The concept of PPC and using search marketing to attract new business is a relatively new one, considering how long old school marketing techniques have been around, yet it’s one that should not be ignored. Many businesses, especially smaller businesses, make the assumption that PPC won’t work for them because there’s too much competition or it will cost too much or they’ll never be able to compete with the bigger companies. We’re here to tell you that Google and other major search engines have taken giant leaps into levelling the playing field and are placing greater emphasis on displaying local businesses in search results. For example, lets presume you run a florists in a small Town just outside a City centre. If someone actively looking for florists within a 50 mile radius of your business goes to Google and does a quick search for “florists” the search engine will recognise where the customer is and display results that are local to them. This means that local businesses have a BETTER chance of being displayed for these lucrative terms.

How does it work?

Adwords advertising is a pretty straightforward process. The most common Adwords platform will see you pick and choose the terms which tightly fit your business. When choosing these, it’s important to think like your customer, we want people who are close to making a buying decision. Once these are chosen and a few other bits of housekeeping are taken care of, then they have the opportunity of appearing when potential customers search for them. The beauty of Adwords is you will only pay for your advertising when someone actually uses it. Unlike advertising on the TV, radio or in print you will only part with cash when someone looking for your product or service visits your website, putting you firmly in the driving seat.

The cost you pay per click is variable, it depends on a number of factors, some which are out of your control. Unless you’re in an extremely competitive market however, you will probably be paying less than £1 per click. For arguments sake, let’s say that the local florist is paying on average £1 for every visitor that clicks on your ad. Over the course of two months, 500 people click on their Adwords ads costing them a grand total of £500. In the same two month period the local paper want £750 for a small ad which is disguised with 20 other local businesses. Which do you think is the better investment?

It’s all too technical…

PPC advertising is relatively straight forward when you get the hang of it, but it can be quite a challenge to learn the ropes. It will also need a small amount of time on a regular basis to manage the campaign and make sure everything is running as it should. One of the biggest complaints we hear from small business owners is that they haven’t got the time to do it, running the business is the priority. We would argue that any activity which is so powerful in winning new business is worthy of your time. If you really have no time at all for Adwords, get in touch with us and find out how we can help setup and manage your campaign through our small business Adwords management programs.