UNDERSTANDING GOOGLE ADWORDS:
It doesn’t take a genius to notice that PPC has now become the norm in online advertising, and that Google AdWords has become the king of that particular hill.
Because of the very nature of what the system is and how it works, small and large companies alike are using it, yet the startling fact is that most are using it quite badly.
A few years ago, chances are that only a very small handful of your competitors were using AdWords, but that’s changed now. Today you can count yourself lucky if any of your serious competitors aren’t doing so.
Meaning? More competition, resulting in it being increasingly harder and more costly to maintain your prominence and a good ROI.
Last year, Google quite radically changed their system, and introduced what they called the Quality Score. I have to admire the concept, as it basically allows Google to clarify how their system works, without giving away a single piece of new information. Not one.
However, beneath the Quality Score system lay a fundamental shift from brain to brawn, that many have overlooked.
Under the old system, you basically had to work quite hard to effectively maintain your hold above your competition. Google lovingly described it as “relevance”, but from their point of view they could just as easily have called it profitability. It’s to Google’s credit that the two are interchangeable.
But then something important changed. The number of people using AdWords grew at an amazing rate. Google realized that it was time to change the rules.
The Quality Score system allows the advertiser to choose between two means of raising their ads to the top of the pile.
Skill or budget.
In a marketplace shockingly devoid of advertising skill, guess which one usually wins? In other words, why invest so much time in acquiring and refining new skills, when you can simply buy your way in?
Interestingly, many software and shareware developers choose a third option.
Cowering in fear.
They don’t want to spend more money, and they simply don’t have the time to learn new skills.
If reading this is making you nod your head in agreement, then keep going. There’s more to come.
It’s also no coincidence that Google are developing their system; changing the setup, renaming their tools, modifying the terminology and altering the rules and techniques on an ongoing basis. Doing so has two immediate and highly profitable consequences:
It perfects and improves the system. Cheers all round. But who’s cheering the loudest?
It also makes it even harder to perfect the skill.
Wait. Don’t dismiss me as a Google Conspiracy Theorist. I’m not.
But bearing in mind the two options for Google AdWords success (skill or spend) you don’t need to be a genius to understand that the more you know the system, and can work it to your advantage, the less you have to spend.
Ask yourself whether it’s in Google’s better interests to simplify or complicate the process. They’re in it for profit. And so are you.
Let’s take this from theory to the real world.
My experience in working with companies using Google AdWords has been that many use the “gut instinct” approach when it comes to evaluating their success.
For example, they decide to throw a small budget at it, perhaps $1,000 per month. Even without digging too deeply they can see that this brings in good qualified traffic, and when they last did their maths (possibly years ago), they estimated that they probably make around $1500 a month in sales from Google AdWords.
So they’re happy. They spend $1,000 and make $1,500 in return.
And they’re right. The figures add up.
The problem is that they may also making a very serious and costly mistake. This scenario is far better for Google than them.
The fatal error here is to assume that $1500 in sales comes from $1000 in expenditure. But the $1500 in sales may be generated by as little as $250 in effective advertising. The other $750 goes straight into the bin. Or Google’s pocket. Depending on how you look at it, or who you work for.
In other words, if you can identify where you AdWords account is effective, you can cut down on all the fluff. In this particular case, the fluff costs the company $750 a month. Identifying it could allow them to still make $1500, while only spending $250.
So avoid the cardinal sins of Google AdWords.
Never let an account run itself. This is great for Google, but can be disastrous for your ROI.
Conversely, don’t over-manage a Google AdWords account. You’ll drown yourself in data, and valuable information will be dragged below too.
Never let gut instinct rule over factual data.
Never forget why Google are doing this.
Your relationship with Google can most definitely be a long, prosperous and symbiotic one. But there are too many small companies out there who are paying far more than they have to. Don’t be one of them.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS AND WHAT YOU DO WITH THEM:
Content is king. Silence is golden. Those are two rules that can be applied to websites – and no, I’m not just saying that you should have great content and never even consider adding music to your website (not even the Simpsons theme). What I would like to see is more websites that get the balance right – enough content, but not so much that it turns into a cacophony of chatter that threatens to deafen your visitors.
In this era of content hype, a mistake that many websites make is to say far too much in all the wrong places.
The simple addition of more text does not make your website better. Too many sites are guilty of boring their visitors to tears, or just numbing them with empty talk as soon as they arrive.
A prime example of this is what you do with your Index page. As I’m sure you know, the first paragraph of this page is the most valuable location on your entire website. Do you devote this to a clear and appealing introduction to your products, or have you fallen into the “Welcome to my humble Internet abode” trap?
To be blunt, the first thing your visitors want to know isn’t that you’ve been located in Sampleville, Noland, since 1978. They’re not itching to discover that you released a small update for your software on January 22. They’re not remotely interested in the fact that you focus on building really good software – you would say that, so why should they care?
What they want to know is what your software does, and how it can help them. No more, no less.
Let’s have a look at some real examples of what you shouldn’t be saying – of course, they have been altered to protect everyone’s honour and privacy. Keep in mind that this is the first thing the visitors to these sites see:
Welcome to ABC Solutions. We develop innovative software for a wide range of home and business users. We focus on creating high-quality, easy-to-use applications and have received many accolades for our hard work.
Quality Software for Business Users Since 1995. Download fully functional 30 day trial versions. Each trial tells you how to purchase the commercial version of the product, either by mail or by download.
Welcome to the homepage of DEF Software! We specialize in developing software for Microsoft Windows.
Thank you for visiting GHI Systems. We are dedicated to creating high-quality administration utilities to make your business tasks a whole lot easier.
Were you gripped? Did you want to find out more? I didn’t think so. There’s no mention of what the software does. These dull paragraphs are a complete waste of text that could bore your visitors away before they even have a chance to realise what fantastic software you sell. Let’s contrast it with some better introductions:
If you view and share digital photos or play MP3’s on your computer, XYZ Program gets rid of hard drive clutter and makes it fun and easy to use your media – and publish online in an instant.
123 Software is far more than just a file synchronization solution. It also includes a wide range of file, drive, and system functions, and is a great tool for home, office, or network management.
Is your back sore and stiff from sitting at your desk all day? 456 Tool reminds you when to stretch, then shows you how to do it!
789 is a powerful link checker and website managing tool that lets you check links for accuracy, find broken links and links with syntactic errors.
These are short, simple and to the point, and they leave you with no doubt as to what the software does. As you can see, you don’t have to make it complicated or fanciful. All you need to do is remember who you’re talking to, and what they want to hear.
Make sure your tone suits your target audience. If you’re selling to home users, you can get away with a more friendly, relaxed approach. If you’re targeting businesses, you should tone it down somewhat, but you still need to focus on your products and their benefits rather than on who you are and what you want to achieve.
Move company introductions, personal information and version updates to other locations on your website. Create solid, interesting and brief descriptions of your products, and give them a prominent position. Everything else will follow on from there.
One last thing. While we’re on the subject, do me a small favour: don’t fall into the “high-quality, easy-to-use” trap. We’re all guilty of it, including me, but it’s getting ridiculous.
An exact search on Google revealed no less than 207,000 hits for “high-quality, easy-to-use”, and most of them are software-related. It’s such an empty and over-used phrase – does anyone really believe we’d call it low-quality, impossible-to-use, even if that were true? Reach for the thesaurus, use synonyms, be creative. From now on, I won’t use it if you don’t!
ON A LIGHTER NOTE:
A couple of weeks ago, I signed our company up as Bronze sponsors for this year’s SIC, and booked my flight from London Heathrow to Denver.
Regular attendees of the conference often talk about how useful it can be, but no one really discusses how exciting it might prove to be. Until now.
Some of last year’s sessions were interrupted by a tornado alert, and participants of the conference were informed that we had to make our way to the tornado shelters. Very exciting.
Being the foolhardy Englishman that I am, I immediately went running up the stairs (there were lots of them) with my camera, and learnt a few things.
1) No-one else goes chasing tornadoes with their cameras. It was very eerie on the top floor.
2) Denver is higher than I realised. I was gasping for oxygen by the time I got to the top of the stairs.
3) People worry too much about tornados. Maybe.
I also learnt not to share a room with someone who snores, but that’s a story for another day.
Interesting fact: At today’s exchange rates, I will be paying roughly one cent for every second that I am on the plane to and from the conference. A ten minute sleep will cost me around $6, and going to the bathroom (depending on the queue) around $5.
Maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way.
The Competitive Edge newsletter is a monthly in-depth look at the issues faced by independent software developers today.
If you’d like to comment on any of the information within the newsletter, please email Dave Collins directly atdave@softwarepromotions.com.
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