Pay per click Marketing for Small Businesses; does it make sense?

January 31, 2009

Most small businesses do not use Pay per click marketing, also known as Paid Search, PPC, Ad Words or Sponsored links (these are the links that run across the top and right of most search engines. Companies buy these ads through an auction system on the search engines). And I’ll be honest; when I first came into this business I didn’t see much value in PPC marketing. I thought only brand-new businesses or really bad websites (sites that are not able to be optimized) needed paid search. Why spend money on paid links; instead, just work harder to rank organically as those results are more trusted and clicked on more often. However, I have found over and over again that paid search has a place in almost any small businesses marketing plan. So here are five reasons that small businesses should consider a PPC campaign.

1. Target Geographically: Paid Search can be laser focused on certain areas, allowing you to purchase very desirable terms only in the areas you do business in. Organic search can be geo-targeted but it involves the searcher entering in geo-targeted keywords. With pay per click, you can pick the areas you want your ad to show up in increase the effectiveness of your budget. Geo-targeting is also useful if you plan to target new areas or expand locations, giving you a quick foothold in new areas.
2. Jump start a new business or site: If you have a new business or have just launched a website, its going to take time to drive traffic to your site even with the best search engine optimization firm in the business. So run a small targeted PPC campaign to drive traffic, start spreading the word and collecting new leads.
3. Fill in the gaps in an ongoing Search Engine Optimization: This goes right with number two. Let’s say you have been aggressive with your search techniques, building back links and gaining rankings in the engines. There are still words that you will want to target that you aren’t ranking for. The most lucrative keywords in your industry are going to be the most competitive and paid search can you give you a presence at the top of these search pages.
4. Seasonal Specials: If your business is seasonal at all, you can use paid search to increase your traffic at key points of the year. If you know the next three months are going to be slow, start a paid campaign for your most relevant keywords to make sure you still have traffic and leads coming in. On the flip side if you are a purely seasonal business you can use PPC to really drive traffic during the hot times.
5. Test keywords, conversions and your page: Because PPC marketing is so flexible and the reporting is so good, you can use it in combination with Google Analytics to test your page and your search strategy. Run some paid search on the keywords you are trying to rank for. See if that traffic converts to customers, and if it does, that’s great. If it doesn’t, you might need to think about the effectiveness of your keywords, your site and possibly your business model. Because you can test these words instantly it could save you six months of time and money trying to rank for keywords that might bring traffic to your site but not customers.

There are other great reasons as well but they generally apply to larger businesses with larger budgets. For instance there is research that shows that companies that own both the top ranking, organically and paid, get better name recognition and reputation with searchers. But small businesses need to be smart and reasonable. In a dream world with unlimited budgets maybe we could do that, but our goal is to your grow your business not bankrupt it. Would we ever recommend that a company focus its budget on Ad Words instead of a Search Optimization Campaign? Probably not, but it could be a very effective additional strategy for gaining new customers. So how do you do it with a small budget and limited knowledge of the space? We will address that in a future post. You can also just contact us and I would be happy to go over strategies with you.

SEO: Pay Per Performance or Pay Per Service

January 30, 2009

As we talk to customers we hear more and more about Search Engine Optimization that guarantee results and only make you pay when you rank organically for a set number of your desired keywords. This is very interesting, and on the surface, is a smart strategy for the search companies. They get paid when results are delivered – who doesn’t like that?  There actually are a couple of reasons that the consumer should be very wary of a company like this:

1.  You won’t get good results. As much as these companies promise, their strategy is generally to pick and choose the least competitive keywords that you are training to attain and focus on those.  The problem is that these keywords are not competitive for a reason – they aren’t receiving good search volume or they aren’t relevant to your site.  You don’t want to focus all your time on a keyword that won’t generate traffic or conversions. Also, focusing on any very small specific keyword list is a bad idea. You want to grow your site and audience in a broad manner. Just trying to rank for one or two keywords is not a successful long term strategy.

2. This model encourages black hat behavior. A company that only gets paid for results has much greater reason to try “black hat” or shady methods of getting your site ranked quickly.  These tricks may get your site ranked for some keywords pretty quickly, but the search engines are smart. They are constantly watching tactics and changing their algorithms to jump in front of it.  And if Google sees your site breaking their webmaster guidelines you will be penalized and lose rank or be removed from the search engines altogether.  It doesn’t matter that somebody else was responsible, it is your site and you will be penalized. Only work with companies that use strictly white hat, transparent SEO techniques.

3.  Its bad strategy that will not help your business in the long run: We would never guarantee results at Raise because of the hundreds of factors that go into ranking a page – for instance, it matters what your competition is doing, how long your domain has been active and what the search engines do.  Also, just getting ranked for a keyword is great but that is only half of a successful search engine campaign.  You must watch how that traffic reacts with your site and make adjustments based on the results using such programs as Google Analytics.

We understand why these companies would build a model like that, and we understand why businesses, especially small businesses would, jump at the offer.  Pay-per-performance has its place on the internet and is the future of sales, I don’t doubt that. But I cannot see when SEO will join those ranks. It is a service that takes time and expertise. Our focus is building for the long haul, not a short bang. In the end the mantra is true that if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Small Business Marketing in a Tough Economy

January 29, 2009

Wow, things are bleak right now. Customers aren’t shopping and banks aren’t lending. This leads to retail stores not being able to keep their doors open and shakes through manufacturers and every segment of our economy. If the big guys are laying off 15,000, what is a business of 15 employees (where everyone is essential) going to do? Shut the doors?

Maybe.  It looks like this is going to be a very tough year, however the businesses that come through in the end are going to come out leaner, stronger and smarter.  There are ways to protect yourself.  One of the first is to look at your marketing.  Cut everything that you cannot track.  There is an old advertising saying – “I know 50% of my advertising budget is wasted, I just don’t know which 50%”.  Online we track everything, down to what word brought a person to your site and what they did on your site.  If you haven’t yet, it is time to reassess your newspaper ads, your TV and radio and especially your yellow page  advertising.  I don’t have a phone book in my house and I have not for 5 years.  Everything I need I find online or through my phone or from a friend.

Make sure you are featured in Google Local and other similar services.  Make sure your website works, and that it is attractive and informative.  If it is not look for a respected small business web design company.  It doesn’t have to blow fire out computer speakers or have people walking across the screen.  The most important goal of website is to deliver the information that the client is looking for and give them a reason to become your customer.

Focus on email marketing. Ask your current customers if it is okay if you send them information and then set up a system to stay in touch with them in a responsible way.  Use a program like Constant Contact so you can track open rates and bounce rates. If people are unsubscribing it means you are emailing too much or not sending good information.  Take some marketing money and put it into pay-per-click marketing.  It will drive people to your site instantly and you can experiment with different keywords to see what converts.  We don’t have to guess.  I came up in newspapers, I understand how they work, but there is a reason that they are dying.

So now we have a reasonable and completely trackable plan for marketing. Our costs are cut and, for everything we do, we know how it worked.  Maybe we just hold our own, maybe we lose some business, but as things start to come around, and they will, we are ready.  We are lean.  And we push, we don’t have to make adjustments to changing media, we have already done it.  Obviously this is one facet of how a small business can make it through the tough times, but let me tell you something from experience.  Businesses that cut their marketing completely when times get tough never recover.  It makes more sense to focus your resources on areas that you can track completely.