Hello Portland Plumbers!

We like small business, professionals, and entrepreneurs. Probably because we ourselves are small business professional entrepreneurs.

And we can’t think of a more iconic local small business profession than that of plumbing!

So…..we would really like to have a plumbing client from our hometown of Portland, OR.

We are not cold calling scammers or a behemoth ad agency – we are simply small business professionals looking to provide AdWords and pay-per-click services to the same.

If you are a Portland plumber looking to start AdWords or improve your current AdWords performance then you best give us a shout out pronto – we will only serve one Portland plumber at a time.

Contact Us to learn more about AdWords for plumbers.

Hello Portland Eye Care professionals!

We have enjoyed our relationship and the good work we have been doing for Ft. Lauderdale eye care professional Dr. Gary Enker at World Eyeglasses & Personal Eyecare

Now we are looking for one good eye care professional in our hometown of Portland where we can do the same.

If you are an eye care professional in Portland, OR, and are interested in starting AdWords or improving your current results, then you would be well served in contacting us.

We are going to do someone some good, so this is as much audition as sales pitch – because we will only represent one Portland eye care professional at any one time.

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Hello auto repair shops and mechanics!

We like small business.

And one of our favorite small biz AdWords clients is Tom Dwyer Automotive Services.

In fact, we have enjoyed our experience with Tom Dwyer so much we want more clients in auto repair. The nature of auto repair is local, so we are not looking for another auto repair client in the Portland Metropolitan Area. But that leaves 199 or so other Designated Marketing areas in the United States that we would love to put our auto repair AdWords skills to work for some lucky client.

Two Metro areas we are especially interested in cracking is Seattle and Miami – Ft Lauderdale.

Seattle because we love the Northwest.

Miami – Ft Lauderdale because we have had noted success with other sector-clients in that area and would like more business there.

But our expansion is not limited to those two metropolitan areas. If you are in the auto repair business, and you are not located in the Greater Portland, OR metropolitan area, and you have an interest in Google AdWords, then you might be very well served contacting us about our services.

We are in the process of putting packages together – but if you get in early, you will get special consideration, as the first eager beavers will help us determine the nature of future offerings based on our mutual success. We consider ourselves pioneers in bringing experienced and personalized AdWords management to small biz Main Street. If you want to explore options other than cold call – spamming scammers or high priced Mad Men like agencies, you should give us a call.

Contact Us to learn more about our AdWords services for Auto Repair.

Because of Google’s new Call Metrics for AdWords, clients are starting to see custom unique dynamically generated phone numbers in their AdWords ads.

It only took one ping to realize we better get in front of this, because it looked like this feature was getting rolled out fast. And depending on how well it actually works, sounds like it may be a game changer in certain sectors. Cost-per-call metrics, phone tracking – free, and apparently relatively easy at first glance and set-up.

The heads-up on the new phone numbers I sent out to clients turned out to be a general heads-up that things were changing fast and significantly when it comes to AdWords. And we should be talking about that.

Here it is, with some admitted modification.

For instance, I left out the pandering for leads (bribery actually), suggestions that service expansion may well be recommended, and other such client-centric things.

Hopefully it will give some flavor nonetheless.

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Hello Clients!!!

AdWords is changing faster than ever. Too much for a single communication. So allow me to be relatively brief, and hit the high points for now.

1 – Google is instituting an important new feature called Call Metrics.
As a result you may soon start seeing “strange” phone numbers in your ads – we are instituting this new tool in campaigns/accounts as we can, when appropriate. This one could be huge, especially for those businesses of all kinds whose sales process involves phones.

2 – Google is really integrating services – and part of that push is further AdWords integration with things like Places/Maps and Merchant Center/Product Search. Not to mention new reporting and analytics tools. Not to doubly mention mobile marketing and hand-held devices which add an additional exploding layer on top of everything. Yikes!!!!!

These services and tools take communication and coordination between us, you, your staff, and other web service vendors if we are going to get the most out of them.

The following article from Greg Sterling does a good job of laying out how and why Google is stepping up AdWords integration. The focus is Mobile and Local, but the same type of integration is happening in Video, Product Search (shopping), and other cross-over Google channels.

Let’s talk.

Learn more about our AdWords Services

-T

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Tom Hale
AdWords Specialist
ThomasCreekConcepts.com
503-946-8109 (W)
503-961-5721 (C)

This AdWords Video Project for Small Business and Professionals will be more like a Mosaic bound by search than a String of Pearls with a beginning and end.

The motive behind the project is to address the problem of scaling AdWords expertise to Small Business and Professionals.

These early, brief, ultra-beta pieces are meant to give an overview to those interested in being case studies for the series.

Where the videos go from here – which tiles in the mosaic are fleshed out first if you will – and how they are fleshed out, will largely be determined by early feedback and the nature of the participants. So please weigh-in if you are so compelled.

Introducing the Problem – Time 1:55 – An overview of the problems in scaling AdWords expertise to small ad buys.

Fractured Focus in a a DIY World – Time 2:05 – The problem compounded, too much general info, not enough specifics.

Typo Noted – Lot’s > Lots

Approaching the Problem – the Broad Strokes – Time 2:29 – The approach to this video project is based on applying AdWords concepts to particular situations, which means case studies.

AdWords Conversion Strategy for Services, part 1 – Time 7:28 – How to think about conversions for service based web sites.

It’s a start. Feedback is most welcome.

If this project intrigues you, and you are interested in bartering your transparency for my expertise, then please contact me so we can discuss. The ad buy itself IS NOT free. I would imagine the average ad buy for initial cases to be in the 10-30 dollar a day range. I do have $100 credits available on occasion for new AdWords accounts but the availability of those credits should not be the determining factor in participation. The current batch of credits expire if not claimed by 3-31-10. When and if more will be made available by Google after that time is hard to say.

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More About Our AdWords Services

The problem of scaling expert and professional AdWords services to smaller ad buys is ripe. Up until now most real AdWords thinkers have turned their back on the problem as “unprofitable”.

Fractured Focus on Main Street

The need has exploded as Mom and Pop Internet Cottage Industries, Oscar the Online Shopkeeper, Mac the Mechanic, Rita the Realtor, Pat the Alternative Health Practitioner, and Francis the Family Lawyer to name a few face ever fracturing technology and marketing options. They are bombarded by good “must do” ideas when it use to be all they had to worry about was what size phone book ad they wanted to buy once a year.

Like me, they have their own expertise to maintain and their own business to run. Every time they put on a new hat their focus gets that much more fractured.

Problems without Solutions = Opportunity for Scams

The growing need for simple AdWords solutions for small ad buys was first filled by what I consider questionable offers. Usually marketed through cold-call boiler rooms. The pitch was concise – “We make AdWords simple” – so you do not have to worry your poor overtaxed brain. Usually some “special relationship” with Google was inferred if not outright claimed. Which was a stretch if not an out and out deception.

The primary problem with the “simple” solution was lack of transparency, which led to reported usury management fees, where little of the money paid was actually going to the ad buy – most was going into the simplifiers pocket. One of the many scams that can give AdWords and Search Marketing a black eye. One of the reasons the scams are still out there is because the need has gotten even more intense while the industry chases Madison Avenue and Fortune 500 budgets.

My Authority

I have come to realize that I am an Authentic Authority on this subject. Both because of my years of experience in working with smaller ad buys but also because I am myself a “boutique” Professional. I understand AdWords and I understand trying to grow a small business/practice while a fire hose of information is constantly blasting me in the face.

So in spite of the conventional wisdom that working the small market is not “profitable”, I am going to quit fighting it and start embracing it.

A Big Problem:Scaling Communication to Small Ad Buys

Because I think much of the problem lies in education and communication with really busy people, I am going to start with short videos as a way of scaling expertise to small buys. These videos will be more about particular situations, problems, and case studies pertaining to small ad buys than “how to” use the AdWords interface, to begin with anyway. The exact nature of the videos will have as much to do with the participants as anything.

More to come on the “Will Barter My AdWords Expertise for Your Marketing Transparency” nature of the video project.

Big Problem Leaves Room for Multiple Solutions

The problem is vast, and I think a number of legitimate models will and are coming into focus. I would love to be part of an ongoing discussion about how to service the AdWords needs of Small Business and the Professional class. Which includes Artists, Artisans, Entrepreneurs and many Non-Profits.

Two On The Radar

-Kim Clinkunbroomer is a fellow expert at AdWords Help Experts (and current spark). She has a practice similar to mine in scope and type of client. She is also Queen of the AdWords Help Forum, in my humble opinion. Like me she lives the problem of adapting years of expertise to smaller ad buys. She is also moving forward with some models that are very interesting.

One of those models is AdWords P.I., an account review and report service. Another is AdWords Hour, training through a Q & A Webinar.

-I had a brief discussion with Cory Huff of NetBiz.com and The Abundant Artist at SEMpdx SearchFest recently. Instant connect in recognizing the problem, and Cory dove right in with this blog post about the issue. Cory and I also seem to share interest and roots in web marketing for artists. In fact, I am learning he has and is already covering a lot of ground with tutorials and courses on web marketing for the arts. A man after my own heart. The Portland music scene is what set me on the web marketing path.

Both of these folks live the problem and have a passion for addressing it as I do, which is totally different from recognizing the problem as an opportunity to exploit.

Are You a Voice?

There are more voices out there on my radar that I would love to have in the conversation, and some I am not familiar with yet. Are you one of them?

Our approach at solving this problem
The AdWords Video Project for Small Business and Professionals

More about our AdWords Services

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