Wise Startup Blog

For marketers spending money online, we’re seeing a trend away from $10-20 keyword payments and to more refined, targeted search advertising.

With the economy taking a dive, it’s important for publishers and etailers to make every click count, and they can’t use the brute force method anymore. Previously, marketers would spend a bulk amount of money, say $500, and return $2500 in revenue, which was great when times were good, but now that margins are shrinking, advertisers are looking for ways to find efficiencies in their business.

Now, instead of paying for this bulk traffic, advertisers are finding the bargains in search marketing

New York real estate firms, for instance, used to buy expensive, but traffic-producing, broad terms such as “New York real estate” or “New York apartments.” Now, Wilensky says, he helps them focus on more targeted, lower-cost keywords, such as the name of a specific building.

“It doesn’t generate the same kind of volume, but it’s a more cost-effective click,” he says. “And you’re likely to be reaching someone who’s interested in living there.”

Wilensky says the downturn has brought a general fall in the overall pricing of keywords, “But it’s not like 2004 or 2005, when there were a lot more bargains. The bargains are still there, it just takes more time and research to find them.”

Getting Started on Adsense

If you’re new to search advertising, here are some tips for getting started with Google:

•Sign up at adwords.com and set a budget for how much you want to spend. You get to determine whether it’s $1 a day or $100 a day. (Those clicks can really add up, so be careful.)

While you can set the budget as low as you like, $1 would likely produce only a few clicks, if that. “At least $10 a day, which any business can afford, will give you much more information and results,” says Fischer at Google. “Most businesses find that for every dollar they spend on clicks, they get back at least $5 in revenue.”

•Figure out which search terms you want to use. If you’re a Chicago florist, “Chicago flowers” might be the first keywords you’d choose. But Fischer says that’s too broad. “You probably also sell daffodils, roses and other types of flowers. More-targeted keywords tend to cost less and produce better results.”

•Once you determine your keywords, bid on a price. The higher you pay, in general, the higher your ranking. Google shows you during the process where you’re likely to land, based on how much you are willing to spend per click.

•Write your ad. Google gives you only 25 characters to play with in the headline. “You need to make a clear customer benefit in the headline,” says entrepreneur Jensen. “Don’t say, ‘Tankless hot water heaters,’ which is something I sell on my site. Say, ‘Save money and water at home.’ ”

Google gives you two other lines of text. The second line should be the qualifications (such as “energy efficient” for the water heater) followed by a call to action (“25% off through the holidays”) to get customers to shop now, she says.

Be Creative

The biggest asset in today’s economy is innovation. Can you think of keywords that users might be typing in to find your product that nobody else is paying for?

In this creativity we find the true bargains and how to pull ourselves out of this recession.

I’m interested to hear any successful keywords you’ve discovered for your sites, please leave a note in the comments.