Archive for the ‘Targeted Advertising’ Category

Google Advertising Seminars

May 26, 2007

I decided to apply for the Google Adwords Seminar leader position again.

Their latest application was slightly different from the first one in December of 2005. After looking over my original application, I am surprised my application was even given serious consideration.

Two Google Adwords Seminar Leaders were chosen in early 2006. I believe they have since presented Google Adwords seminars to over 1,000 attendees.

Spending the last year and a half preparing for and writing my book: For Sale By Google – How To Make Money on the Internet Selling Your Products Using Google Adwords and Search Engine Marketing Strategies has given me an entirely different perspective on the paid search business and search in general.

I believe my answers below do in fact reflect that change in perspective.

Section 1:
Background Info
All fields are required.

First Name: Tim
Last Name: Cohn

Email address: timcohn at gmail.com

Website: Search Marketing Communications

Phone number: 405-842-0163

Current Address:
(Street address) 6403 NW Grand Blvd., Suite 208
(City) Nichols Hills
(State / Province) OK
(Zip Code/Postal Code) 73116

1) How long have you been an AdWords advertiser?

Since March of 2002.

2) Do you have experience with other advertising channels? If so, please explain.

Yes, since 1989 I have been a direct marketing consultant.

I have developed marketing campaigns through nearly every form of advertising media available to the small and medium size business.

I have created and ran advertising campaigns in radio, television, magazines, newspapers, yellow pages and direct mail. No other recognized form of media compares to Google paid search. Word of mouth marketing out performs paid search but the process has yet become measurable and thus manageable.

Since the advent of Adwords, I have focused exclusively on producing results for myself and clients through reaching the search audience through paid search.

I have personally managed the production of 100 million impressions and one million clicks.

3) Do you have teaching or training experience? If so, please explain.

I spoke several years ago about the power of Google Adwords to business audiences in Atlanta, GA and Scottsdale, AZ. I have since accepted a contract to write a book about my Google Adwords experience for John Wiley and Sons. The book, For Sale By Google – How to Make Money Selling Your Products on the Internet Using Google Adwords and Search Engine Marketing Strategies is nearing completion.

As you may gather from the title, the book targets the small to medium size business market with an emphasis on how they can reach their audience more cost efficiently with Google Adwords as compared to their other media options while generating leads and sales in the process.

I believe my direct marketing background which is rooted firmly in advertising accountability and return on investment helps me give proper perspective to the small business owner who needs guidance when it comes to choosing where best to place their advertising dollars.

4) Do you or any of your family members work in the internet search and advertising industry, or for any company that you might reasonably consider to be a direct competitor to Google? If so, please explain.

No.

5) Resume: please paste your resume or a URL linking to your resume into the box below.

As a self-employed marketing consultant, I don’t have a resume per se. However, I do however keep a Curriculum Vitae of the projects and deals I am working on.

Section 2: Short Answers
1) Why do you want to be an AdWords Seminar Leader? (1-2 paragraphs)

A. If I am not constantly teaching others all that I have learned and I continue to learn about Google Adwords, I will be doing both them and my self a disservice.

B. I believe in the power Google Adwords has to transform the small business and the small business owner’s life! I made a commitment to understanding and mastering Adwords to the best of ability long before it became a requisite for being competitive in the market.

2) What is the most challenging situation you have faced when managing AdWords accounts? (1-2 paragraphs)

Being ignorant of any Adwords feature.

3) If you could change one thing about AdWords, what would it be? (1 paragraph)

Add Zip Code Targeting.

4) What is your favorite AdWords tool or report? Why? (1 paragraph)

The Keyword Tool.

Because it rationalizes demand into language.

Section 3: Video Presentation
Please submit one video presentation containing the following 2 components:

a) Introduction (max 1 min.) – Tell us who you are, when you first started using AdWords, and why you want to be an AdWords Seminar Leader.

b) Lesson (max 7 min.) – Choose one of the following two topics and create a lesson as if it were a partial session of an AdWords Seminar. You may use visual aids, but please do not repeat or reuse any materials from the AdWords Learning Center.

* OPTION 1: Your audience is a group of local small business owners with small advertising budgets. They are concerned about competing with large, national advertisers who are also advertising on AdWords. Explain to them how AdWords pricing works, and which AdWords features can help them advertise effectively in this competitive environment.

* OPTION 2: Your audience is a group of new AdWords advertisers. During the Q&A session of the seminar, one advertiser asks: “I’ve been advertising on AdWords for a few weeks. I’ve spent a few hundred bucks, but I’m frustrated because I can’t get my ad to show up on the first page of search results. I’m always in 7th or 8th place on the second page. How do I get my ad to show up on the first page?” How would you address his question?

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Advertiser Know Thy Prospects

November 10, 2006

The following is my reply to a recent media consultant question.

Q: “I’m a media consultant, and buyer. My clients serve the pet industry. Several of my clients are interested in the recent explosion of the (web based magazines catering to niches/target audiences) like Daily Candy and Bowzer. They want to advertise in ezines instead of other less direct methods. I am curious about buying advertising in this medium, as it seems so direct and specific. Do you think the ezine is a media fad, or is it only going to get bigger?”

A: Regardless of the medium, advertisers must have a clear idea who their prospects are before they spend any money to reach them.

If an advertiser expects to acquire new customers profitably they should expect their advertising dollars to produce a measurable return on investment. What business can afford to do otherwise?

Any price paid for advertising failure is too high.

Most advertising is sold on a cost per thousand (CPM) people reached basis. Of the thousand people reached, there are both active (prospects) and inactive audience members. Inactive audience members are the remaining people who aren’t in the market for the product or service being advertised (often as many as one thousand).

If you can’t reach active prospects directly through a traditional cost per thousand advertising model, it is likely your prospects aren’t being reached and served by traditional media at which point ezines may become an attractive option.

To qualify potential ezines for your advertising investment, ask the following questions.

There are two types of ezine – email or those posted on websites.

Ask the media representative if they have any of the following data:

Email ezine:

How they acquired their list

Geographic data and targeting
Age & Gender
Income
Education levels
Lifestyle information
List size
Average open rate
Average bounce rate
List hygiene protocols
Third party or other form of circulation verification
CPM
Repeat advertisers

Web post ezine:

Traffic sources and ratios
Unique visitors to advertisement
Average session length
Average page views per session
Geographic distribution
Age & Gender
Income
Education
Lifestyle information
Alexa rank
Any site statistical data
CPM
Repeat advertisers

After your client has verified the media’s claims regarding their audience size, makeup and location determine your client’s potential conversion ratio per thousand audience members reached.

If the worst case cost per thousand reached doesn’t produce an acceptable return on their advertising investment consider using your audience profile information to reach prospects directly through targeted advertising like Google Adwords.

Instead of the traditional media model measurement of cost per thousand audience members Google Adwords lets you reach prospects on a cost per person basis.

To justify either form of advertising, determine how many active audience members (prospects) you will need to reach and convert into customers then compare those figures with how many inactive audience members you can afford to reach and not convert (if any) into customers before making an advertising investment decision.

An active audience of one more is worth exponentially more than an inactive audience of a thousand.