8/24/2005
Google Adwords and Search Engine Optimization
I checked in with a recent search engine marketing/optimization client yesterday to see how their sales were tracking. This client runs a bricks and mortar store and is building an ecommerce site to compliment the main store and create another revenue stream.
When I started working with them, they were doing about $40-$50 a day in sales. We implemented some optimizations in their site to increase their search engine ranking naturally, started an Adwords campaign and signed up a half dozen resellers to sell their products through their own sites and stores.
Three months in, daily sales had grown to $120/day. While we were working on their site we both spent time every couple of days monitoring sales, checking usage reports and Adwords reports and tweaking anything we could to maximize their potential at every step.
Yesterday (three months later) the client gushed how their natural search placement had been climbing last he checked, so he stopped the Adwords campaigns to rely soley on the search results for clicks. Afterall, it was free. Other than that, he said he hadn’t been monitoring things at all since shortly after I stopped working with them.
“What are your daily sales for August so far?” I asked.
$72/day
The reason for the significantly lower sales?
First, the amount of effort involved in improving the site had completed stopped. They are in a highly competitive (online at least) niche. Their two major competitors are masters of online marketing and are continually bettering themselves, leapfrogging over each other.
If you are in a competitive field with several players, you must spend at least a day a week to stay in the game with them, more time if you want them in your dust. Even a non-competitive field requires a couple of days a month to prevent losing all of the ground gained. Its not a 100m sprint, its a marathon. And its relative, you don’t need to be perfect, just better than your competitor.
Second, they stopped the Adwords campaigns all together. When I go to Google looking for information, I stick with the results in the natural search. When I’m buying, I look at the search results and the Adwords results. If a company has enough going on to be on the first page of Google and the first page of Adwords results, they must be serious about their business. This is perception, but when all you need is a click based on a two second decision, perception is everything.
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