Juggler Online Marketing Blog

Google Adwords - Common Questions From Small Business

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:19:00 GMT

Many small business owners don’t seem to consider search engine advertising as important as traditional advertising. We deal with alot of small business owners and there are several common themes we see all the time which cause hesitation.

It’s to “futuristic” or “technically difficult”

limited understanding of the internet and search engines can be a barrier for entry for small business owners. They think advertising on Google for example is to “futuristic” or “technically difficult”. ( Yes we actually had a client call it to futuristic for them )

This is far from the truth. Advertising on search engines is easy, risk free and quite common. In fact many businesses only advertising channel is Google Adwords. They no longer advertise in print or paper.

Partnering with a search marketing agency or Google qualified professional is the easiest way to get started. Any good agency will take the time to help you understand how it works if you want to learn. The better your understand the results, the more valuable the service is to you and the more likely you will continue to run the campaign.

Finally you don’t need to be an expert, just know if the campaign is profitable or not… Outsourcing to expert agencies is more cost effective and produces better results while you remain focused on your core services.

It wont work for my industry

We have a client who is a builder and he was convinced nobody used the internet for finding builders. “Mate I’m just a local builder, and everyone I deal with they use the yellow pages or get refered by a friends”

We agreed that this was probably the case for many people, but surely there were some people looking for builders on the internet and using Google to find them.

We ended up running a small Google Adwords campaign for him and adding some case studies of his most recent work to the website to help with conversions. In the first week he had several enquiries for new houses straight from Google.

In fact the search volume for the area was quite healthy, over 100 people a week were looking for builders just in that local area.

Needless to stay he continues to run the adwords campaign and has increased his advertising budget as well as paying for professional ( and regular ) updates to his website with more case studies and information. He also plans to reduce his exposure in the yellow pages and other local directories next year…

Its to expensive

Costs may seem high to businesses who have not advertised before or draining since it is a monthly fee not just a “once off payment”

Is it? compared to what? placing an ad in the paper once a month? that will cost a couple of hundred dollars and it sure as hell isn’t going to drive anywhere near as many sales as Google Adwords.

Actually we get this alot. Its surprising how many small businesses spend little to nothing on advertising and when they do they spend it, it’s in the wrong places ( like the paper, or those coupon books… errghh )

The thing with Google Adwords is, its basically risk free and budget caps can be set at all times ( eg only spend $10 a day maximum ). Also you only pay if people click your ad’s and reach your website, in case you didnt know that.

While the monthly or weekly fee may appear draining you need to project the sales and enquiry it will generate. The ultimate reason for the growing success of advertising on Google is its accountability. Any Google qualified professional worth their salt will generate reports that show costs, profit etc. showing you your bottom line. It’s surprising how often your campaign runs at a profit.

So there is no guess work, we cant hide from bad results ( like the paper ) if your advertising dollars dont produce results, then your reports show it.

Finally if it doesnt work, just cancel. Some agencies offer lock in contracts so just avoid that.

Google Adwords Conversion Tracking - Establish Quality!

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:10:00 GMT

We have alot of clients come to us with existing Google Adwords campaigns and we are always surprised at how few have implemented conversion tracking. Quick recap: Conversion tracking is when you place a small piece of code on important areas of your website so your can measure many people are actually turning into leads or sales.

For example common things to place conversion tracking on are your "contact us" enquiry form, newsletter subscription, online bookings or sales through an online shop. Identify what your goals are ( what action do I want customers to my website to perform ) and place conversion tracking on these goals.

Why Is Conversion Tracking So Important?

Conversion tracking establishes quality!

Lets say you have a Google Adwords campaign which is costing $20 a day and is sending 40 clicks. Thats costing you $600 a month for 1200 clicks. This is a pretty normal scenario for a small business.

Now that all seems really great right? 1200 extra visitors a month, fantastic! But how many of these visitors are actually turning into leads or sales? Are you buying the right visitors?

Take the following example:

Keyword 1: "dog food" costs $200 a month and sends 400 visitors - no conversions
Keyword 2: "buy dog food online" costs $200 a month and sends 40 visitors - 10 conversions

Real Result? Keyword 2 is better... it costs more, and it sends less clicks, but the people it does capture turn into real sales.

Without conversion tracking in place you would immediately identify keyword 1 as better. It's cheaper and it's sending more clicks for the same price. But the truth is, those clicks are not converting.

This is a simple example of how conversion tracking can help your bottom line. Weed out the time wasters and buy clicks that actually make sales.

For more information on how to install and setup conversion tracking you can read the Google Help Centre: Setting up and Using Conversion Tracking

Some basic programming is required and you will need to make sure your website has goals which can be tracked.

.Asia Landrush Begins

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 04:53:00 GMT

The new .ASIA Top Level Domain Landrush stage has now commenced. The landrush stage is still not “open registration” if you choose to register a .asia domain name during the landrush stage you will need to wait until March 12 2008 to secure it.

During the landrush stage anyone else can register the same domain as you. As I understand it if more then 1 person registers the same domain during the Landrush period an auction process will begin. The highest bidder by March 12 2008 will secure the name.

I have personally got dozens of domain names on pre-registration. Most are travel related.
While the success of .eu the eurpoean regional extension is pretty unkown to me, I dont consider it to be great.

Many are predicting the same status for .asia

I think the .asia travel names will be an exception. Asian travel is booming with the opening of China and India. It’s a fact the Accor Hotels and many other big Australian hotel brands such as Rendezvous Hotels are basing their future growth on the asia region.

Roamfree Cookies

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 04:53:00 GMT

I was recently reviewing the Roamfree affiliate FAQ and noticied some possibly suspect wording regarding affilliate cookies. “Cookies are enabled for a 14 day period on both white label links and affiliate links that go to roamfree.com. Commissions are granted for white labels and affiliates on the last site that the consumer searched.” Now does last site mean your website or the last property the consumer went to through a deep link?

I sent an email to Roamfree and asked for clarification, while Roamfree has certainly had it’s share of technical issues it’s support team is always very helpful.

Scenario 1:

A visitor clicks my link and checks rates at Hotel A. They leave both my website and roamfree.
The next day they return to Roamfree directly and they book Landmark Resort instead.

Will the booking be credited to the affiliate? The booking goes to the Affiliate

Scenario 2:

On my website I sell several hotels in Mooloolaba.
The visitor clicks my affiliate link and checks rates at Hotel A at Roamfree in a new window.
The visitor closes Roamfree and continues to browse my website.
They click on another link to check rates at Hotel B.
They leave both sites and return the next day to Roamfree directly. They decide to book Hotel B.

Will the booking be credited to the affiliate? The booking goes to the Affiliate

Scenario 3:

A visitor clicks a regional affiliate link from my website that displays all hotels in Mooloolaba.
They leave both sites and return the next day to Roamfree directly.
They book any hotel in Mooloolaba.

Will the booking be credited to the affiliate? The booking goes to the Affiliate

Roamfree further stated:

“It is my understanding that no matter what page a consumer goes on through an Affiliate link if anything is booked anywhere after that on Roamfree within the cookie period the Affiliate will be attributed the booking.”

Roamfree Advanced

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 04:40:00 GMT

Roamfree has released a new product called Roamfree Advanced. It’s basically rolled Resonline and Last Minute Manager into one, upgraded many of the features and the cost is the same.

I’ve always been a big fan of resonline. I think it’s a great booking engine for small and medium sized hotels and resorts.

It’s also compatible with Google conversion tracking which makes tracking revenue for my hotel pay per click clients a whole lot easier.

However many accommodation providers who I meet with seem to dislike resonline. Many AP’s state high commissions and difficult user interface as their main issues. Most AP’s who are have this attitude are smaller mum and dad operators who don’t understand computers very well and don’t understand the value of providing real-time rates and bookings to their customer. They still have the mentality that everyone should call.

That’s fine I guess, I can understand tight margins but I will continue to push for online bookings in real-time. This opens the door for much more sophisticated online marketing strategies and the tracking of online revenue and ROI.

Roamfree advanced upgrades the look of the resonline front-end, it now looks like roamfree.com ( no surprises here, they have integrated resonline into the roamfree platform )

View a demonstration of Roamfree Advanced