So after writing my blog on Google Analytics I said I would post one providing some information on Google AdWords. I said this completely forgetting I was already registered to attend a conference hosted by Google, on AdWords. 

Google held their presentation in a large auditorium enough to capacitate the whole lot of us and focused their first presentation on trends in the industry. This is the one piece of information I took from it. Social media and mobile marketing is not a fad. Paraphrased and not that I thought otherwise but if Google says it, it must be true… right? 

So we broke for lunch, killed about an hour and a bit talking to people and what not, then we (Google conference attendees) were separated into two groups, by choice of course. Beginner or advanced? Not that I claim to be an expert on AdWords, I chose the advanced seminar hoping to pick up some tidbit or gem that I could take back to the office. Nope. I had to double check again to see if I had entered the beginner room by mistake.

I don’t know who they were targeting with their presentation because it wasn’t helpful enough to people who have some sort of understanding, yet I heard from a couple of people with no understanding that it was very confusing and too heavy on the lingo that means nothing to them. It’s Google… one of the most recognizable brands in the world… I thought this was going to be the be all and end all of seminars. Oh well.

I’ll sum it up to my top ten benefits to make it a little easier of a read for you since this post is already getting too text heavy.

My Top 10 Benefits of Google AdWords

1. Allows you to be seen on Google
2. Cost effective way to market your business or products
3. You chose how much or how little you want to spend
4. Your position on Google is not determined by how much you spend, but rather by how relevant your ad is to your target and how many clicks you receive
5. All of your ads are completely customizable in terms of what text or link is displayed. If you’re running ads on the Google Content Network, your ads can even have images and video.
6. All of your ads are completely targetable by keywords, location, even time of day. If you’re running ads on the Google Content Network, you can even target your ads to certain age demographics.
7. All of your ads are easy to track to see which ones are performing well and which need to be revised, allowing you to spend your dollar wisely
8. AdWords software is very user friendly and will allow you to make it as complicated or as simple as you want
9. Google provides tools to generate keyword ideas, they let you know how heavy the competition is for each of the keywords you are targeting, recommend pricing points and much more to help you maximize your money
10. It will boost traffic to your website and create more brand awareness

I’ve only been blogging for a couple of months now but I’ve seen the benefits and I’m definitely a believer. Because we track everything we do, we can directly attribute a significant increase in our web rankings on Google to our blog efforts. Jerry, who manages our Web, IT and SEO and Robin who heads up our Promotional Services are also frequent bloggers on our site.

From my perspective, there is no shortage of marketing related topics to write about. I find it somewhat therapeutic as a matter of fact and enjoy putting my digital pen to paper as a regular part of my weekly ritual. At this point, we haven’t seen direct comments in response to our blogs but they are being read and shared. As we gain more experience in this venue and with time, we hope our efforts will be helpful to others and that eventually we’ll get more interaction and collaboration on the various subject areas posted.

This past 4-day week we had two sales leads that materialized as a direct result of our web marketing. One where we weren’t the right solution (company was looking for canned newsletter content) and one that was right up our alley and turned into an appointment. Not all that significant maybe, except that 1 branding/web appointment for us can turn into 20-50,000 dollars of immediate work and a customer for life.

In the B2B environment, I believe getting your web ranking higher organically is (at a minimum) like having another full time sales person on the road and at a fraction (3%) of the cost. Similar to adding a new sales person it takes time to see the results. In this past economy it can be 6-9 months before you see the benefit…but there are soft benefits in the meantime. Now more than ever, the purchasers of your services are forming opinions of your organization based on your presence on the web. Your message needs to be clear; your look professional and when someone searches, ending up on the first page in your category doesn’t hurt.

Social Media is not just a trend or a phase; it has grown exponentially and will continue to do so. If you have been under a rock for the past couple of years, Social Media is a way to spread the word of your company, build brand recognition and actually communicate with clients, prospects and people with some general interest in what you are doing through websites such as FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Blogs and many, many others.

Everybody always says: “Why should I bother?” “What is the ROI?” Or, “It’s not right for my business” and the list goes on. There is absolutely no way to promise a certain ROI, a certain number of viewers or a specific number of sales directly related to these outlets. It comes down to common sense; the larger the presence you have on the internet, the more people will notice your company; the greater the chances of one of these viewers utilizing your products or services. It’s always a numbers game and the more, the merrier.

It will take some time to get used to using the various media websites but after a while you will get the hang of it, and you will be able to keep it updated with minimal effort. There is no sense in getting overwhelmed by the thought of tackling all of this at once. Start with one until you’re able to fully understand how to keep it fresh without spending a lot of time. A company blog is a great start and allows anyone in the business to write about their specific fields, showcasing diversity and allowing visitors to understand all aspects of your business.

Another benefit to using Social Media is that it will eventually increase your page ranking on Google. Setting up a blog and writing original, informative articles that the internet community will not only read, but link to, is a great way to start with Social Media. Again, the more original and unique content your business has on the internet, the more Google will visit your pages and it will assume that your information is more important than the majority. It isn’t exactly easy though, it will take a lot of patience so don’t get discouraged if your pages aren’t getting a lot of hits right away. If you’re posting interesting and informative articles on a consistent basis, the people will come, so keep at it!

Please leave a comment or ask a question, we are happy to help!