If you’ve ever performed a search on Google, you may have seen a few listings at the very top of the page which have a small green square beside them with the word “Ad” in white lettering inside it. Put simply, that company is paying for their website to appear at the top of the listings. Google uses a system known as Pay Per Click to charge companies for this service.

And yes, pay per click is exactly what it sounds like it is – every time someone clicks on that link Google charges the company some money. In this blog we will not go into too much detail on exactly how Google decides how much a click is worth, but needless to say we have seen clicks cost as little as 3ppc (3 pence per click) all the way up to £75pc and we are sure there are some instances where it can be higher or lower.

What Google AdWords does is ensure that your website will list at the top of the listings (for a while at least). You can set a budget against it and decide how much you want to spend before the cost will outweigh the value and therefore stop the ad from showing. There is much more to it than that, but these are the basics.

As a general rule we say that there are some businesses for whom Google AdWords are very likely to be one of the major lead generators, therefore it would make sense for that business to at least give it a try and assess the results.

So what kind of businesses are these you ask? Well, in our humble opinion; online shops, e-commerce sites, in fact any business who can take money directly through their website from a customer who will land on the site, see what they have, decide to go ahead with a purchase and buy then and there. Why? Well we believe that only if your site can take a customer from happening upon you to a purchase all in one quick session then Google AdWords might work. This is because if you’re getting this instant return on investment it is much easier to quantify your AdWords spend verses the return.

If you’re a business which has a bit of a lead time, perhaps a business that is service-based – thus meaning that a visitor to your site might well become a client, but it could be weeks or even months after they look at your site before they do. This makes it virtually impossible to quantify your AdWords spend verses your return.

So our general advice is that, if you’re not selling something directly via your website, Google AdWords might best be left alone.

But wait…

So before you go off and pour all your money into Google AdWords or equally decide to pull all your money OUT of Google AdWords, take a moment.

Just because the above is our general rule, this does not necessarily mean that it will definitely apply to your business. Sometimes you’ll need to take a look at what your competition is doing, sometimes you’ll need to take stock of the search habits of your typical customers, perhaps you DO need to use AdWords after all.

We are not saying you will, or that you should, or that you won’t or that you shouldn’t.

We are saying, whatever you do, think about it, consider it, test it if you can and make your decisions from there.

If you do decide to embark upon a AdWords campaign or even multiple campaigns, then there are a number of factors to consider and to bear in mind.

First and foremost, budget control. We have seen countless examples of companies who started using AdWords for their online leads and quickly began to rely upon them, so up nudged their spend. Google then contacted them and encouraged them to spend some more money to get more leads (this will happen if you start using AdWords, you’ll hear from Google and they’ll try to get you to spend more – remember they’re a business!) so up nudged their spend again.

Before they knew what was happening, they were spending £1,400 per month on Google AdWords, they relied on it, it was their only lead generator and so they clung to the belief that the spend was necessary and justified. But all the while it ate into their profits and soon they found themselves in an unsustainable position. An all too common story.

So if you embark upon Google AdWords, be warned, make sure that it is just a PART of your marketing mix, not ALL your marketing. And above all, watch the spend, it will creep up!

We might sound like we are intentionally trying to confuse you here, but we promise we aren’t.

If you decide NOT to use Google AdWords then you need to be sure that you’re still doing something to get your website producing leads. You’ve got to work on your organic rankings, your social media, your website content and all your other marketing channels. You have to make sure that your decision not to compete in Google AdWords is vindicated.

There are a vast array of other methods for getting your website exposure and gaining leads and value through it. So if your competitors are using Google AdWords and you’re deciding to go your own way, you need to make sure it works.

There is so much to discuss on this subject that we could go on for pages, but we would suggest if you’re still on the fence to contact us. We can discuss your needs and your individual business intricacies to determine what might be the best way for you to reach your audience.