Ad HustlerConfessions Of A Serial Internet Entrepreneur

It’s pretty well established that local online advertising is the next frontier. Local businesses have and will be jumping online to spend their advertising dollars. Local search has grown at an exponential rate over the last few years. I happen to have vast experience in the local search arena as I have done it for years. Local search is more difficult then national search for a few reasons. The clicks tend to be more expensive and the targeting is not all that precise. MSN’s local targeting is almost non existent. Yahoo’s is not too great as it only really targets on a DMA based level. Google boasts the most comprehensive local targeting out of any of the search engines. Unfortunately it has some major major problems that not everyone knows about.

Google targets local users in a number of ways but the main way is by IP address. IP address targeting is not all that reliable which makes Google’s local targeting also not too reliable. Clicks also tend to be quite expensive.

For a current campaign, I’m paying $4-$6 per click for specific keywords related to my niche.  The traffic however converts very very well which makes up for the price. The region I’m targeting is a suburb of NYC. I am targeting it using the polygon tool in the targeting options of the Google Adwords account. Here is a screenshot:

I also use Google Analytics to track my traffic.  This helps determine where visitors are coming from.  Here is a screenshot of the last 30 days:

By looking at the targeting and the report all seems well.  The analytics report shows a few clicks from outside of my targeted area but nothing major.  No biggie right?  All is well in regional targeting world……NOT!  There are some major issues because a decent chunk of the leads being derived from the campaign are coming from WAY outside my targeted area.  Since I have full access to the leads generated I can see the users location.  Here are some examples of leads derived in the last 30 days and where they came from:

Central San Diego County, California
Jefferson City, Columbia, Missouri
Metropolitan Boston, Massachusetts
Central Dallas, Texas
New Hampshire
Buffalo, New York

Those are just a few examples of the leads derviced out of the last 900 or so clicks that are unacceptably outside my designated targeting area.  This problem has been going on for years.  Even though Google Analytics shows most of the traffic as within the area I’m targeting, something obviously is wrong since all of these leads are coming from outside the market area.

This is a problem that the internet advertising companies/networks are going to have to get right before local internet advertising is a viable and accepted advertising medium for small businesses.

Ad Hustler

We can all admit Google is good at what it does and usually good at what it sets out to do.  Google is currently trying to tackle selling traditional media ads by offering print & radio ads.  The catch is that they are selling these ads using their traditional auction based bidding model.  As a marketer that knows a lot about advertising agencies I see some problems with this plan.  Google’s whole methodology is on the market system, supply and demand drives prices which is great.  The problem is that the demand has gotten great for Google Adwords for just about every keyword in existence.  This demand has shortened supply and drove the prices of keywords through the roof.

Taking this situation into account, think about traditional media.  If Google were able to command a large market share in selling Print and Radio ads (which I’m sure they will because they are Google) the same thing could potentially happen.  Demand goes up, causing supply to go down and the prices for a Radio or Print ad skyrocket.  Here’s my question.  Why would advertisers and advertising agencies do this to themselves.  With Google Adwords you have no choice but to bid on keywords if you want premium positions in the paid areas of Google.  With Radio and Print you have an option.  Just go direct to the source and buy what you want without bidding on it.  The obvious advantage of going with Google is that you will be able to spread your ads out over multiple sources with one buy and hopefully better targeting; but will this benefit outweigh the disadvantage of driving prices up?  Knowing the past, will advertisers and agencies willingly  subject themselves to inevitably higher pricing by doing their media buying through Google?  Only time will tell.

Ad Hustler

SocialMedia.com Metrics

Targeting

Site: Myspace
Country: US Only
Max CPC: .10 Cents
Max Budget: $10

Traffic

32,816 Impressions
32 Clicks
0.10% CTR
Cost: $3.20

Results

Offer Niche: Dating
Clicks Reported On Affiliate Network: 33
Conversions: 0
Revenue: $0

Summary: This was not a successful test from either side of the equation.  SocialMedia.com did not serve up much traffic (probably because my CTR was really low).  The traffic I did get, did not convert, but at only 33 clicks it’s not really statistically relevant.  I may try the dating niche again but with a different text ad so that I can get a higher CTR and hopefully more traffic.

Ad Hustler

Learn SEO….

Ad Hustler

We all got excited when Google was getting rid of that dreaded “Inactive For Search” and minimum bid message.  The minimum bid was replaced with “First Page Bid Estimates.”  Woohoo we thought….the possibility of getting 1 cent clicks would once again return.  Then the bubble burst.

First Page Bid Estimates are just another word for minimum bid requirement.  Their are plenty of keywords on Google that show 0 ads yet have a first page bid estimate of $5.00.  The $5.00 is just a minimum bid requirement because even if their are no ads and you bid .25 cents, your ad is not going to show on that page.

Any way you slice it, Google is going to use quality score, more and more to determine if any ads should show on a keyword or not.  Make sure you keep your quality score high or you will be G-Slapped around like a red headed step child.

Ad Hustler