Websites, Adwords and Call to Actions. Are you Wasting your Money?
One of the great things about being part of the Adster team, is that when a client starts to advertise on Adwords I know that they’ll be getting a great site that is designed to help a small business reach their online marketing goals. Outside of the clients I am fortunate enough to work with here at Adster, I come across many small businesses that do not have the benefit of Adster’s eye for design and functionality. The internet is a big place after all.
Proper CTA’s are vital!
One thing I frequently see, are local small businesses advertising on Adwords with a website that in no way is geared towards engaging a visitor to pick up the phone to call, fill out a form or complete a purchase. I see it time and time again where a business owner is exasperated by their lack of success with Adwords. I take a quick look at their site and it’s clear that the site has not been updated since 2001 if ever, it is next to impossible to find any contact information, the site navigation is confusing or the site is at best a glorified brochure with no meaningful user engagement. Tons of small businessess can spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars a month on Adwords with no results, all because they have a web site that’s not focused on getting their visitors to engage further.
Google Adwords for small businesess is an amazing tool you can use to drive high quality visitors who are actively looking for a solution to a problem. This does not make Adwords a magic bullet that just by spending money on Adwords traffic will result in positive results. What is done on site with that traffic is equally important. An Adwords managers can fine tune your Adwords campaign giving you targeted visitors, but once they reach the website it’s up to the site to turn that visitor into a lead or customer.
Proper User Engagement = Success
I like to use the analogy of a website being a brick and mortar store. Is it easy for people in the store to find what they are looking for? Are the aisles neatly laid out or is all of the merchandise thrown in a pile? Is it easy to find an employee if you have a question or do you have to look around for 20 minutes to find someone? The same simple shopping truths that stores use are applicable to a web site. If the basic building blocks are not there, even the most qualified prospect walking into the store will spend less, if spend anything at all. Any other potential customer most likely will go somewhere else.
With the costs of Adwords taking up a fair share of many Canadian small businesses online marketing budgets, it just doesn’t make sense to use Adwords unless you have a site that is geared towards engaging visitors and leading them to complete your online marketing goals. Fortunately, all of the websites that Adster creates have the building blocks for Adwords success already built in. I can only imagine how many millions of dollars (if not more) are wasted on Adwords advertising by sites that do not have the basic necessities to succeed with Adwords.