Google Adwords Specialists

Below is a slightly revised edition, of the second half, of a client newsletter I sent out about a week ago. The first half consisted of me outlining some of the general benefits of my services  as an AdWords Manager and Consultant. I’ll post the first half, second - of course.

The section below is pretty much me blowing my horn about some Link Love I recently received from some very credible sources.

Here it is -

I offer in evidence (making the case for Value, AdWords-wise) two testimonials from third parties in the Search Marketing world, and an article from an e-commerce media leader.

<strong>Testimonial #1</strong>:
When you e-mail AdWords support, the following often appears at the bottom of their response:

“Learn from other AdWords users. Ask questions, share your knowledge, and post your favorite AdWords tips. Find out more at http://groups.google.com/group/adwords-help”

So you can imagine, a lot of traffic goes through this AdWords-Help Google Group. A lot of people, a lot of information, as well as opinions too, for that matter. I try on occasion, as time permits, to answer questions in this forum as a way to build community, and of course, get some exposure for my practice. Although, as usual, Google has strict anti-Hype/Spam rules, so posting a link or two and occasionally alluding to my experience, is about all I can do without getting spanked.

Recently the query was posted, ” Who is the master of Google and do they teach it”

You can read the post/thread yourself: but in the following give and take, I was cited, with two others, by a longtime veteran in this field, <a href=”http://aw4p.blogspot.com/2006/11/about-me.html”>Ian Feavearyear</a>, as someone that had a clue; that I was a genuine AdWords Expert. So even if my temperament will not allow me to lay claim to the title: Master of Google; - I was still very gratified to see this citation. This Group is not a small pond, this is the Official AdWords Help Group.

Here it is:
<a href=”http://groups.google.com/group/adwords-help-basics/browse_frm/thread/287680fbcf550313/f9f68af109a69021?lnk=st&q=&rnum=1#f9f68af109a69021″>Who is the master of Google</a>

If you do not want to read the whole thread, here is the exact citation:

“IMHO, the three most knowledgeable “experts” in this forum, who have also been here a while are (in no particular order!):

Tom Hale - http://thomascreekconcepts.com/
Jeremy Chatfield (”JezC”) - http://www.merjis.com
Richard Ball (rich@apogee) - http://www.apogee-web-consulting.com”
<strong>
Testimonial #2</strong>:
To my knowledge there is only one Search Marketing trade magazine. There are many on all things computer and internet, but only one dedicated to Search Engine Marketing. That publication is <a href=”http://www.searchmarketingstandard.com/?index”>Search Marketing Standard</a>. Last week, on Thursday, a new staff blogger at SMS, <a href=”http://www.garrettfrench.com/about/”>Garrett French</a>, posted about me and my blog, with quotes like this:

“I think Paid search can help me improve my community building though - and when I’m ready to scratch my paid search itch I’m going to read
Tom Hale’s AdWords blog. Repeatedly.”

and

“Big thanks to Tom Hale for creating such a strong, concerted and clear paid search how-to blog.”

You can read the entire post here:

<a href=”http://www.searchmarketingstandard.com/blog/2007/01/conversational-media-marketer-meets.html”>A Conversational Media Marketer Meets Paid Search</a>

For what is it worth, both these citations occurred within a week of each other, and within the last 11 days or so of this newsletter (01/30/07). The impact has been immediate.

<strong>The Article</strong>:
Don’t worry, this isn’t more about me, not directly anyway,. I bet you have had about enough of that song!!  But this is a great piece from a great newsletter by a man in the know, <a href=”http://www.imediaconnection.com/bios/bio.aspx?id=1186″>Kevin Ryan</a>.

It is all about small business and search marketing, the present day challenges, and the rewards. I include it here because the main theme is: - you got to know what you are doing. Do I? See above. Others, my peers, seem to think so.

Here’s the article:

<a href=”http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/13354.asp”>BUSTED! 4 Paid Search Myths Debunked</a>

So…… for those that made it to the bottom of this self-promoting epic. Thanks. And I hope the next time you think, “now, why I am paying this guy again?”, you will have a better sense of the “value” you are getting. Even without delving extensively into the fact that my rates, currently anyway, are among the lowest in the industry.

This is a Business Blog, and my Business is AdWords. As well as other Internet Strategies, but primarily I am an AdWords Specialist. So it is most appropriate to post about my services, don’t you think? Good.

And it just so happens, I recently addressed some of the features of my practice in a recent Client Newsletter. So here is that info, with a few revisions for blogability.

———————————

The question I want to address, is one that I am sure most, if not all of you (my clients), have asked at some time. What do I get from Tom Hale? What’s the value?

I think this is a different question than “what do I get from AdWords”. Related, but different nonetheless.

Ultimately both AdWords, and I, will be judged by your cost/profit calculations. As it should be; although I would like to point out that AdWords advertising alone doesn’t generate a lead or close a sale, a website or a person does that. Still, if you aren’t making money, or are not on the road to making money, accomplishing your goal, etc, - then what good is the advertising. So let’s state the obvious, the bottom line metric is always bucks in the bank.

How you measure value along the way can be trickier. It takes work, and smarts, to get those bucks in them there banks. No “get rich quick with AdWords” crap served up here thank you. The AdWords jungle is fiercely competitive.

Now with AdWords you also get a tangible of sorts, in that the traffic going to your website can be easily measured and verified. The Quality of the traffic, as we all know, is a little trickier. But still at the end of the day you paid for so many clicks/visits and it cost you so many dollars.

But what about me? What do you get from me? How do I help you not just survive, but hopefully thrive.

I’ll try and break it down a little;
Into three categories, plus.

<strong>Communication</strong>:
I communicate with you, the vendor (Google), and your technical people. For those eager to learn - education, coaching, consulting, all fall in this category.

And as you know, part of my approach entails getting to know you and your business; because my work has a much better chance of success if we are on the same page as far as goals, message, target market, and the like. Also every client situation is unique, if for no other reason than each client has a different website. Therefore the traffic you are paying for may react differently when it lands on your website, than it will when landing on some different website

If the communication channels are open, so much the better for finding your “unique” key to success.

<strong>Hands on Management</strong>:
This is the obvious one I guess: building ad groups and campaigns, wrangling keywords, budgets, and bids, etc. etc. I have a hunch this is what most of you would consider my job description.

Believe me though, the magic isn’t in the mechanics.

<strong>Expert Analysis and Strategy</strong>:
This is the one that is hard for some clients to appreciate. It is far less tangible. I can spend a lot of time scratching my head and pulling my chin while pouring over data, analyzing the kw-ad-landing page-result matrix, just flat out attacking problems with my gray matter.

Some such sessions are more productive than others, but this is also where the breakthroughs come, the leaps forward. Analysis is the secret sauce that can make it all work, or makes it all work better.

<strong>Plus</strong>, like many professions, but probably even more intensely in this field, there is an incredible amount of continuing education that goes into staying ahead of the competition. My competition (others bidding on AdWords), is your competition. Your profit hinges on my expertise giving you the edge over others, whether they be professionals or do-it-yourself types like many of you once were.

You blink, and before you know it, the strategies and tools with which you once generated profit are obsolete. And I am talking just about the world of AdWords, let alone the broader fields of search and internet marketing.

I can’t bill clients individually for continuing education, but the time I spend reading, going to seminars, conferences, and such, does result in value for my clients nonetheless. It takes time and money to be an up-to-date expert. That has to be built into the value equation.

In fact, what all three of these things, plus, have in common is time, they all take time. So that is what you get: to twist an old maxim - your money buys my time.

So you say, “fine Hale, wrap it up will you. Who says you are an expert anyway?”.

Hard to answer, without sounding like a blow hard.
But I attempted to so, in a previous post. Follow the Love.

<a href=”http://thomascreekconcepts.com/adwords-business/adwords-link-love”>AdWords Link Love</a>

Oh yeah, there is that Certification from Google thing also.
<a href=”https://adwords.google.com/select/ProfessionalStatus?id=Drgnga_epNMfNfJgf3qPLA&hl=en_US”>Qualified Google Advertising Professional</a>

I have read, and heard, from blogging mavens that a little bit of a personal touch is good in a Business Blog. As opposed to something more sanitized like say a Press Release. That being said, I realize I may be pushing it with my third post in a row largely about Me. But this is different. This is an effort at correcting an omission in my previous <a href=”http://thomascreekconcepts.com/adwords-business/adwords-link-love”>Link Love</a> post

This is about <a href=”http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Scott/Frangos”>Scott Frangos</a>.

Now I can’t explain why Scott deserves a post in my Business Blog without incorporating a micro-bio about myself. So, believe it or not, more yada about yada me.

I gave my best years, as they say, to the Food Service industry. To put it much more precisely, I spent many of my younger years in the Food Service industry. Primarily in that hottest of crucibles, Restaurant Management.

The last, and longest, of my tours of duty was as a General Manager for Pier 101, a relatively-fine Steak and Seafood establishment in Portland , OR. You know, stained glass, lots of greenery & ferns, hardwood, and antiques of course. Anyway, I hired a bartender once named Scott Frangos. As a bartender, skill-wise, he was average, not someone I would dare put on the Front Lines on Friday or Saturday night. But that isn’t why I hired Scott, I hired him because he not only could tend some bar, but because he could do magic, literally, he was a magician, an illusionist.

On those chaotic Friday and Saturday nights he would be my secret weapon, entertaining customers waiting in the lobby and bar for tables, roaming the place spreading additional good will. If there was a problem at a table, Scott would go over and delight those ruffled feathers back into place. Nice.

As I recall Scott was recently out of school, a Journalism major or such. I hadn’t been out of college ALL that long myself, a grad of Portland State’s Scholars Program with an English Degree and a bent for American Fiction and Poetry. Managing a restaurant as a result - of course.

Scott and I became friends. Many a “what are we doing here” kind of conversations. Eventually he moved on, so did I.

Actually, chewed up and spit out, would be a better way of describing my path. Food Service can be a hard business. I was in it for many ill-suited years. It left me a low-down wreck.

While befuddled and depressed concerning my fortunes in life, Scott reached out to me. Now this in the late 80’s maybe, lifetimes ago. Scott was doing something called desktop publishing, on a new fangled thing called a Mac. Now these are the recollections of a Food Service refugee suffering from shell shock at the time mind you, so for you tech historians out there I hope these time lines match up.

The point, Scott was pioneering, way back then. And he tried to include me, for no other apparent reason than some kind of regard for my intellect, integrity, and love of communication - words.

I wasn’t up to it. I couldn’t rise to the challenge back then, of learning something so radical. After a few sessions in front of the Mac, I drifted away.

What followed were a number of years regaining my sanity at <a href=”http://www.elmersflag.com/”>Elmer’s Flag and Banner</a>, (yes the same Elmer’s Flag that is now an AdWords client), under the wing of my gracious older brother Mike Hale, then manager, now owner, of Elmer’s.

And then another wrong turn, for this strategic wordsmith anyway, into almost a decade of Financial Services and Insurance, just wasn’t my cup of tea as it turns out. But once again that old acquaintance, Scott Frangos, was there. Even though we had been out of touch for a number of years, he bought a Life Insurance policy from me. Now that’s trust.

Now fast forward, through a bunch more of my story, (ok, ok already - I’m 50). Actually I’m skipping the good parts, how I finally got on the right path that led to AdWords for instance, but that will have to wait until another time, because I sense eyeballs rolling back into heads.

So, a rush to the finish….. A couple of years back or so, already an “AdWords guy”, I was going over my Google News Alerts, RSS I believe was the subject. I saw a byline, Scott Frangos of <a href=”http://www.webfadds.com/”>WebbFadds.com</a> (Owner)

Could it be? Scott? Magical, Mac-Publishing Scott? Of course it was, still pioneering. Web 2.0 had brought our spheres together once again. I emailed, and we have kept in touch.

When I started this blog, not too long ago actually, Scott helped me get the WordPress machinery going, because I am actually a tech-ninny. He also published an article of mine in <a href=”http://webhelpermagazine.com/”>WebHelperMagazine.com</a>, of which he is Managing Editor. The first time any of my AdWordian thinking had ever been published.

How did I repay him? This man who has reached out and given me a lift three separate times over about two-decades. By forgetting to mention him while I have been doing all this horn blowing about “Link Love” lately, that’s how. Shame, shame, shame.

I’m exhausted. That’s a lot of remembering.

Do I endorse Scott Frangos? Damn Right I Do!!!!

On the Human Level most of all.
The Highest of Citations.

I was taking a whirl through Google Groups today to see if I could drop any pearls of humble wisdom on the perplexed and pondering over in the <a href=”http://groups.google.com/group/adwords-help?hl=en”>AdWords Help Groups</a>. Immediately I came across a couple of posts concerning increased minimum bids. That certainly isn’t surprising. Increased minimum bids/costs is a bugaboo for a lot of folks.

If you are new to AdWords, I highly encourage you to read this section of the Help documentation.

<a href=”https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=9353″>Quality and Performance Factors</a>

It may not mean anything to you the first couple of times through but you might as well start letting it soak in.

Here is what I see so often.

1. AdWords Account Opened.
2. Obvious Keywords Entered
3. Initial Bids are Low, out of caution, uncertainty, and just plain not knowing.
4. Low Position, Broad Targeting, and Competition, result in low Clickthrough Rates which kills Quality Score.
5. Minimum Bid/Cost per click goes through the roof.
6. New AdWordian is upset and confused – Thinks Google is a Rip Off (which is unfortunate, I certainly do not think that is true.)

Am I right you AdWords Pros? Don’t you see this over and over?

Be bold Neophytes!

As you are starting out,
control your spending via your budget controls, not your bids.

It is better to get fewer clicks per $ spent to begin with and establish Quality Score than it is to get more clicks per $ for a few days and then get blown out of the water.

-T