Evolution of the Google Ads Advertiser

An internet advertiser goes through many phases in their quest to maximize return on investment for their website. This is an indication of how their thought process matures and what they can actually do to improve the ROI.

I want more business – Those who are unfamiliar with internet search advertising usually see it as a new channel, meaning another way to acquire prospects they can convert into customers. Without the benefit of understanding all the various intricacies, processes, technology, etc., they are focused on the end result, more customers. They understand the need for a website and realize that search advertising is a way for people who use search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing), to find their website, out of the literally millions of other websites on the internet.

I want more visitors to my web site – Because being found by the search engines and appearing high enough in the ranking, typically on the first page, seemed relatively easy using Google Ads, they naively equate more website visitors with more business. Initially, they are very encouraged by the sudden increase of website traffic and they are already beginning to count the money that they expect to be rolling in. But this increased traffic comes with a cost and then they begin to realize that more traffic doesn’t necessarily mean more business.

I want better qualified visitors to my site – Either through their own hands-on experience or through on-going discussions with their campaign manager, they come to appreciate that all visitors are not equal. Unless the initial selection of keywords is extremely well chosen, there will be only a fraction of visitors that actually turn into suspects, then suspects into prospects and prospects into customers. The unfortunate reality is that search engine users don’t read ads, they scan them. Especially if your ad is near the top position, users simply click the higher ads and then decide once they see the website, if they want to stay. But you already paid for that click!

I want to know what visitors are doing when they visit my site – Just like a store owner who wants to see why a seemingly competent sales person isn’t bringing in sales, even while they are spending all this time with prospects, they will want to know as much as they can about visitors that are coming to their website, especially if they are paying to bring them there. This is why analytics and conversion tracking are so important.

I don’t want those kind of visitors, but I do want these kind – Fortunately, technology provides us with tools (web analytics & conversion tracking) that allow us to gather and report information about website visitors. We can see things like, what search engine referred the visitor, what search query they used, what keyword in their campaign was triggered, what pages they visited and what actions they took, like downloading a coupon or buying something! Once we know what keywords perform well and which ones don’t, we can take appropriate steps to eliminate or encourage certain visitors to the site.

I want visitors to take some action when they visit my site – The best way to categorize visitors is through their behavior and the best way to understand their behavior is to give them something to do when they visit your site. The more things you can track, the more things you can assign a value to. Once you know what keywords lead to which actions, then you can begin to monetize keywords and visitor behavior.

I want visitors to take a specific action when they visit my site – Once the keywords and visitor actions are prioritized and monetized, then you can begin managing the process! Now you are ready to appreciate my article on PPC Implementation Strategies.

I am willing to pay this much for that type of visitor – When you can assign a value to a specific type of visitor and you have enough historical data on that type of visitor, then you can determine just how much you are willing to spend to get them. Now you are able to look at the process as an investment. You invest this much in a process and get this much out. And remember, search advertising  Google Ads) is the fastest direct response marketing mechanism ever developed. You can adjust your campaign in a matter of minutes!