Published Articles

Search Engine Advertising: A No-Lose Proposition

Interface Business News
November, 2003
by: Elizabeth Harvey

Invariably, when I ask my clients if they have considered doing search engine advertising, they respond with a confident, "no". When I ask them why not, their answers range from "We can't afford it." to "No one clicks on those things anyway."

What I've learned is that people don't have the correct information about search engine advertising to make informed decisions.

In fact, search engine advertising is a terrific return on investment right now, as prices are still reasonable for popular keywords. Online advertising has many benefits: you are guaranteed immediate results, you only pay for those who click over to your site, and you can track conversions.

Immediate Results

By far the biggest advantage to search engine advertising is that once you set up an account, you go live instantly. In less than a minute your ad appears in the search engines. This means new prospects could start coming to your site that very day.

Who are the players?

There are two big players in the search engine advertising world right now. Google and Overture. Google ads are seen on Google, AOL, Ask Jeeves, Netscape, Teoma, and Amazon.com, among others. Overture advertising show up on Yahoo, MSN, AltaVista, HotBot, and Lycos. Google¹s prices tend to run a little higher than Overtures because there is more overall traffic to their corral of web sites. However, I still recommend clients split their budget between the two companies to attain a wide reach of potential clients.

How does it work?

First, decide on a budget and a timeline for your campaign. Next, do a keyword analysis to determine the best keywords for your products or services (I use wordtracker.com). Then bid against other advertisers for those keywords. Finally write your ad copy - you are typically given 2 lines of text.

How do you pay?

Just fill out the registration form and then put in your credit card number. There are several different payment options including a Pre-Payment Plan (I typically use this one, so I don't go over budget), as well as Fixed Budget and Non-Stop Traffic plans which automatically replenish your account.

How do you know if it's working?

Advertisers can access reports through both Google and Overture detailing how many impressions your ad received, how many people clicked on your ad, your average position on the page, and your average cost per click. Reporting is critical in monitoring the success of your campaign.

Seasonality

Many Maine business are seasonal. For example, bed and breakfasts typically have off-season slumps. You could advertise off-season weekend getaways by putting an ad online promoting the special for a week or two and then removing it once the special is over.

Ski areas should consider launching advertising campaigns for their season pass sales. Additionally, promoting special events for a week or two prior to the event is another good idea.

Riverbend Condos in Bethel is going to buy the keywords, "Sunday River Condos" and "Bethel Maine Lodging" prior to and during the upcoming ski season.

Holiday Sales

If you sell products for the holidays, there is no better way to reach the masses than search engine advertising. If you are in the holiday gift business, you know well that you have a very small window to sell your products. I advise a short—term, targeted campaign from November 1 through December 15th. One of my clients, Goose Rocks Designs in Arundel, Maine is going to buy advertising to help sell their unique glass wind chimes. Not only are we going to buy targeted keywords like "glass wind chimes" for .25 per click, but we've also found that "unique gift ideas" is currently going for only .10 per click with good traffic.

So how do you know if these people convert to customers?

Conversion Tracking

Conversion tracking is the latest addition to the suite of Google AdWords reporting tools. This feature allows advertisers to track how many ad clicks convert to purchases, sign-ups, page views, and leads - for free. All you need to do is add a snippet of JavaScript code on your conversion confirmation pages (ie; Thank you for filling out our contact form). The number of visitors who actually filled out the form will be included in your weekly reporting. You'll get AdWords conversion data right down to the keyword level in your reports, information that can help you better measure your return on investment (ROI) and make smarter online advertising decisions.

Additionally, Overture’s Conversion Counter measures the number of conversions (sales, newsletter signups, content subscriptions, price quotes or qualified leads) generated by your paid listings.

Copywriting

It is important to test different ad campaigns. Some ads will work better than others simply because of the words you choose. Use the keywords that you are buying in the actual ad copy and be specific. The Inn at Bath made sure he put the words "Bath Maine" in his ad so he didn¹t pay for clicks from someone looking for lodging in Bar Harbor, for example. His summer weekends were pretty much sold out in the beginning of May!

In Summary

Don't write off search engine advertising. It is an affordable, guaranteed, and quick way to get qualified traffic to your Web site.

Search Engine Results

To further demonstrate that online advertising really works, here are some site traffic numbers of a client of mine who is a gastric bypass surgeon in NYC. These are the unique visitors to his site since he started doing search engine advertising last spring.

Monthly Unique Visitors: April 247; May 889; Jun 2,170; July 2,453; August 2,165; September 3,761

Since April, he has paid $5,000 for 10,000 clicks to his Web site. That's an average of .50 per click — or potential new client. More importantly, these are highly targeted prospects. These users went to Google and typed in "gastric bypass surgery new york". They were looking for his services.