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.