Be confident your ad spend is well-spent

PPC and SEO are both focused on getting in front of people on search engines. PPC means you pay Google (or Bing) to be shown towards the top – and SEO means you try to make tweaks to your site and content to get shown higher in the unpaid results.

We strongly suggest a campaign that includes both elements, as our absolute ideal is to be shown 4 times on the first page for a company’s top money-making keywords. (Once in the top ads, the top map ad, in the organic map results, and ideally #1 in the organic results as well.)

Because many people skip the ads – we believe if you have to choose only one strategy, you should spend money on Search Engine Optimization first, but it does depend on your unique situation and needs.

PPC campaigns like Google AdWords are powerful tools to have in your marketing kit. Statistically, every dollar spent on a PPC comes back to you as $2.

If you’ve been using AdWords for your PPC campaign, you’ve probably encountered extensions. These are the little add-ons that allow you to beef up your text-only ad with a phone number, user reviews, or some additional links.

The obvious benefit of these is that they make your ad bigger. But is that always a good enough reason to use extensions? The different kinds of ad extensions are many and varied. But which ones are right for you?

Let’s take a look at some of the options:

Sitelink Extensions

The sitelink extension allows you to place additional links at the bottom of your ad.

For example:

• Hours of Operation
• Visit Our Showroom
• Request a Quote

The advantage of these additional links is that they can take your customer directly to a landing page that speaks to their needs. This could cut out a step in the conversion process and make them more likely to buy.

Make sure that your sales process is carefully mapped, and that each landing page has a specific place within it. Optimize your landing pages so when the customer arrives, they know exactly what to do next. They should be only a few simple clicks away from buying.

Call Extensions

This of course adds your phone number. Is your phone number critical to your business? If you’re a small bookstore, for example, and 9 out of ten calls are asking about your hours, consider just posting your hours instead.

But if the old fashioned landline is one of the ways you funnel in clients, get your number out there! Google doesn’t charge you for a click when users dial it! Unless, that is, you opt in for Google to track your calls. In that case, they’ll replace your number with a Google forwarding number. Your phone will still ring, but Google will be able to send you analytics, including which keyword produced the call. In this case, each call costs the average of one click.

Location Extensions

This shows a pin with your address that links to a Google map. It’s a handy way to show your customers that you’re in their neighborhood. But like a landline, this could work against you depending on the nature of your business.

Consider that if you are an online service, or a service that makes house calls (food delivery, pest control, etc.) listing your location isn’t a good idea. It implies that the customer has to come to you, and they might skim over your ad for that reason. Use a location extension if you are a neighborhood brick and mortar, and your business depends on in person foot traffic. A beauty salon is a good example of this. If you’re an online business, like a translation services provider, keep your ad directed to your website. Don’t make it confusing by adding your office location–especially if it’s a home office!

Review Extensions

If you want to show off some good reviews from a third-party source, try the review extension. These add a little quote, or sometimes a paraphrasing, of your amazing review to your text ad. But be forewarned: Google has stringent criteria for these. Most of them end up getting removed because Google finds them to be fabricated by the business owner. So don’t try to fake it! An authentic review extension can lend authority and trustworthiness to your brand before the user even clicks.

And More

These are only a few of the many extensions available to Google AdWords users. While they are among the most popular, it’s worth taking the time to explore all of the options to decide which do–and do not–work for your company’s campaign. As with anything PPC, the trick is to tailor an ad the way you like it, test it for performance, and then adjust it again. You never know which extensions are going to bring you the greatest return, so be flexible, and be smart. They aren’t all going to work for you, but they are very fun to test drive!

We believe if someone comes to your website – that they should see your company all around after they leave. The reason we love remarketing so much is that you pay pennies on the dollar for remarketing click-through, and 2nd and 3rd time visitors are much more likely to convert. In fact, people may take 6-8 times coming back to your website before they become a customer. Once you understand this dynamic, remarketing (sometimes known as retargeting) becomes much more obvious. We love how effective this is for many of our PPC clients, and how it increases their brand awareness as well.