So many small businesses have been using Adwords to promote their business and increase sales. And for years, doing so was actually was a good strategic move. It only required a small investment, and they were able to drive quality traffic to their respective websites.
But like everything else, the costs have soared, and it’s no longer economically feasible to “test” key words, landing pages, etc. Why? First of all, you’ll be lucky if you can find a niche where you pay under $1.00 per click. There are bidding wars between advertisers to push their ads towards the top of the heap. And sadly, the big brands and large corporations with much deeper pockets are the ones who will be sitting at the top. With costs passing $3.00 per click and more, it’s kind of hard to keep it cost effective.
So what’s the alternative to devoting about $3,000 per year to Adwords for a small business? If you can’t afford Google Adwords, try and tap into the newer ways to drive traffic to your website. Try Facebook Ads or MyAds (the ads from MySpace Ad Network). The cost per clicks on Facebook Ads are reasonable, there are many different targeting options to use, and of course, Facebook gets zillions of users every day.
Just because Adwords has soured many small businesses with their bidding tactics and “money talks mentality,” small businesses should still consider paid search as a valuable marketing tactic. Facebook Ads and MySpace Ads are half the cost of Adwords, which can make the return on investment quite attractive.
There are many other ways you can use the net to drive traffic to your website – which in turn will help build your business. Common sense ideas like relevant landing pages, strong calls to action, and timely promotional specials can move people to action. And there’s always “free content” that you can use as a means of lead generation. Possibly the most important thing you can do to drive traffic to your site is SEO – and that takes a lot of knowledge and effort (or a good consultant)!
Here’s the thing to remember: if you’re a small business without a strong social marketing person on board, you would be hard-pressed to try building your own Pay Per Click campaign. There are too many factors that can impact your results – the industry you’re in, the product, price structure and other factors.
Don’t completely give up on Adwords; just be sure you don’t get into bidding wars for keywords and make sure you know who you’re trying to target. But at half the price, (and better targeting options) Facebook and MySpace sure look good!
But like everything else, the costs have soared, and it’s no longer economically feasible to “test” key words, landing pages, etc. Why? First of all, you’ll be lucky if you can find a niche where you pay under $1.00 per click. There are bidding wars between advertisers to push their ads towards the top of the heap. And sadly, the big brands and large corporations with much deeper pockets are the ones who will be sitting at the top. With costs passing $3.00 per click and more, it’s kind of hard to keep it cost effective.
So what’s the alternative to devoting about $3,000 per year to Adwords for a small business? If you can’t afford Google Adwords, try and tap into the newer ways to drive traffic to your website. Try Facebook Ads or MyAds (the ads from MySpace Ad Network). The cost per clicks on Facebook Ads are reasonable, there are many different targeting options to use, and of course, Facebook gets zillions of users every day.
Just because Adwords has soured many small businesses with their bidding tactics and “money talks mentality,” small businesses should still consider paid search as a valuable marketing tactic. Facebook Ads and MySpace Ads are half the cost of Adwords, which can make the return on investment quite attractive.
There are many other ways you can use the net to drive traffic to your website – which in turn will help build your business. Common sense ideas like relevant landing pages, strong calls to action, and timely promotional specials can move people to action. And there’s always “free content” that you can use as a means of lead generation. Possibly the most important thing you can do to drive traffic to your site is SEO – and that takes a lot of knowledge and effort (or a good consultant)!
Here’s the thing to remember: if you’re a small business without a strong social marketing person on board, you would be hard-pressed to try building your own Pay Per Click campaign. There are too many factors that can impact your results – the industry you’re in, the product, price structure and other factors.
Don’t completely give up on Adwords; just be sure you don’t get into bidding wars for keywords and make sure you know who you’re trying to target. But at half the price, (and better targeting options) Facebook and MySpace sure look good!
