Amanda

Small Business Advertising – Using Adwords Express

Please Mr Google allow us some flexibility with adwords express keywords

I hadn’t known about using Adwords Express before reading an article by Brian Carter. It’ supposably it is a quick and easy way for business owners to run their adwords campaigns without requiring a consultant. Brian states ‘If you’re not familiar with AdWords Express, it’s an easy way for small businesses using Google Places to run AdWords. You don’t have to choose keywords- but you can’t modify them. So here is the catch, adwords express picks the keywords to attract traffic to your site, you have very little control and therefore google can get it so wrong. So is using adwords express going to help with advertising my small business?

Small business advertising – Using Adwords Express

So what if adwords express gets it wrong, here’s Brian’s example:

Sam Alexander (name changed to protect the innocent) runs a limo service in Orlando. He started running AdWords express. He soon ran out of money. I volunteered to take a look at his account. Over the last three months, he spent just over $9,000 on AdWords. About $5,500 of that went to the Places (AdWords Express) campaign. Seductively, the cost per click in that campaign was lower. You know why? Because many of the keywords were showing to the wrong people….

……147 of the 686 keywords included the word “taxi”. Sam runs a luxury service that’s up to twice as expensive as taxis. What’s worse, the keywords also included “airport shuttle” – there are often free hotel shuttles. People who want free are not going to buy a premium service.

Have you ever hired a car service to or from the airport? If not, and if you’re a taxi person, you are not my client’s customer. I told this story to another guy who’s in bail bonds. He’s not in limos, but he could see that people looking for taxis are not this guy’s customer. He is smarter than AdWords Express.

This is a very specific market, and everybody is not the customer. One of the best things about AdWords is your ability to target the right prospect. But AdWords Express doesn’t allow that.

How much of that $5,500 AdWords Express spend was relevant to Sam’s business? Only the $1,184 for car and limo keywords. That means that AdWords Express spent 79% of the money on the wrong keywords. read full post here

You can call me a control freak if you like, but I do like to be somewhat in control of how my advertising dollar is spent. If I have no control over what keywords used, it seems to me that using adwords express would be a total waste of money. So please Mr Google, give us some flexibility, allow us to delete worthless keywords!

What do you think? have you used adwords express? was it successful? I would love to here your view.

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Forget flash mobs, nows there’s cash mobs helping small businesses

It’s fun and it’s helping small businesses and building communities. Known as cash mobs, these facebook & other social media run groups, pick a business, arrive as a mob & spend cash. They are cash mobs helping small businesses.

Cash Mobs Helping Small Businesses

As reported in the Huffington post:

…..target one location bringing as many people to one site as possible but other cities have taken a different approach. “There is no science to it and there are also no hard and fast rules,” he explains.

He told the group gathered in Cleveland that he only has three rules or goals as he explains them: “You have to spend at least $20, meet three people you never met before and have fun.” more here

And further from fosters.com

The first known Cash Mob in the country, according to a blog by the organizer of the Ohio initiative Andrew Samtoy, was first gathered in Buffalo, N.Y. just last summer. Since then, cash mobs have been sprouting up across the United States and other countries around the world as a way to provide economic stimulus to small businesses. more here

And even more from KSL.com in Utah

Saturday, Janet and Chris Hawkins, owners of Russo’s New York Style Pizza in St. George, were surprised by a cash mob at their pizza joint.

“We found out maybe about 30 minutes (before),” Chris Hawkins said. “That was about it. So we were scrambling.”

Dan Deceuster was the organizer of Saturday’s cash mob. He had seen it done in other parts of the country, so he set up a website and a Facebook page, taking suggestions for local businesses to support. The date, he decided, would coincide with the day dubbed “International Cash Mob Day.”

“The goal is spend money at a local business, try to all show up at the same time and have a big impact that way,” Deceuster said. more here

A big thumbs up to whomever started this fun way of meeting people and supporting small businesses. Fantastic – cash mobs helping small businesses, I love it!