You may have heard these Search companies are making a ton of money providing advertising during these searches.
Do you know where these ads appear? Who would advertise on these services? What does it cost? Do customers actually respond to this sort of marketing? Here's the short story.
(Already know this stuff and just want to get going? Call now 519-937-1431 and we can speak about your needs...)
Where these ads appear?
The main style of search engine ads appear on a page after a user searches on a particular subject. After the search engine returns results, ads from companies advertising in relation to this topic appear around the regular or "natural" results. Take a Google search result. After searching on "office furniture", ads appear to the right and sometimes above the results. These results are labelled "Sponsored Links".
Who would advertise on these services?
Real companies with real employees looking for real revenue advertise on these search engines. Increasingly traditional and local businesses are advertising on these services and pulling money out of old-media like newspapers and television. Why? Because now advertisers can target specific search words and track the leads and purchases. It can be especially good for niche marketers who need to find people who are looking for very specific or specialized items or services.
What does it cost?
Search Engine Target Marketing is attractive not only because you can advertise to people actually looking for your specific offering but you only pay if someone clicks your ad. This is called "Pay-Per-Click". In traditional advertising like in the yellow pages of a phone book, you pay whether you receive a customer call or not. In traditional media, you are also limited to your budget to the particular size of ad and information you can stuff into it. On search engines, you only pay if you attract a customer to "click" through to your web page of which you can build as big or as informative as you want. You can set your budget daily and monthly and importantly for many local advertisers, set target geographic areas right down to areas of cities. Clicks can cost anywhere from $.01 and up. My experience has been that typically "click-throughs" cost $.05 to $10.00. The advertiser needs to determine how much a lead is worth.
Do customers actually respond to this sort of marketing?
The buying public - whether they are purchasing for a consumer interest or business interest are responding to these ads. With the increasing attention on them in the news and the increasing amount of advertisers turning to them as a measurable advertising mechanism, Search Engine Marketing is a viable and results-oriented alternative to older, unmeasurable ways to get your message out to potential buyers.
Can you benefit from advertising to people searching on a directly related topic to the product or service you need to sell? If yes, call me today to get started!
*http://www.emarketer.com/Reports/All/Em_canada_nov06.aspx