advertising

One of the biggest arguments for encouraging businesses to invest in social media marketing is that they’ll be able to monitor what customers are saying about their brand, guide the conversations, address issues that arise, and generally be more in-tune with how their brand is perceived. Regardless of whether or not you currently use social media to market your business, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ve been touched by a company’s social media monitoring efforts. Well, provided you were one of the over 100 million people who tuned in to the Super Bowl on Sunday to watch the ads as well as the game, that is.

The ad in question wafted onto the TV screen during the third quarter, it lasted a warm and fuzzy minute, and then it faded to black. The ad was from Google, but it wasn’t hawking Google Chrome or Google Android or Google ISP or any of the other new products and services that keep cropping up in the Google-verse. Nope, the ad featured the most basic Google service of all—its search engine:



The ad (called “Parisian Love”) was certainly a hit—a number of outlets have reported that it was one of the most talked-about ads of Super Bowl XLIV —but it also left many people scratching their heads. Google never advertises on TV, why would they spend $6 million to start now? Does Google feel threatened by Bing? Who hasn’t heard of Google search? (To be fair, though, everyone’s heard of Budweiser too, yet we still see their Clydesdales prance through every single Super Bowl.) 

"Parisian Love" wasn’t actually intended to attract the Super Bowl audience to the search engine that made Google famous and still brings in nearly all of its revenue. In fact, the ad wasn’t originally intended to air during the Super Bowl at all. It was created by Google’s creative team and posted to Google’s YouTube channel almost three months ago as one in a series of promotional “Search Stories” videos. The purpose of these videos is not to promote a Google service, but rather to contribute to Google’s “don’t be evil” image. 

According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt , “Our goal was simply to create a series of short online videos about our products and our users, and how they interact. But we liked this video so much, and it's had such a positive reaction on YouTube, that we decided to share it with a wider audience,” said Schmidt. In other words, Google’s monitoring efforts directly influenced their Super Bowl presence. Google could have chosen to remain off-air, they could have put that $6 million toward something else, but when you already know your ad’s a winner (a luxury most other Super Bowl advertisers don’t have. Ahem, Taco Bell.) heck, what’s $6 mil?

And judging by "Parisian Love"’s reported popularity, I think I can safely speak for much of the Super Bowl audience when I say that when that familiar search bar popped up on our TV screens, we put down our buffalo wings and our tasty beverages, we watched, we smiled, and when the “Search On” tag line popped up we sighed, “Well gee wiz, Google! That was an unexpected treat! I wonder if I have any new e-mail.” If you’re already sure that your ad is going to illicit nearly 100 million responses like that, well, what’s $6 mil indeed!     

In 1998, a small start-up company introduced the tech world to a new search engine marketing model that became the exceedingly popular Pay-per-Click (PPC) Internet advertising system. Hundreds of search engines offer PPC marketing services today, but because Google is such a dominate player in the search engine world, its AdWords PPC tool is the one that gets our dollars. Campaigning the AdWords way may seem intimidating to the novice marketer, so we’ve paired a few common questions with cut-and-dry answers to show you just how straightforward and important PPC is.

Where will my ad appear?
Sponsored ads appear both above and to the right of organic results on search engine results pages:
The top spots receive the most customer attention and are, therefore, the most coveted. Reaching the top spot used to mean spending top dollar, but Google’s now rewarding advertisers for writing relevant content, by factoring in the ad’s Click-Through Rate (CTR). If you bid $1.00 for a keyword and boast a CTR of 12%, you’ll be positioned higher than the guy who bids $3.00 and has the CTR of 0.1%.
 
How will it look?
Ads have three components—a 25-character headline, two rows of text (each row may contain about 35 characters), and one row for a destination URL:

You’ll need to fill that limited space with relevant keywords and clear, common, and specific language. You want to make sure that your ad copy targets the correct audience rather than a ragtag bunch of crazy characters who won’t buy your product. You’re paying for clicks, after all.

How much does it cost?
The beauty of the PPC campaign is that it costs however much you want it to. You tell Google how much you are willing to spend per day and on each keyword (called a “bid”). When someone searches for one of your keywords, Google takes into account the day, the time, and the searcher’s location and then compares the bids to determine which ad will be displayed. Google will show your ad as often as possible until you meet your daily budget. Hundreds of users may see your ad in a day, but you only pay the price you set if someone clicks. 

How do I decide who will see it?
With keywords and geo-tagging. Once you’ve identified your target audience, you can use a keyword research tool (like the AdWords keyword tool or Wordtracker) to generate keyword ideas and to get an idea of how popular certain keywords are. Remember that more popular keywords are usually more expensive and less effective; choosing more specific keywords will not only save you money, but may also increase the number of clicks your ad receives. Google also allows you to target your ad to specific regions, cities, and countries, lessening the chance that your ad will fall on deaf ears.

How do I know if it’s working?
An ad’s success is measured in its Click-Through Rate (CTR) and Conversion Rate. CTR is the number of times an ad is clicked on divided by the number of times an ad is viewed. For example, an ad that appears 1000 times and receives only 1 click would have a (pretty dismal) CTR of 0.1%. An ad’s Conversion Rate is based on how many people are taking action on your website (buying a product or requesting more information) once they get there via the ad. If you’re spending $.10 per click and one out of every five clicks turns into a $50 sale, that’s a pretty easy way to earn $49.50.      

How much work is involved?
The set up is fairly simple, but your efforts should not end there. In order for your campaign to be successful, you’ll need to monitor it closely. The game can change quickly, and you’ll want to keep track of the keywords that are converted into profits so you don’t continue to spend money on those that are ineffective. Google offers a couple of free tracking tools—Conversion Tracking and Campaign Summary—that can help you keep up with your campaign.

When PPC campaigns are managed successfully, they can result in heaps of revenue and brand exposure. If you’re not already investing time and funds in a PPC campaign, now is a fine time to start.