When you read the words “sports shoes” what is the first thing that comes to mind? Is it Nike? Is it Reebok?… Adidas? Was it a certain commercial or advertisement that you thought of when you starting thinking about the product of sports shoes?
This is what we call brand awareness, and awareness is one of the most important drivers of a strong brand. It leads the person to action, one that will eventually (hopefully) lead to the purchase of your product or service.
And there are a lot of ways to build strong brand awareness on the web. We are going to talk a little bit about how to build brand awareness with Google AdWords.
First in mind First in Market is a term that many people who know a little bit about marketing have heard about before. If you are one of the first people in the market, and are therefore providing services no one has provided before – people are going to remember you.
What makes Google AdWords A little bit different?
There are many different “pockets” on the web of niche advertising. Google has got to the point where it knows exactly “who you are” and realistically knows what you have been searching for. AdWords fits in because to gain your website visibility on the web, you can use AdWords to plus advertisements in these little “pockets.”
If you can be the first business into one of these little niche pockets, then you can be you can be the first one of that particular market. That means that you don’t necessarily need to be the first one with the product, but rather the first one that presents itself to a demographic of people.
Example: Something that is huge right now is mobile search. And it’s growing like an adolescent boy hitting his growth spurt in his sophomore year summer.
This is especially true when it comes to local and small businesses being searched for on mobile smart phones.
The mobile search process by a smartphone user (especially the iPhone) usually goes something like this:
- User Google’s the desired service/product
- User then hits the “Use my location Button”
- User then makes a decision on the company based on displayed information, which is first a collection of Ads (usually two and powered by Google AdWords), and then a collection of companies that is populated by Google Maps.
The point of this is that the mobile search platform is still relatively early in AdWords. It is usually easier to get number one on the ads on the mobile network then it is on desktops and laptops. The reason for this is that the market is less tested, and sometimes the issue of not having a mobile site that converts comes into play.
Another point to be made is that absolutely anyone is able to sign up for Google AdWords (it’s not like television). As an online business, you might be competing against a 17 year old webmaster genius who has set up a directory for local businesses such as yourself. You don’t need a substantial marketing budget to get started with Google AdWords (just a $100 coupon) and It can get a little messy.
Using the Display Network
A “good” click through rate on the search network is right around 1%. A good CTR on the display network is much lower .05-.1% is very common, so don’t freak out if your CTR isn’t really what you thought it would be at first.
Tips for building brand awareness with Google display network:
- Make sure only people in your local businesses designated area are seeing your ads
- Make sure you are only getting placements on relevant keywords and websites
- Building awesome graphics is a must if you are absolutely SERIOUS about building your brand online. The better your graphics and ad is, the better CTR it will get, and the more likely it will be to show up on top notch websites.
- Experiment with different varieties of placements, keywords, and categories
- Work with cost per one thousand impressions (CPM) rather than cost per click (although you can use CPC when it comes to bidding on certain keywords as well that you think might have a very positive effect on CTR)
Extra Tip: Scope out all of the suggested placements that Google gets you for link prospecting and building links! A lot of them are great for recommendations and directory links!
CPM will allow you to get impressions and get your Ad in front of people’s eyes. And remember, if you can get your Ad in front of people’s eyes more often and on quality web-sites, then you will have done your first step to building a strong brand with display advertising on Google Adwords.
This article was written by Philip Rudy of Imageworks Studio. SEO and SEM are his passion and is proud to say that ImageWorks is now officially Google AdWords Certified. Catch him on the ImageWorks blog, where comments, opions, and suggestions are welcomed.
