Google AdWords Makes It Easy to Generate Sales Leads
If you’re looking for a low cost way to generate leads right now that turn into sales, take a look into the world of search engine advertising.
“We get a steady stream of quality leads every time we advertise on Google,” says John Vaughan, owner of Every Angle Loss Prevention, an L.A.-based camera system and access control integrator. “We closed a deal for a camera system add-on and upgrade for the L.A. public schools directly as a result of someone from the district searching on Google.”
And Phil Lake, owner of Knight Security Systems of Texas, agrees adding that his sales staff “fell in love with leads from search engines.”
It’s not hard to see why savvy security dealers are generating quality leads from search engines. The internet has quickly become the center of activity for many Americans. Research from the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that search engines are more popular than yellow pages, experts and even family members for recommending products and services locally and around the world.
Take a look at your own behavior. Where do you turn to when you need answers and information? If you’re like most of us, you turn to the internet. And most importantly, so do your customers, both residential and commercial.
If your customers are looking for security systems using search engines, it’s essential that your website is the first one they see. Unfortunately, with the sheer number of websites already competing for the search terms you are interested in, getting a top search ranking for free is an incredibly difficult and time intensive process that could take months or even years to reach.
Fortunately, there is an alternative that can allow your website to appear on the first page of search results today and start generating leads within hours. Not to mention, you can get started for just $5.
Google, the world’s most popular search engine with a market share of nearly 80 percent in the U.S., offers a powerful and cost effective program that allows advertisers to place ads on the first page of search results for as little as 10 cents for each visit to your website.
The program, called AdWords, is Google’s main source of revenue and responsible for massive sales increases for thousands of companies around the globe. This includes the two security companies mentioned above, and many others who have learned to embrace and harness the power of search engine advertising.
How to Get Started
Getting started with Google AdWords is simple. All you need to do is visit www.adwords.google.com and click on the “Start Now” button. You will have the choice of using a starter version or the standard version of AdWords. You pay the same ad rates with either option, but the starter version has less features and a significantly easier to learn interface. If this is your first time doing pay per click advertising then the starter version is probably for you. You can always change to the standard version at any time.
Once you have selected the version you want to use, you will be asked to fill out a form with all of the information Google needs to create and distribute your ad. If you selected the starter version, you will have to fill out a six part form to help create the ad.
1. Where are your customers located? Choose the city or state that your company operates in.
2. Write your ad. Here you select the website you want to link to, the headline you want to use, and two lines of text up to 35 characters each.
3. Choose Keywords. Select up to 20 search terms that you want to advertise in. Examples of search terms include “new alarm systems” or “home security.”
4. Choose your currency. Choose how you will pay Google.
5. Select your budget. Choose how much you want to spend every month on your budget.
6. Future contact. Decide if you want to get AdWords newsletters and recommendations.
Once you are done with this process you will be asked to create your account. Fill out the information Google requests, enter in a credit card number, and your AdWords account will be created instantly.
If you choose to make a standard account, the process is still very similar to this but there are several additional options such as being able to create multiple campaigns, alter bidding strategy, and a number of other useful options.
You can go back and change any of the information later and you can always pause or cancel your campaign at any time so you don’t have to spend any extra money.
Resources
Using Google AdWords can be an incredibly profitable way to advertise your business but it can also be expensive if you are not well informed on what is necessary to run a campaign right. Here are some resources you might want to look at before you start your campaign.
Google AdWords Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): This is the official FAQ for Google AdWords. Learn everything you need to know about how to use AdWords, and about how to create quality ads.
Google Keyword Selector: This tool is an excellent way to help find the right keywords that you should use in your advertisement.
Google on YouTube: Google offers a number of videos on how to advertise with AdWords.
Learning to maximize your success with AdWords is a never ending process. Fortunately, by following the simple steps I outlined above, you can have your campaign created in under an hour and start getting leads as early as later today. I strongly encourage you to get started right now with pay per click advertising.
Brian Offenberger is CEO of SecuritySelling.com, a resource center that helps security, integration and life safety industry owners, managers and salespeople increase sales, lower costs and improve lifetime customer value through online and automated marketing best practices.
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