ONLINE ADVERTISING: GOOGLE ADWORDS NOT THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN

If you are looking for reasonably price online advertising, of course you know that AdWords is generally a must… but there is more. Sometimes the keywords you *need* to hit on AdWords are several dollars per click and it’s necessary to blaze a trail towards other advertisers.

I’ve been doing some promotions lately and have found some decent online advertising to share:

AdBrite – I ran the AdBrite ad for a week – their interface is almost exactly the same as Google AdWords, although they deliver/charge for impressions, not clicks. I like the transparency.

FaceBook Ads – I ran this for a week too, and again, it is a lot like Google AdWords. There were a couple of glitches, and although I’m happy overall with the campaign, I had some ‘oh sh*t’ moments, unlike the ultra-smooth AdBrite setup. Also, maybe it’s just me, but I can’t figure out how to navigate from my personal profile to my AdManager. It’s the same login, but I don’t see ‘manage your ads’ *anywhere* while I’m logged in, snickering at my friends’ posts. Maybe it’s just me! I love facebook.com for a lot of reasons, and I’m inclined to be patient with their advertising interface.

TargetWebVisitors – Here’s an offbeat one, and I’m going to have to let you know how it goes after some further analysis… I took the plunge and invested a whole $30 or so and bought some targeted traffic. Jury’s out, as their stats and mine so far do not add up regarding how much traffic has been delivered. I love their little rant on the home page though, about how other traffic building companies trick their customers. It was educational. One thing I have to say is that I have been back and forth with Customer Support and they reply promptly and professionally. So far, so good. I’ll keep you posted!

WHAT – GOOGLE ADWORDS IS DYING?

What the heck?!
Actually I used to manage a rather large Adwords account, and currently manage a couple of modest-sized ones and I do remember how the campaign for this telecom (VOIP) company started out GREAT and then a big competitor came in (frikkin’ SunRocket!) and just dominated the entire industry I was in for a while (till they went belly-up in a sea of scandal).
AdWords went from our #1 best marketing friend to a kind of parasite that we eventually discontinued as our organic (natural) search engine optimization & affiliate progam kicked-in. Our affiliates wound up advertising our product on AdWords instead of us spending that money.
It is definitely preferable to have a high rank in natural search than to have to pay for your traffic. To this day I regard PPC as an almost indispensable marketing tool, but second-best to proper SEO.
I’m a proponent of PPC: it’s a good way to kick-start traffic while you’re waiting for some SEO to kick-in on certain keywords that you’re not performing in on a natural search.
Also, there are some keywords/phrases that are just about impossible to hit on page 1 of Google if they are super-general and full of competitors. In this case, it’s really worth it to spend some cash and reach those eyeballs in the geotargets of your choice.
I’ve seen Google AdWords basically turn companies around, sales-wise. It can be like jet-fuel for sales.
Anyway, I couldn’t resist posting this video hinting at dark secrets and their revelation, from a former Google employee. It’s food for thought, but I’d take it with a big dash of salt!