There’s a bit of a scam going on these days with Google, called AdWords. I’m not saying the product (or Google) is bad, but the simple fact it’s being used by companies for the wrong reasons.
To me it’s a sign of failure. They haven’t been able to get their website ranked organically for some very definable reasons, so will just buy traffic instead. Websites designed by agencies push AdWords a lot, simply because they can never get their new pretty site ranked and AdWords is a quick fix, plus they can likely make a margin out of it…
Certainly there are challenges in getting decent organic search traffic to your site. It takes months, detailed analysis, effort and employing specialists to get your site ranked well for multiple keywords. But being seen on page one in the free organic listings can be the making of a small business.
Hard Selling of AdWords is here
Ironically, the competition to all this ranking effort is Google themselves, who push their AdWords product heavily – Never afraid to phone businesses with a strong sales pitch and reasons to ‘invest’ in AdWords. But some calls are getting pushy and people should just to hang up, as they would any telemarketer. Google is like any other big company trying to sell their product/service.
Yet AdWords is powerful and has a place when set up correctly. We recommend it ourselves on occasion, but for specific purposes – To gain valuable keyword and visitor data for ranking purposes, as well as any special short term product/service promotions. Certainly we do keep the budget small, not the thousands/month Google recommend.
Why AdWords is Poor Value for Money most of the time
My big issue is AdWords is sold as the miracle cure and will provide all the traffic and sales leads you need. Organic search don’t matter now. AdWords does mean you may show up on the Google search page almost immediately – But you’re paying a lot for the privilege. And the audience that clicks on these paid-for ads is not everyone. Countless studies tell us that only 20% of total searchers click on AdWords links… Seems most humans are hard-wired to hate adverts.
The stark reality is that aside from those few costly ads at the very top left of the search result page, heatmap studies (example right), confirm that most people will ignore most of the other Google ads down the RH side and look instead at the main, free organic search results from your smarter competitors who spent [probably less] money getting their website ranked instead.
Relying upon AdWords alone means you’re effectively locking yourself out a large chunk of the market and sales prospects. So, if you want to be found online where more people click, give us a call
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