I just got my copy of Melissa Data's Market Advisor and inside I found a great little tidbit on Keyword selection. As usual, I got something entirely different out of the article than what I think was intended, or maybe not.
Inside they precede to give you 5 tips on selecting keywords. I found two especially useful and then was reminded of what a friend of mine does with his adwords account.
- Tip #2 Make your ad sell your keyword
Searchers may be looking for a keyword, but the ad that catches their eye is what they actually click on. Seize the attention of your searcher and you can be fairly confident they'll click on your ad. Every click is a lead and that brings you closer to a sale.
It doesn't do any good to figure out the best keyword only to have a bad ad. Your ad need to attract the RIGHT people AND be something that catches their minute attention - Tip #3 Assess the location of your advertising keyword
It's never advantageous for a company to pay a high amount for an unsubstantial keyword, just to have the ad remain in a prominent web location.
If no one clicks on that keyword, you won't make a profit, no matter how prominently your ad is displayed.
Here I immediately thought of Banner ad placement. Unlike the shopping cart or busy street billboard where you are driving home a message about your presence, a banner ad may or may not have the same effect on online consumers. We're trained to IGNORE the banners now. It makes no sense to advertise on a national banner for my localized version of Gwinnett Real Estate unless I'm after that national audience. Again, what will I get? Lots of impressions, a good number of click throughs and possibly a lot of junk. TARGET MARKET PEOPLE!
The big aha for me was utilizing the great feature in Google Adwords. You can localize your results so that you are pinpointing your target market. The biggest complaint of online leads is that these people are flakey. And can you blame them, they are several hundred (or thousands) of miles away and you're peppering them with qualifying questions. "Dude, we just want to look at homes." they say.
"But I paid 5 dollars for you to click on my website that forces you to enter your information," is not a great reply. Instead you could focus on the local market. For instance, I could focus on Lawrenceville Real Estate because a lot of those buyers will be relocating further north to Dacula, Suwanee, Buford or even Hoschton. If all I get is Lawrenceville people then at least I know I have people who I can meet with or better yet mail to and have a general sense of where they are.
Rambling aside, this is important as you use your internet dollars, because it gives you a choice. Out of state relocations are great, because they come in and have to buy usually. However, they are a big strain on time, and you have to churn through a bunch of them to get the right one. On the other hand, locals kind of know where they want to go and in general are easier to schedule because it's based around their work, not their flight.
Hope this is helpful!
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