Business Advice

Google Adwords spending infographic by industry

While we have mixed feelings about the use of Google Adwords, there's no doubt it has worked well in many segments of business.  So well, in fact, that it is the primary revenue source for the billions of dollars now needed to feed the many-tentacled beast that Google has turned into.

If you're not familiar with online advertising models, Google Adwords is the biggest player in a huge segment known as Pay Per Click (or PPC).  This can take a variety of different forms but the most common one is the ads you see displayed in Google search results, both those above your results and in the right column.

Over the years, Google and Yahoo/Bing and others like 7Search and Miva, have come up with a ton of different ways to spend your ad dollars to get you more business exposure, from display ads (includes pictures or banners) to mobile ads to even radio and TV spots.

And, to be clear, we find these can be quite effective.  If - and this is a big 'if' - they are properly targeted, online ads can get targeted, converting traffic to your business very quickly. And, if managed properly, your online ad spending can be a very cost-effective use of your advertising budget.

So, if you want to size up how competition in your industry spends on Adwords (and, by extension, other online advertising), then take a look at the infographic below supplied by Wordstream.  You'll find some very interesting details.

Take note, for instance, of the most popular keywords that bid on in each industry segment.  But don't be discouraged thinking you would need to pay those sums to advertise online.  Contact us and we can explain how our strategies like 'divide and conquer' can allow you to compete effectively with the big boys while saving you a ton on your online advertising.

Funny video (parody) about the Google Slap

Warning:  This is R-rated and might be offensive to some because of the characters portrayed.

While it has to do with affiliate marketing, I pass it along for the entertainment value.  It sure is trying sometimes to deal with Google, so ya gotta lighten up occasionally. If you're not familiar with the term, the Slap refers to Google (rather arbitrarily, it seems) deciding, without warning, that your site doesn't meet their standards, so they delist you. You suddenly disappear from the radar of their search engine, effectively killing all traffic to that site. It's not fun, and it's hard to get any answers out of Google explaining what they didn't like. Still, some patterns have been observed, and it's on the basis of this that the story in this video was created. It's ironic that Google makes billions off commercial uses of their products, yet they seem to have a love/hate relationship with the very people who are making them money - and trying to make some for themselves. (Some have said the same about eBay. But that's for another video some other time.)

We don't risk the Slap with the sites we build for you, but we also don't get a lot of direct feedback from 'the beast'. That makes the value of what we do that much greater because we have figured out - some say 'reverse engineered ' - the right things to feed Google to get your site ranked high and fast.