I got a great question recently: Do you recommend Google AdWords as part of the marketing campaign for complementary therapists?

Note: (if you do not know) Google AdWords are the ads you see on the right hand side of any Google searches. Advertisers bid how much they are willing to pay per click (so they do not pay when the ad is shown, just when someone clicks on it). Google then ranks the ads by how much the advertiser bids and the quality of the page the ad points to.

So here are my thoughts:

AdWords are a science in itself. the advantage: you can target the people who will see your ads very specifically (through the keywords you bid for, and you can specify a geographic area). The disadvantage: competition is quite high for keywords and the prices you need to pay per click are rising every month.

So, unless you are certain that your website converts visitors to paying clients, it is a dangerous game to use Google AdWords.

If you want to do it, I would establish a conversion rate for your site first (i.e. how many people visit your site before someone books a session, if 200 people visit the site, before someone books, your conversion rate is 0.5%). You can use Google Analytics to work that out (if they can book online).

Once you know that and you know how much profit you make from each person (e.g. they come 5 times on average and pay $50 each time, so the revenue is $250. Your costs, including your own time, rent, washing, etc. are $150, so you could theoretically spend up to $100 to get people to your site.)

Now you need to multiply your conversion rate with what you want to spend on Google AdWords (e.g. $100 x 0.5% gives you $0.50). So the maximum you want to spend is $0.50 per click.

Then, you need to test that for each keyword and each different ad. It might be that more people who use click on a Google Ad convert or less than the traffic you had before. My experience is that it is usually less than from the organic traffic.

In my opinion, you are much better off to optimize your site for organic search engine traffic. You can download an ebook that shows you how to build successful websites that draw organic traffic. It is a tiny part of the education you get when you purchase the SiteBuildIt package.

Money well spent if you enjoy working on the computer. Otherwise, find yourself a good webdesigner who understands about Search Engine Optimization. And by having read this document, you will be able to ask the right questions to find out whether someone is knowledgeable.

You can contact Julie for support in using the SiteBuildIt package or contact Catherine for web design services.

If you have not yet received my free report: The 7 Biggest Business Mistakes Health Practitioners Make, just enter your name and email and I'll send it to you. Name: E-Mail: I respect your privacy and will never sell, share or pass on your details.

Tags: marketing tool, successful website

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 6:55 am and is filed under Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.