Google has recently announced AdWords Express, an improved version of their Boost service, which launched last fall to a fair amount of Internet speculation and digital handwringing. Adwords Express is a simplified, local version of Google’s $20b/year advertising platform, which aims to help smaller businesses stand out in the midst of large competitors. It does this by injecting Google Places with marketing steroids, so that relevant ads appear on Google Maps searches, above or around the actual search results.

The service comes shortly after Groupon turned down an offer from Google and bears lots of the framework of Groupon Now, a recently launched mobile-centric, location-based deal finder. Adwords Express looks to have pulled the worlds of PPC, mobile search and local advertising into a multifaceted service designed to market local businesses to people on the go.

Existing PPC customers want to know: how will Google’s new service affect the industry as a whole? Will it revolutionize the Internet marketing, or fade into oblivion a la Google Wave? The adoption rate of Google Boost by small businesses had little to no effect on PPC managers since it was introduced six months ago.  Will this expansion of the tool make PPC managers obsolete or effect our business?

The answer to the first question—“Will it revolutionize internet marketing?”—is, “Maybe: by bringing in a larger crowd into the game.”

The potential for Adwords Express to be a hit is certainly there. Recent shifts towards a more web-centric approach to generating revenue and running business operations play right into Google’s hands—from innovations in cloud computing and mobile-web that will increase demographic exposure to online marketing, to the enhanced necessity of  local advertising. The service benefits from ease of use, so that small business owners with limited Internet savvy can still sign up, create an ad and have it on Google within five minutes. The ad itself is featured in a prime position above the Places search results and gets a blue place marker, designed to stand out from the standard red. All this will run interested parties at least $50/month, an attractive alternative to human-run PPC campaigns.

The ease of use is the source of Adwords’ greatest strength and greatest weakness. All the user has to do is provide one sentence of copy about their business and submit it to Adwords Express. However, the user has very little control of the service beyond that. This limited control leaves the business owner completely at the mercy of Google’s automated hypotheses about what will be good for their business, based on search terms that it deems relevant. These relevant search terms mean that a business will only show up when associative words are plugged into the search bar, diminishing Adwords’ effectiveness overall.

What does it mean for existing PPC management services?  Should PPC managers be concerned about Adwords Express?  Will it affect the level of demand for their services?  Is this a John Henry vs. the Steam-Powered Hammer type of scenario?

The simple answer to these questions is, “No.”   It’s more like a discounted teaser-rate inviting small businesses into the world of wily, but predictably profitable PPC campaigns.

At this point, according to Google’s blog, Boost only attracted 2,000 subscribers.  Considering that over 90% of Google’s $20B in annual revenue comes from PPC, 2,000 penny-ante accounts—representing probably only a few million in revenue—is just a drop in the bucket.  We’re glad that it provides a way for small businesses to begin experimenting with the potentials of internet marketing, but we’re not particularly nervous about Adwords Express as a competitive service.

Adwords Express provides an easy, low-cost way to dip your toes into the ever-fluctuating waters of PPC, but it will be ultimately unfulfilling for users who are willing devote time and creativity to marketing efforts(and/or money). The lack of control and creativity that it offers to users will remain a serious limitation. The low price to play will likely pull in business owners interested in seizing upon the local advertising market as it exists with services like Groupon Now and other mobile marketing initiatives. Once the limitations of Adwords Express become clear, the owners impressed with the potential but seeking more control will probably hand over their operations to a more seasoned PPC manager.

As with Google Boost, this new feature will likely only make the PPC pie bigger, by bringing in new blood.

Google Boost: it should be available in most major cities by this summer.  Is it going to be a big hit or not? Is it going to change the landscape of our profession or is it just going to be another little bump on the road?  Our guess is: it will make the pie bigger, but it won’t be replacing PPC management any time soon.

Pros of Google Boost include: ease of use, and an eye-catching factor.  Boost’s ads will stand out from other sponsored links, because they’ll be including star-ratings, reviews, and you’ll get a blue pin to distinguish you on the map from all the other red pins.  Also, it’s minimum price-tag is $50 dollars, which is lower than most PPC campaigns if you want to outsource the heavy-lifting to a professional. The cons include: limited control, diminished effectiveness, and a loss of equilibrium in terms of how sponsored links will be ranked.

Scanning the articles that have been written about Boost, and consulting our in-house specialists (re: Ben), the consensus seems to be that Google Boost will most likely act like a gateway drug–introducing small businesses to the power and potential of Search Engine Marketing, but ultimately leaving them wanting more.

Here’s the theory: Businesses who have yet to be sold on the concept that AdWords campaigns will produce a solid, measurable return on investment for them (especially if they hire a professional to run their campaign), will buy into Google Boost because its entry-level pricetag is relatively cheap. When they start to see the response, they will become intrigued–they will want to know more.  When they know more, they will want more control–so that they can make more money.  But they won’t be able to refine their campaign because Google Boost is opaque and one-sided.  Boost is not designed to integrate business-owners’ knowledge and input to make campaigns more profitable. At this point small business owners may try to mount their own AdWords campaigns, which, oftentimes, they will probably end up turning over to a professional.  Other business-owners will go straight to professional PPC managers when they see the results of their Boost campaigns.

So: our working hypothesis is that Google Boost will make the pie bigger.  What do you think?

If you need some advice about Search Engine Marketing check out SmallBox’s services here.  Or just get in touch with us here.

If your business has a physical location where customers can walk in and conduct transactions, you probably already know about the power of Google Local. But April 20th brought the switch from Google Local to Google Places. What does it mean for your business?

If you are doing everything correctly, probably everything will continue to work as normal. But what if you have never really completely implemented your local search optimization? How do you know if you require professional Local SEO Services?

Here is a checklist to make sure your local customers can find you:

step 1 – Search for your service. Most services will show local results complete with map and other important information. If you are not there you might need professional local search services.

step 2 – Search for your competitors. If they appear ahead of you, then you are losing business. Small Box SEO can definitely help with that.

step 3 – Assess your PPC. If you are spending money each month for clicks, and not converting those clicks to paying customers, then Small Box can improve your results, or help you replace that traffic with better converting organic results.

step 4 – Search for your company on a mobile device. Mobile technology is driving business. If mobile devices are sending people to the wrong location, then you have lost a customer. Small Box executes your local strategy completely, with zero problems for you.

step 5 – Understand your audience by viewing your statistics. Your audience is telling you important things about your site. Are you listening?

It makes a lot of sense for any business to try and manage as much as possible in house. But when it comes to connecting locally in your community, why leave loose ends? The businesses that have 100 % of their profile complete are going to win the battle for Local SEO.

Don’t take chances, Contact Small Box in Austin at 512-850-4819 or Indianapolis at 317-254-0932.

Seth Godin writes

It’s a good question, here’s how I would answer:

The web seems really complicated but not to me. I just see it as a series of decisions that require particular expertise to do correctly. The best decision is the one that makes the next one seem more apparent. There is never going to be one person who is right about everything all the time. What’s important in doing a web site, or marketing strategy, or making any series of decisions is to make each one as close to right as you can so the next one is clearer.

We do that by first and foremost attracting the top talent in the region. Then we challenge them to do more, to understand the implications of these important decisions. Then we provide what we hope to be the top level of customer service for our clients.

The results are clear to me, some are big and some are small. I take a small amount of pride in knowing that we are growing while other web companies are going out of business or shrinking. But what I take the most pride above all is the relationships that I have built with those in the box with me, and the way we extend it to our clients. Of the huge number of sites we have helped produce, 99% of them are still online exactly as we launched them.

Key to our growth is the way we have extended our services beyond designing and programming websites. It is a complete array of services our clients need, and some they don’t. That’s the real Small Box difference right there, whatever people think they know about us, there is more.

We sometimes encounter businesses who have a little sticker shock when we present them with a proposal in the thousands for their new website. They know they need a website but they don’t understand how it could possibly cost more than a few hundred dollars. Although they don’t have an issue with spending thousands on a Yellow Pages ad they aren’t convinced that they could see a similar or greater return with a website optimized for search engines. So, in this blog I compare ROI (Return On Investment) for the Yellow Pages versus Search Engines.

The Kelsey Group’s recent (03/06) study of how people look for needed services shows that Yellow Pages still has a strong grip on the market.

• All consumers surveyed – print Yellow Pages, 61%; search engines, 12%; directory assistance, 12%; online Yellow Pages, 7%
• Annual income over $75,000 – print Yellow Pages, 51%; search engines, 27%; online Yellow Pages, 14%; directory assistance, 6%
• Teens – search engines, 47%; print Yellow Pages, 28%; directory assistance, 13%; online Yellow Pages, 9%

http://www.kelseygroup.com/press/pr060320.asp

But what you also see here is that those with a higher income are using search engines 27% of the time compared to 51% for the Yellow Pages. Teens, who are more comfortable with the web having grown up with it, are preferring search engines to the Yellow Pages 2 to 1. I think it’s a safe bet to assume that this trend will continue until the Yellow Pages’ market share is considerably reduced.

So if a company is investing $2000 a year we recommend that they look at what they will pay the Yellow Pages over 3-5 years and then re-allocate 25-50% of those funds to the web in the form of improvements to their website including SEO work (Search Engine Optimization) and PPC (Pay Per Click advertising). So in our sample case the company is spending $6-10,000 and should reallocate about $2-5,000 to the web depending on your client base. Also, it’s important to remember that a new website is a one-time cost and a quality site should last 3-5 years.

We would be happy to sit down with you to examine how you can more effectively spend your advertising dollars to reap the best possible ROI.