Google Adwords is quickly becoming the swiss army knife for online marketing specialists (and now offline!). For those of you that aren’t familiar with Google Adwords, it is the advertising platform that makes Google all of their money! With an Adwords account you can create online ads that appear on the Google search engine results page (SERP) or on millions of affiliate web pages that use Google Ads to generate an income. Adwords gives you complete control of your Pay Per Click Campaign, allowing you to set your budget, schedule when and where you want your ads to display and fully track your ads performance.
For those of you familiar with Google Adwords, you may want to take a closer look as new features just keep on popping up. Long gone are the days of simply entering a little ad copy and running the campaign. Now, you have access to keyword research tools, trending information, you can advertise on mobile devices, insert geo location and phone numbers (complete with tracking) and you can even advertise on TV!
Cheap Advertising on TV with Google
Google has outdone themselves with this one. You no longer have to be a big PR firm and have all the connections with the broadcasters. For as little as $20 for a tv advertising spot, anyone with a little video editing skills can showcase their talent, business or products. It hasn’t made it’s way to Canada yet, but at the pace Google is setting, it won’t be long. For more information visit Google TV Ads. Watch out communication firms, Collabo will soon be helping businesses grow online AND offline!
Phone Call Tracking For Online Advertising
Business owners like to see the stats. Knowing your return on investment is essential, but being able to drill down and analyze conversions is crucial to improving your profits. Google Adwords now allows you to add phone numbers to your ad campaigns and actually track the number of calls each keyword receives and the duration of these calls. They call this Adwords extension Call Metrics and it is a free and easy method of phone call tracking.
Of course you could do this manually by getting a separate phone number just for your online campaigns or you could shell out lots of money for more robust call tracking systems. Some phone tracking systems actually record the phone conversations allowing managers to review and rate the quality of the calls. But for a cheap and easy method, Google Call Metrics is a no brainer.
Just in case you haven’t heard, Google is also offering free calling within North America with their Google Voice software.
