9xb - Creating Online Success

SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING VS. PRESS ADVERTISING (ROUND 2)

In part 1 of this article, we took a look at Bob Smith - the owner of a local business who's recently rebranded and decided to spend this year's marketing budget on advertisements in the local press. I'd said that I would recommend a different use of this money.

So What Would I Recommend?

In a nutshell: use a significant part - possibly all - of the money on advertising online.

I wouldn't actually suggest that Bob moved his entire budget to Google straight away; a better strategy would be to commit to the local newspaper for say, only 3 months (instead of 12, I think Bob might be suprised how prepared to negotiate his local newspaper might be), then use £1,000 – £2,000 for a meaningful test on Google at the same time. In effect we protect Bob's existing revenue-stream in the short-term whilst attempting something new, without gambling the fate of Bob's business on it.

Something along these lines:

• A campaign specifically targeted to a 20 mile radius of Bob's office (yes you can do this with Google Adwords). This means any advertising will only appear to people within Bob's selected area, maximising profitability by cutting out people Bob cannot service.
• Bob's advertising only appears when someone searches for keyword phrases linked to his business. Additionally, he only pays when someone actually clicks on his advert and visits his website. In short, Bob puts his business in front of people at the exact moment they are looking for his services and he doesn't pay if they ignore his advert or are searching for something else. That means that every penny he spends is a direct sales opportunity.
• The campaign can be set up to directly measure exactly how many leads and sales the Google Advertising delivered for Bob. We could prove its return on investment and use the data to refine the advertising to be more profitable in the future. If today's message doesn't work - we change it and try a new one tomorrow.

In essence "The Newtown Rant", our local newspaper really cannot compete:

• The advertising is charged at a flat fee; Bob's got to find the money regardless of its success or failure.
• Additionally, this flat fee often is far too expensive to justify the potential return on investment for many companies. The Newtown Rant has a circulation of only 200,000. Think about that – how many of those readers will actually see the advert (do you look at every advert in a newspaper?) How many of those people who do see it, are actually interested, at that moment, in buying Bob's services? Not as many as you think, I'll wager.
• It's notoriously difficult to track the success of all press advertising; Bob would need to look at investing in a unique phone number (for each advert or publication) and a unique website URL (e.g. www.bobscompany.com/newtownrant). A unique URL isn't difficult to set-up, but people have an annoying habit of ignoring them and just visiting your website directly.

Anyway, in Bob's case, it's too late. He's committed his budget for the next 12 months and can't afford to do a decent test on Google. Que sera sera. Maybe next year he'll be willing to dip a toe in the water...

Today's Moral

Search engine marketing is highly effective for all types of businesses, large or small, local or national, business to business or business to consumer. By putting your advertisement only in front of people specifically looking for your services at the specific moment they want or need them you can be sure that very little of your money is wasted. And because you can see exactly what your money has bought, you can make informed budgetary decisions going forward.

Learn more about Google AdWords Advertising.

Footnote:
I'm not saying that all press advertising or all local newspaper advertising is pointless. But for many of the businesses I come into contact with, they would be better off looking at search engine marketing. The trick is to measure the return on investment from every initiative you do, as accurately as you can and then decide what mix is best for your business.

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• Ask.com - Boxing Clever With AdWords
• Search Engine Marketing vs. Press Advertising (round 1)
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