Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Helen Redwood on June 22, 2011 at 12:27

Hi Dave

 

do you mean Adsense where you put Google adverts on your own website to earn revenue on each click or do you mean advertising your own business on Google Adwords to drive traffic to your website?

 

Regards

 

Helen

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dave Sewell on June 22, 2011 at 12:35

Hi Helen,

Thanks for the response - and you're right, I need to sort out what I'm asking first! 

I'm referring to the latter - advertising my business to drive traffic to my website.

All best,

Dave

www.the-gardenmakers.co.uk

• ▶ Reply

PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Craig McGibbon on June 22, 2011 at 12:48

Hi Dave,

 

As previous post on the subject

Initially it is quite daunting to set up and good to do with the free trial as it give time to play. Once up and running Google starts to make suggestions for keywords that will give you more coverage. The impressions and clicks per category log helps to see what works.

Setting your budget is essential otherwise you can run up a huge bill. Also essential, select you coverage area and don't default to UK - a mistake l made initially; you edit this on the Campaign tab edit Targeting to the areas of interest.

>> Decide on your monthly budget, divide by 30 and this will give your daily budget.  Google uses your daily budget as a guideline - some some days it will be more and others less.  At the end of the month remarkably it adds up to your monthly limit!

I have only run a campaign since late September and have noticed increase traffic to my website and had several enquiries direct from the advert, one of which turned into a job, which l completed a couple of weeks ago. Happy to say it's paid for itself.

 

From previous LJN discussion

http://www.landscapejuicenetwork.com/forum/topics/google-ad-words?c...

 

The statistics and the package give you daily monitoring ability Dave so you can adjust as you go....

 

I've stopped for the moment and l'm trying one of these SEO companies but gut feeling is a was getting more results from adwords for less money even though the SEO puts me on google first pages almost every time.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Fenlandphil on June 22, 2011 at 13:27

SEO is good as it gives you a position in the organic search area. I did a couple of business link courses where ad words was covered and had some very useful advice from other LJN members, Chris Nnagle included.

I am using adwords at the moment and it is self financing.
Craig McGibbon said:

Hi Dave,

 

As previous post on the subject

Initially it is quite daunting to set up and good to do with the free trial as it give time to play. Once up and running Google starts to make suggestions for keywords that will give you more coverage. The impressions and clicks per category log helps to see what works.

Setting your budget is essential otherwise you can run up a huge bill. Also essential, select you coverage area and don't default to UK - a mistake l made initially; you edit this on the Campaign tab edit Targeting to the areas of interest.

>> Decide on your monthly budget, divide by 30 and this will give your daily budget.  Google uses your daily budget as a guideline - some some days it will be more and others less.  At the end of the month remarkably it adds up to your monthly limit!

I have only run a campaign since late September and have noticed increase traffic to my website and had several enquiries direct from the advert, one of which turned into a job, which l completed a couple of weeks ago. Happy to say it's paid for itself.

 

From previous LJN discussion

http://www.landscapejuicenetwork.com/forum/topics/google-ad-words?c...

 

The statistics and the package give you daily monitoring ability Dave so you can adjust as you go....

 

I've stopped for the moment and l'm trying one of these SEO companies but gut feeling is a was getting more results from adwords for less money even though the SEO puts me on google first pages almost every time.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Helen Redwood on June 22, 2011 at 14:40

SEO is more of a long term process and can sometimes take 2 or 3 months to really take effect.

 

There is a keyword tool in Adwords which will offer suggestions based on a list of keywords or a website address and will suggest bids. I would however recommend starting with a small number of very relevant keywords and usually go a bit lower on the suggested bids to begin with. You can then monitor it using the various reports and adjust accordingly and add or remove keywords as necessary.

 

The amount you spend will be determined by your daily budget and how much you bid on each keyword.

 

The Help Center is very comprehensive and they also do online courses and webinars to help get you up and running.

 

As mentioned in the other thread you can usually get a free trial, so look out for vouchers

 

Helen

• ▶ Reply

PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Phil Voice on June 22, 2011 at 14:59

Dave

I'd re-iterate what I've said before. Landscape Juice is very Google friendly and any content you add here is directly linked to you so your company is the one who potentially benefits.

I'm not sure if you've seen this but Gary's proven the LJN blogs work well: http://www.landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/make-landscape-...

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dave Sewell on June 23, 2011 at 6:52

Thanks everyone for responding to this and indeed the pointed to the previous thread. Some great information in and links in there. Phil,  I did read Garys post with considerable interest a week or so agoa nd hope to talk with him about that soon, and I'm aware that LJN has excellent SEO capabilities. I'm just keen to see how effective this form of marketing might be as well. Ironically and somewhat illogically I'm very unlikely to click on a paid link myself so I wonder how many other web users act in the same way...

Dave

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Paul @ Ashgate Garden Care on June 23, 2011 at 7:05

I used to use Google Adwords. I now just use SEO. I just as good if not better response from SEO in part due to SEO reaches a broader audience (ie it works on Bing, Google, Yahoo, ASK etc and not just Google).

 

I have a theory that  after a while your brain learn's to 'ignore' the adwords and concentrate on the search engine results.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Helen Redwood on June 24, 2011 at 12:13

Excellent post by Gary.

 

Just to add, another reason for having separate adverts is that Google also takes into account the relevancy of your landing page, so make sure you direct people to the most appropriate page on your website for the keywords and ad content, don't just send them to your homepage. Also your clicks won't convert as well if users don't immediately find what they are looking for on the landing page and make sure you have a strong call to action, contact details etc on the page so they don't have to hunt for them.

 

With regard to SEO v Adwords, I don't have any figures but people are more likely to click on the results in the natural listings and these do convert better. However you do really need to be quite near the top of the page to get a good number of clicks. Bear in mind when checking your position that google takes into account your browsing history, so the results you get might not be what others see.

 

Google has changed the adverts at the top of the page subtly to make them look less like sponsored ads, obviously to make people click on them more.

 

Regards

 

Helen

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dave Sewell on June 24, 2011 at 12:34

Thanks all, especially Gary for that excellent summary. I think I now have enough information to give it an informed look.

Thanks again!

Dave

www.the-gardenmakers.co.uk

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by John Taylor on June 25, 2011 at 12:31

Just a quick note on the use of keywords

1. Broad match: eg Landscape Gardeners
   Allows your ad to show on similar phrases and relevant variations
   (The broad match modifier may also be used to further refine your broad keyword matches: +keyword.)

Just entering a keyword normally gives you broad match and this can waste money e.g. some on searching for landscape pictures could trigger your ad and they could click (cost) with no real need for a landscaper. (This happens as I learned from my analytics).   

 

2. Phrase match: " Landscape Gardeners "
   Allows your ad to show for searches that match the exact phrase

Better but you could still get clicks for qualifications for Landscape Gardeners

 

3. Exact match: [Landscape Gardeners]
   Allows your ad to show for searches that match the exact phrase exclusively

As it says

Using "  " and [ ] can really help

 

4. Negative match: -keyword
   Ensures your ad doesn't show for any search that includes that term

Negative keywords also save money if you go for broad match.  e.g. Landscape Gardeners Insurance, the word insurance could be used as a negative keyword.

 

Also think that if you are investing in Adwords you should use Google Analytics or another analytics program to monitor your paid traffic from you organic.

 

One more thing is your landing page this is the page URL you place in your advert does not necessarily need to go to your home page. It could work better if you sent it straight to you contact page??

 

Jegards

 

John

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Tim Clark on June 27, 2011 at 12:22

Hi Dave

 

Thanks for the post it started a great discussion. I had a go at Google Adwords a few weeks back with a free trial voucher for £75, the clicks were encouraging, and it did generate a lead within a week, though this didn't lead to any business in itself it certainly helped raise awareness.

 

What I did find useful was Google helping put together a campaign which was designed to help you, their sales team gave me ring about a week into my campaign and seemed fairly well trained to help your ads reach the right audience - and hence keep you advertising.

With SEO competition so high, Adwords can be a good way of reaching the audience quickly, as it does take months to move up rankings and it doesn't always work. It's already been said that Gary's post is an excellent round-up of what works and doesn't.

 

Best wshes

Tim

• ▶ Reply

▶ Reply to Discussion