For me, my introduction into the world of Google AdWords and online marketing all started with drug testing.
That is, I helped launch a business selling an innovative new drug testing product by using AdWords and other internet marketing tactics.
With this product, there were no needle pricks. No pee cups.
The device detected the presence of drugs on surfaces. (Drug users secrete minute particles of drugs in their sweat.)
The device functioned as kind of a home pregnancy test for drugs. After swiping a surface, a red line (or lines) would appear indicating the presence of illicit drugs on the surface(s) tested.
Marketing that business was harder than playing darts with cooked spaghetti. (We were selling prevention which is difficult no matter what and had other challenges too… but that story is for another time.)
Anyhoo, I remember dragging my introverted rear to networking events to drum up business. And when I’d get there thinking to myself…
“This would be SO much easier if the people who needed drug testing would just raise their hands so I knew who to talk to.”
It ain’t how those events go down though.
But then I had a realization…
… the people who need drug testing services ARE raising their hands. They’re just doing it virtually on Google.
When someone types a search term into Google, it represents a need, a desire, a quest for information that is the #1 thing percolating in their noggin at that very moment.
And, as a marketer, that is EXACTLY the moment you want your message, offer, call-to-action, etc. staring them in the face.
This is NOT an article to convince you your biz has to advertise on Google. I know of plenty of businesses that do just fine without it, thank you very much.
But it IS to get you to understand what puts Google in a league of its own.
With so-shill media, billboards, newspaper ads, etc. – you have no idea HOW many people are seeing your ads or if ANY of them give a rat’s bottom about what you’re offering.
On a search engine like Google, you are reaching them – by virtue of the search terms they type into Google – at the ideal moment in time.
Yes, Google advertising is hard. The competition for both organic and paid search rankings is fierce.
But to quote Tom Hanks from A League of Their Own…
“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard… is what makes it great.”
To be great with Google, however, you have to do it right.
That means you need to avoid the weasel-ly, marketing vulture, snake-oil salesmen from many agencies that offer PPC management. Those three headed beasts will bleed your bank account dry if you let ‘em.
If you need help avoiding their devious ways and, instead, wanna develop a strategy that’ll have you singing about how great Google is, sign up for our free report here