Do those little blue ads down the right hand side work?
By Fred Schebesta, Director - Freestyle Media
Google search marketing it very alluring when you first look at it but if you jump straight in people normally experience some of the following problems.
1. Lots of clicks, but No sales, is it working?
Yes, Search engine marketing is designed to get traffic and clicks to your website. It has no other purpose. You cannot make a sale from one of those little ads, even if you include your phone number in the ad itself. Your website is the one that needs to make the sales – that’s its job. If your website isn’t making any sales from the search engine marketing traffic you are driving to it, then you need to fix your website not your search engine marketing.
2. Paying too much for clicks, is it working?
No, Your search engine marketing’s performance should be judged on its ability to get a high click through rate and maintain a competitive cost per click. If you are paying too much for your overall campaign clicks then you need to buy some more niche keywords in the longer tail of search. E.g. Buy the keyword “Toyota Corolla 1998 used car” as opposed to “used car”.
3. I can’t get my ads listed, is it working?
Yes it’s working but you need to bid higher. Normally you will actually find your ad in the “Other Sponsored Links” section.
More sponsored links will show you your ads if they aren’t in the top 10.
4. Does anyone click on the ads down the side?
Yes, I have some clients which bid in at the 6th and 7th position and they still make sales and clicks. It’s important to realise that not everyone searching for a particular item types in the same keyword. People searching for mobile phones might type in “Cellular phones”, “Handy”. Also people who are looking for used mobile phones might still start by searching with the keyword “Mobile phone”. If your ad appears lower down the rank but is targeted towards them, you will get the click.
Do you agree or disagree? Voice your opinion at Search Week below, comments are turned so feel free to post your views about Fred’s contribution, be nice and keep it professional.
See you next week!
