Cold calling versus Google Adwords
blog.asmartbear.com
Cold calling versus Google Adwords
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Re: Cold calling versus Google Adwords
#2Some advice (I used to work on large £100,000/month AdWords campaigns):
* Start small, just like the author did. Try to spend as little as possible, either the 1p/click minimum or target the bottom of the page (position 9.9 so you're just "above the fold"). Cap your spend.
* Measure, measure, measure. It's not even worth starting a campaign unless your whole site is being measured in every way possible. Personally I'd recommend tailing the Apache logfiles in real time to start with, rather than relying on an analytics package. You can move to analytics later once you've got the deep understanding from the logfiles. Also, save those logfiles forever.
* Don't rely on Google's tools for choosing keywords etc. They seem designed to waste your money (no surprise there!). Instead, look at the natural and paid search terms people actually use -- by following those logfiles -- and generate your keywords and your negative keywords from there. Be careful with broad-match keywords. We tended to use exact match only.
* Don't use consultants, positioning tools etc. At least, not to start with. They're all expensive and won't be as good as doing it yourself. When you've got the deep understanding, then you can go with 3rd parties if you choose.
Re: Cold calling versus Google Adwords
#3Great article - I really like the point about scaling;
>> At this point in my company it was far more valuable to land a dozen orders, learn a ton about what my customers really think, how they speak about their own problems and my product, and therefore figure out exactly how to thrill them and sell them. This part doesn’t need to “scale,” it just need to happen. The only way for it to happen is to talk to a lot of people.
Verify that there is a business to scale first. Scaling is one of those good problems to have. It’s also a very different problem than you have at the beginning.
Re: Cold calling versus Google Adwords
#4Some advice (I used to work on large £100,000/month AdWords campaigns): * Start small, just like the author did. Try to spend as little as possible, either the 1p/click minimum or target the bottom of the page (position 9.9 so you're just "above the fold"). Cap your spend. * Measure, measure, measure. It's not even worth starting a campaign unless your whole site is being measured in every way possible. Personally I'…
What metrics are you looking for in the Apache logs?
Re: Cold calling versus Google Adwords
#5Some advice (I used to work on large £100,000/month AdWords campaigns): * Start small, just like the author did. Try to spend as little as possible, either the 1p/click minimum or target the bottom of the page (position 9.9 so you're just "above the fold"). Cap your spend. * Measure, measure, measure. It's not even worth starting a campaign unless your whole site is being measured in every way possible. Personally I'…
What metrics are you looking for in the Apache logs?
It's getting a feel at first for how people visit the site, what obscure search terms are used, where they go. Do the "visits" come from real browsers (are images and JS being loaded)? What bots are coming and can they navigate the site too?
Obviously this is not measurement by itself. At that company I wrote a suite of very detailed measurement tools, and we used commercial JS-based tools too (Nedstat, Urchin). My point though is you need to understand the logs first to even know what the tools are telling you.
Re: Cold calling versus Google Adwords
#6Some advice (I used to work on large £100,000/month AdWords campaigns): * Start small, just like the author did. Try to spend as little as possible, either the 1p/click minimum or target the bottom of the page (position 9.9 so you're just "above the fold"). Cap your spend. * Measure, measure, measure. It's not even worth starting a campaign unless your whole site is being measured in every way possible. Personally I'…
What metrics are you looking for in the Apache logs?
It is better not to pre-focus on concrete metrics too early. Better have the mindset of a scientist trying to figure out an unknown phenomenon. Observe, look for patterns, ask the what-if questions, form hypotheses, try to verify them, etc. Not my direct experience, I just once helped a guy who started with this approach and needed some better scripts to gather and analyze more data. This is fun stuff, everybody should try it.
Re: Cold calling versus Google Adwords
#7I might be crazy, but I like doing cold calls -- and I'm a "technical" guy.
In my case I believe strongly in what I'm selling and I know there are gaps between the stuff I work on and people's ability to use it -- so I know (i) I've got to understand what those gaps are, (ii) it will take calendar time to make sales.
Re: Cold calling versus Google Adwords
#8Some advice (I used to work on large £100,000/month AdWords campaigns): * Start small, just like the author did. Try to spend as little as possible, either the 1p/click minimum or target the bottom of the page (position 9.9 so you're just "above the fold"). Cap your spend. * Measure, measure, measure. It's not even worth starting a campaign unless your whole site is being measured in every way possible. Personally I'…
Some good points. I think the author was suggesting that speaking to customers may be more powerful than any adwords campaign. I know the author acknowledges (in other articles) that adwords was a lot easier and cost effective to use than it is now.
Re: Cold calling versus Google Adwords
#9Great article - I really like the point about scaling; >> At this point in my company it was far more valuable to land a dozen orders, learn a ton about what my customers really think, how they speak about their own problems and my product, and therefore figure out exactly how to thrill them and sell them. This part doesn’t need to “scale,” it just need to happen. The only way for it to happen is to talk to a lot of…
"Verify that there is a business to scale first. Scaling is one of those good problems to have. It’s also a very different problem than you have at the beginning."
I think that your final line sums up the approach nicely. Speaking to your customers will tell you more about their needs and likely help you build a better Adword campaign.
Re: Cold calling versus Google Adwords
#10I might be crazy, but I like doing cold calls -- and I'm a "technical" guy. In my case I believe strongly in what I'm selling and I know there are gaps between the stuff I work on and people's ability to use it -- so I know (i) I've got to understand what those gaps are, (ii) it will take calendar time to make sales.
Are you selling Ontology 2 (http://ontology2.com/o/)? It looks really interesting. Who are you trying to sell it to?