Googling your business

Search engine marketing can and should play a large role in your marketing/advertising budget.

All of the major search engines have ad programs which allow small businesses to create ads and buy ad space on search results pages. Since the majority of searches are done on Google, I'll focus on them, but most search engine ad programs are similar.



Here are some tips for effective use of Google's ad program:



1) The ad: The ads themselves are very small, so you want to make sure you use that space wisely. Use action words to get customers to click on your ad to learn more about you. Be specific enough so that people who are clicking on you are actually potential customers.



2) The "keywords": Keywords are words or phrases which a person enters into a search engine. You select keywords for your ad campaign, in hopes that your customer will enter the same keywords in order to find you. If you are a pet sitter in Omaha, you might select "pet", "petsitting" and "Omaha" as some of your keywords. Be careful in selecting your keywords. Choose the wrong keyword and you'll reach people who aren't potential customers (and pay for them to see your ads!)



3) PPC bids: Keywords are bid on using a pay-per-click (PPC) basis, meaning each time a user clicks on your ad, you pay Google for that click. Some keywords can be bid on for 5 cents per click. Others may cost much more. You should select a daily or monthly budget in order to limit the clicks and cost.



4) Tracking: Using conversion tracking and analytics programs provided with the Google program, you can tell how many visitors or customers have come to you from your ads and calculate a Return on Investment analysis for each of your ads.

Anyone can create a search engine ad campaign. Don't want to spend the time or want a more effective campaign strategy? Contact us at Chew Toy Media for a free consultation.