Welcome to the latest edition of our new weekly blog series, Market To Mondays. Each week, we will introduce you to a new group of people you should market to. We’ll tell you who they are, why you should market to them, and how you might get started.
Last week’s group was Friends of Followers.
Today’s Group = Google Searchers
It may seem obvious to some, but many small and mid-size businesses are still wary of advertising on search engines. But you need to start today.
People are looking for you. They might not use your name, they may not realize you exist, and they might not even know they are searching. But they are looking for what your business provides. When that happens, you can attract their business by displaying an ad for your company.
It’s not only Google. It’s also Yahoo, Bing, and any other search engine your customers may use. They all let you pay to display ads to those who are looking for you. You only pay when someone clicks on the ad. Plus, you can manage how much you spend and which keywords trigger your ad.
It’s a relatively cheap and easy way to start advertising.
But how?
You can sign up with Google Adwords, or the equivalent on any other search engine. You will have to create campaigns for your products or services, write text ads for them that will show up atop or alongside of search results, and add a list of keywords that you want your ad to show up for.
The ads platform works as a bidding system. So you can enter the maximum amount you want to bid for each keyword, and the search engine will use that to determine what ads to show, and in what order. Popular keywords will have more advertisers bidding on them, so they will cost more for each click. But Google makes it easy by showing you the relative search volume and popularity of each keyword, and tells you what they think you need to bid in order for your ad to show.
The initial set up can take time and will be quite complex for someone doing this for the first time. Luckily, there are some options you have to make it easier to get started.
First, Google offers a simple “How-to” course for anyone interested in learning how to get the most out of their Adwords platform. It walks you through, in detail, everything from set up to launch of your campaigns and beyond.
If you’d rather not do it yourself, you can hire and agency or consultant with experience. There are thousands of people out in the world who have done this for other companies. And you can pay them to ensure your account is set up correctly and working the way you want it to.
From the day you launch your campaigns, people searching for you will start to find you more easily. And you’ll be able to measure the direct impact this has on increasing your sales.
What group should we cover next? Now accepting submissions for audiences that we will cover in an upcoming “Market To Mondays” post. Submit your ideas via our contact page or in the comments section below.