We’ve done a few AdWords campaigns recently for clients and it’s become clear that many are not getting good value.
One new client was spending around $350 per week for around 80-90 new visitors per day which they were happy with. With an average cost of 75c per click.
This seemed high to me, even though they were in a very competitive market. After a few days of fine tuning (and a cost to them of $1200 which included setting up Googles Analytics), we managed to get it down to around 45c per click, for the same number of site visitors. A saving that added up to $800 per month. With a bit more work and localisation, we can likely increase the number of qualified visitors too.
This I think is typical of clients that do their own AdWords and online advertising. Google too likely prefers this too as they make more money. It also explains why surveys indicate that half of AdWords users love Google AdWords, the other half think it’s largely a waste of money and poor value.
It’s NOT THE TOOLS, it’s how we use them.
This is the case with most new technologies, especially online. New Zealanders especially are also reluctant to bring in experts. We’re real do-it-ourselves merchants, which can be costly. We love the thought of trying things ourselves, to ‘save money’…
However SEO, like building business websites is something that requires experts today.
Another example came from an enquiry from a local who had built their own eCommerce store, using the amazing Bigcommerce.com platform we use and recommend. Certainly, many good storefronts have been built by amateurs over the years.
In this instance she had taken several months of late nights to understand the system, get the site working right, all to sell just a few specialty items – If she had asked for help, (cost of around $1200 for this basic shop site), it could have all been running within a few days. Was the money saved by doing it herself worth all the frustration and long delays? In fact in this case, Bigcommerce wasn’t even the best option. It’s really best for larger stores of 50+ items.
No place for DIY amateurs or IT people
I guess this is the basic problem with DIY when it comes to online. There’s too much to learn. Too many tricks that the DIY enthusiast cannot do or understand. Strangely, those websites built by ‘IT people’ are often the worst. These highly knowledgeable and expert computer geeks are good at setting up computers, software, email and networks, but very seldom make good websites. The internet, design, search or CMS websites are not covered in their core training.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for helping clients do more with their stores or websites, especially adding in their own content and stories each week that get’s them a better search ranking. But the design and building of a professional site that gets found is generally beyond most. It’s a high-risk strategy that results in a site that may look okay, but is seldom found in a search result, hence few sales or leads….
Hey, this isn’t always the end result for self-built websites and stores. There’s similar horror stories around ‘professional built’ websites too!!! Read my blog article