
When you’re approaching 500 million users is not the time to make a move like this. Of course, because of Facebook’s unprecedented growth, I’m reasonably sure that this would not have followed were it not for nearly 500 million users.
You don’t need 10,000 fans to know that Facebook almost cut out over half of its fan page customers and maybe more. I think they may have realized that themselves after the backlash.
But keep something in mind. When you’re in the growth stage of a business, you can’t afford to step on as many toes as this decision would have done. And certainly not on a segment of the market as vocal as the small business community, a community that tends to vote with its feet.
Did Facebook make a mistake? Yes, in all likelihood it was a big mistake. But it could have been bigger. At least they relented.
Most Small Business Owners Are Too Busy For Social Media
Frank Reed at Marketing Pilgrim cites a survey by Citibank / GfK Roper in which 76% of the business owners surveyed (500 of them) said that social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook have not helped their businesses to grow in the last year.
Well, I wonder why not? Could it have anything to do with the economy?
You might think so, but according to the same survey, 42% of the business owners surveyed said they have made greater use of their own websites and search engines to increase leads and sales. That’s not surprising. Search engine optimization has always had a better response rate than social media. But that doesn’t mean social media doesn’t have value.
Frank Reed nails it on the head when he responds:
Small town folks may be using social media but they aren’t telling all of their cool friends in some urban center how they just crossed the street and are now successfully maneuvering down another block to do that again. They live where people are trying to get on with life in a difficult economic environment. As a result they are not interested in the latest and greatest social media trends. They are interested in getting what they need at the right price from someone they trust.
For many small business owners, social media engagement takes a lot of time. But it doesn’t have to. Of course, putting time and money into building one’s website up should be the first order of business for anyone attempting Internet marketing. But social media features can be added to your website to give you a more rounded social graph and encourage your site visitors to engage with you in more ways than one. The study cited above doesn’t give any indication about whether or not the small business owners surveyed approached social media in the right way. It’s just a survey. What would the next 500 businesses say?
Is Twitter Social Media For Small Business?
Twitter is the latest fad in social media, only it’s not so much a fad as it is a new development and it seems to be taking over. I think everyone knows it. John Battelle certainly does.
I think the interesting thing is that Twitter has finally offered something for small businesses. It isn’t much. But it’s something. A subdomain.
The business.twitter.com subdomain currently has an introduction book for Twitter targeted to small business owners. So instead of spending $25 on that e-book for the total stranger, start with the book offered by Twitter. It’s an html book so no download and it’s free. You can get your introduction to Twitter straight from the company.
Beyond that, however, there are some things that you do need to know about Twitter. It isn’t Facebook and it isn’t Google. It has its own little personality. It’s own game rules. They’re not hard to learn, but you don’t want to break them. After reading the introduction offered by Twitter, find out about the ground rules from a consultant who knows Twitter and social media just like they know small business.
Pay Per Click: The Misunderstood Science
Pay per click advertising is the misunderstood science. Too many Internet marketers and small business entrepreneurs are under the impression that it can cost a lot of money to run a PPC campaign and get a small return. While it can get expensive, the bright side is you control the budget. So you can set your spend limit and your ads will stop running once you hit your limit.
But advertising spend is the least of your worries when running a pay-per-click campaign. A good PPC campaign is only as good as the keywords upon which it is based. And that means you have to spend the proper time doing research.
It isn’t enough to just pick a handful of keywords out of thin air. You’ve also got to group them well and pair them up with the right ad content. A well-written and optimized landing page ready to convert sales is perhaps your best asset. Drive all the traffic you want to your website, but if you aren’t ready to close them then it won’t matter. Your landing page has to be ready, or you’re not.
A successful pay-per-click campaign requires research, patience, and a good attitude. You can win if you run a good campaign and watch your budget.
Designing a Pay-Per-Click Campaign for a Smaller Business
When it comes to small business advertising on the Internet, organic search engine optimization may be out of your budget. I recently talked with a friend and small business owner from Philadelphia who had a very limited budget and was faced with the decision hire a firm he knew nothing about and either get a good deal, or become victim to one of the most common SEO scams on the web, which is a firm that requires a full payment up front before doing any work. My advice to him was to either find a pay per performance internet marketing firm like Reciprocal Consulting, and invest a little more, or try out a Pay-Per-Click campaign.
The general advantage of PPC over SEO is the level of control you have over keywords and the bids on them, but for a small business, the real beauty of that control is the ability to target local Internet users only. In my friend’s situation, he runs a small business in the greater Philadelphia area, so initializing an SEO campaign which would be seen by users all over the country would make less sense than a geo-targeted PPC campaign.
Setting up geo-targeting in Adwords is as easy is checking a few boxes in the Campaign Settings. For those running a content campaign, which is a good idea if you have a little extra ad money to spend, geo-targeting is available on the content network as well.
When in doubt, just ask an Internet Marketing firm like Reciprocal Consulting to explain PPC to you.