We’re often asked the question: “Where should I advertise online?” And it’s a good question… since there are (literally) thousands of online advertising options!

From paid search, to ad networks, to online directories, to websites, to social media… and the list grows longer all the time. Maybe all these options make sense for your advertising dollars, but then again, maybe not.

No worries, as our job is to help you get on your feet and moving in the right direction with online advertising… and hopefully keep you from taking too many wrong (and expensive) turns.

Now back to the question: “Where should I advertise online?” The answer depends on the following:

1. What’s your monthly online ad budget? There’s a big difference between relying on “word of mouth” and having lots of money to throw around. Not sure what you should be spending? Do the marketing math and find out.

2.  Who is the target audience you want to reach? The more you understand about your prospective customers… the better you’ll be able to reach and influence them with your marketing message. Who are you targeting with your online advertising?

3.  Are your customers local or everywhere? On the Internet, it’s easy to waste marketing dollars finding prospects who can’t buy from you. Yes, even online you need to think geographically. Getting started with your local online advertising?

4.  How will you know if your advertising was successful? What results are you looking for… orders, leads, sign-ups, phone calls? Figure this out in advance so you can measure the performance of your ad campaigns. And remember: without web analytics your website is flying blind.

With these questions in mind, here are some guidelines to help you figure out where to advertise online:

If your monthly online ad budget is less than $1,000, then consider:

• Paid Search: Google is the most popular but you should also test Yahoo/Bing. Keep in mind there are lots of other search-oriented sites that you can try such as Facebook, Business.com, LinkedIn, and (even) Amazon.com.

• Directories: These include the Internet yellow pages such as Superpages.com, Yellowpages.com, and DexKnows. Many of these providers will also create your very own web page if you don’t need a fancy website.

• City Guides: Yelp, Yahoo!Local, and Citysearch offer advertising options that can be really effective if most of your customers live nearby. And if you have a local store then make sure and put it on Google Maps.

• Social Media: It’s time to get your business on Facebook and Twitter. Why not since it’s free to set up an account and get started building your audience! Ready to grow your business with social media?

If your monthly online ad budget is $1,000 to $10,000, then consider:

• Paid Search, Directories, City Guides, Social Media (as described above)

• Small Blogs and Websites: This is where knowing all about your target audience pays off… since you want to advertise on sites that your prospects frequent. Expect to spend between $100 to $1,500 per month. Need help? Find out where to advertise online.

If your monthly online ad budget is $10,000 or more (lucky you!), then consider:

• Paid Search and Social Media (as described above)

• Blogs and Websites: Focus on sites that reach your target audience. The better the match the better your advertising results will be. Keep in mind that many popular consumer-oriented websites require a minimum order of $5,000.

• Ad Networks: There are hundreds of ad networks to choose from. Select those that best reach your target audience. For example, vertical ad networks specifically target many consumer categories such as autos, travel, health, women, and even eco-friendly consumers! And like with popular websites, most ad networks want you to spend at least $5,000.

Remember these are just guidelines. So, yes there are ad networks you can try even on a smaller budget; and sure there are popular websites which sell affordable text links. But when in doubt, stick to the guidelines until you feel comfortable with your online advertising efforts… or you risk taking one of those wrong turns we talked about.

Don’t spend your whole adverting budget on one option (i.e., Google). Instead, test different alternatives to see what works best for you… based on how you measure success. And make testing your online advertising a standard practice!

With all that said… are you ready for your online advertising roadmap?

Thanks and let us know how it goes!

Or reach out as we can help too… just give us a call at 888.330.3236.

(Btw, this was an update to our December 2008 post)

This isn’t “Mad Men” that cool TV show depicting ad agency life in the 1960s. So you don’t need to be Don Draper to write effective Google text ads. Instead, you just need to…

Start with the basics:

Every text ad has four elements, and each element has its very own goal (and character limit):

1. Headline: make it interesting and relevant to your prospects (up to 25 characters);
2. Benefit statement: why should prospects use your services? (up to 35 characters);
3. Call to action or key feature: convince them to act now! (up to 35 characters);
4. URL: where do you want to send prospects? Hint: don’t send them to your homepage.

For example, let’s take a look at how Google advertises its own services using text ads… since they should know what they’re doing right?

1. Google Search Advertising
2. Get Qualified Visitors to Your Site
3. Place Your Ad on Google Today!
4. www.Google.com/AdWords

1. Google Marketing
2. Online Marketing Was Never So Easy
3. Market Your Business on Google Now
4. www.Google.com/AdWords

We’ve added numbers to correspond to each text ad element (aren’t we helpful?)

See how Google marketing folks have written each of the ad elements in these text ads? That’s what you want to do. Not impressed? Trust me that each element in these ads has been carefully crafted to maximize you clicking… if you’re a prospect!

Now it’s your turn.

Here’s what to keep in mind when writing each element of your own text ads.

The all important headline

Your headline has a big job. Namely, to break through the search results clutter and grab the attention of prospects before they move on. Did I mention that you only have a split-second to do that? Clear, concise, and engaging headlines work best. And when in doubt use keywords since those reflect what your prospects are actually searching for!

Your benefits statement…  it’s not all about you (sorry!)

Everyone likes to talk about themselves. I sure do. But your customers actually care about themselves more than they do about you. Keep that in mind when writing your benefit statement. For example, why should prospects use your services? Maybe they’ll look beautiful and feel good too. Or make tons more money. How about impress their friends and family? Now those are benefits!

Give them a good reason to act now!

Congrats on getting them to notice your headline and for hitting the “me” button with your benefit statement. Now it’s time to say why you’re unique and drive them to action. How about: “Free Quote and Overnight Delivery” or “100% Organic but Supplies Limited”. You get the idea!

What about your URL?

Did you know that the URL is the second most visible element in your text ads (after your headline)? It’s true! So make sure and capitalize the first letter in each word of your URL so it’s easier to read. And if you’re sending prospect to a landing page (smart!) that has a long URL… then take advantage of the fact that Google lets you display a special shortened URL.

Some other comments and helpful stuff

Remember, you still need to find out what works best given your prospects, products, and competition! Try different headlines, benefits, and calls-to-action. And don’t be stingy in using keywords in your text ads when you can. The bottom line: just keep testing which text ads and ad elements generate the most clicks from your prospects.

Want to learn more? Here are some helpful blog posts to keep you moving down the path from novice to “Mad Man”.

Should you do SEO or paid search?

Don’t make these search engine marketing mistakes

When it comes to paid search, don’t be number one

Four basic emotions to sell anything

And don’t forget we’re here to help. Always feel free to give us a call at 888-330-3236.

What? I’m being charged $6.65 per click! I don’t understand what happened (I really didn’t) with my search marketing program. I only knew that my credit card showed I’d been charged $665 for a marketing program that I thought would cost me $150. Yikes!

So what happened here? First some background…

When advertising on search engines (yes, there are more choices than Google) you’ll be buying advertising space on a “pay-for-performance” basis. This means you only pay if someone clicks on your ad when it shows up in search results you care about. Pay per click. Sounds pretty good right?

Totally is… but buyers beware! You need to know what you’re doing AND keep a close eye on your advertising campaign as things can move really fast. Why? Because you’re competing against many other advertisers that also want their ads to show up in those same search results.

So what you pay for those clicks can be pretty volatile (translation: get expensive fast!) And the best way to manage your ad campaign pricing is to first decide on the key elements of your bidding strategy:

• Maximum bid price: What’s the most you’re willing to pay (or bid) to have your ad show up when someone types in your target keyword phrase? The higher your maximum bid the more often your ad will show up in relevant search results. But the more you’ll pay per click!

• Average bid range: What are others (your competitors) bidding? Most search engines will show you the average range that other advertisers are willing to pay. This gives you a sense of how expensive those clicks are going to be.

• Daily cap: This is the most you want (or are able) to spend on a daily basis for advertising. If you set your daily cap at, say, $50, then your ad will keep showing until you’ve generated $50 of clicks for that day. No more.

Now back to our story…

I’d set my maximum bid price at $6.65 even though the average bid range was $0.73 to $1.54. I figured this assured me the top positions for my target keywords (resulting in lots of clicks) and would only be hit if pricing was really bid up. But I wasn’t too worried about that since the average bid range was much lower.

To protect my pocketbook, I set my daily cap at $25 so there was no way I could accidentally pay for more than $25 worth of clicks on any given day.

And then I got really busy… with clients, life, cool and fun stuff. You name it and I was busy doing it. Plus I was happy seeing lots of quality clicks coming from my search marketing campaign. Two weeks later I decided to check my credit card and… well you already know the rest of the story. = (

What mistakes did I make with my search engine marketing program?

• Setting the maximum bid (way) too high. You should set your maximum bid at the most you’d truly be okay paying. In this case, I should have set my max bid at $1.50 given the number and quality of clicks I was looking for.

• Assuming the average click range reflected the highest bids. Remember that the average bid range is just that… average! There will be lots of advertisers that are willing to pay (much) more than the average to get their ads seen the most.

• Not keeping a close eye on the search campaign. You need to check back often (daily or multiple times a day for new campaigns) to see how your ad campaign is doing and make adjustments accordingly. You can always increase your maximum bid if you need more clicks or if the quality of the clicks is better than expected.

• Having a daily cap that was too high. You should set a low daily cap to begin with and then increase it over time as you get a sense of the trade-off between the number of clicks and the price per click (PPC). But always use a daily (or weekly) cap as things can change quickly… and trust me, my surprise would have been much worse if I didn’t have a $25 daily cap in place!

• Not first testing and learning what works best. Sometimes it’s best to start with a low maximum bid and then move up as you better understand the quality and volume of clicks you’re getting. In other cases, it may make sense to start with a high maximum bid to get in front of lots of prospects to see if your ad performs well. You can then lower your max bid over time. The important lesson? Test, test, and test!

Hopefully, you can learn from my mistakes… so that my “out of pocket” investment ends up being your marketing gain.

Stay tuned as I’m sure I’ll be making plenty more mistakes that you can learn from… = )