Attention small and local business owners: I know that many of you have dabbled here and there with your own online marketing tactics. Many of you that I talk to on a daily basis report to me that you are spending anywhere from $100 to $500 a month (because it seems like a reasonable amount) on Google Adwords or some other form of Pay Per Click advertising.
It’s true, search engine optimization or any changes you make on your website for that matter, seem to take a while to see the results. In fact, it takes most of the search engines roughly four to six weeks to see the work you’ve completed on your website. What can you do to see some results now? Pay Per Click advertising. It’s actually not that difficult to get up and running yourself, believe it or not.
Think about it. If you have competition in your area that is “shellacking” (I got that from Dick Vitale) you online then PPC is a great vertical to fight back with.
Need some simple instruction? Try these simple steps on your own:
Try Googling your geographic area and a keyword associated with your service or product. For instance, if you are an outdoor landscaper in Idaho Falls, Idaho – then Google “Idaho falls landscaping”. See if you appear anywhere on the first page.
In addition, see who else is there. If you recognize the names of the businesses showing up on the list as your competition, and you aren’t there, then you should seriously consider setting aside some money to do pay per click search advertising to build new local business awareness.
When you start your pay per click campaign you need to make sure that your website is has keywords embedded with local geographic places plus your industry keywords in the content.
Come up with a well written ad copy connected with your most important landing page on your website. It’s always a good choice to use pages that have great information and a good “call-to-action”. A call to action can be a button that says “Contact us now”, or “Free Quote” or “Sign up”, etc… Setting up a page with a good "call-to-action" can prove to help you get a good ROI.
If any of these tasks seem to be difficult, or you just don’t have time to complete them, it would be then that I would recommend you give us a call. Doing a simple local PPC campaign can be a fast easy way to get a neck up on the competition. If organized and executed properly, you can reap a great amount of business from it.
Next tip: Pick an aggressive starting budget and test it out!
