Google Adwords or Not

Two scenarios:

1. Your organic SEO has been so successful that you are now number one for most organic search terms you’ve been targeting
2. You have a brand new domain name and you have no traffic and want some fast

In either of the above, would you run Google Adwords?

Yes would be the qualified answer.

If you are top of the Organic listings, you are (unfortunately) not the first at the top of the page – if it is a relatively competitive keyword / phrase, you’ll be number 4 with three Adwords / sponsored listings above you. The general Googler probably does not realise that these are paid for advertisements.

If you are wondering how to kick start your brand new domain name / web site – Google Adwords is a superb marketing tool and provides a marketing ROI on a par or normally way better than any other marketing method.

We are not currently a ‘qualified’ Adwords provider, but we have set up many campaigns on behalf of our clients. The key to a successful Adwords campaign is the same as an organic campaign, chosing relevant keywords, designing an advert for those keywords and providing a landing page for the relevant advert – rather than the home page.

We meet plenty of people who are shocked at the amount of money they are spending on their Adwords campaign. Many of them aren’t sure whether it converts into anything and hence generating income. It is quite interesting to hear their feedback as we can normally identify a few keywords that aren’t creating any business for them and save them money.

Another way of looking at it is that we remember running marketing programmes for generating seminar attendees – where we’d spend £10,000 on the whole programme for 200 ‘leads’ (attendees). A different marketing budget altogether and nowhere near as cost effective as Adwords and puts things into perspective in the digital age.