AdWords, you are one darn complicated piece of software.
For zip tours and adventure parks with limited marketing resources, taming AdWords can be a herculean task. Businesses spend countless hours tweaking ads, audiences, and budgets—or make the investment to hire a marketing agency to deal with it.
At the end of the day, many people feel the same way as Lori Pingle, owner of ZipZone Canopy Tours: “AdWords is a workhorse,” she explains. “It’s making us money, but it’s not a huge windfall.”
A former Google AdWords employee can commiserate, “Without the right resources, small businesses really don’t stand a chance against it,” he notes. “It takes a lot to leverage all the features and it needs constant management.”
But it doesn’t have to be this way—you can get more out of your AdWords efforts without having to spend more money than you already do.
Getting started
AdWords occupies a prominent space in the larger world of online advertising. The four major pillars of online advertising are: search engine marketing, display marketing, social media marketing, and mobile advertising. AdWords uses three of them, leaving social media marketing to the likes of Facebook and company.
Now mix in the number of possible ad types (text, ad extension, image, video, product promotion) and cost structures (CPC, impressions) and it’s easy to see why AdWords can be a major time hog.
Ad content appears in Google search listings, or on other websites and mobile apps. In Google-speak, these are Google’s “Search Network” and “Display Network,” respectively.
But at a high level, people will see AdWords ads simply as a result of surfing the web, and that’s why so many business owners use it.
With that background, it’s time to start boosting your AdWords success.
Tip #1: Play teacher
Plenty of zip tour and adventure park companies rely on marketing agencies to fully leverage this powerful platform. These agencies are worthwhile AdWords allies, but remember that you have something to teach them, too.
Pingle isn’t shy about guiding the marketing agency that runs her AdWords campaigns. “We’re in a really unique industry and it’s important to familiarize your agency with all the lingo,” she says.
Is it “zip line”, “zipline”, or “ziplining”? Will people search “canopy tour”? These are not obvious questions to a marketing agency that works with a variety of clients.
If you’re using a marketing agency, which Pingle recommends, take an active role with them and offer expertise into keywords, customer behavior, and geographic targeting. Nailing these crucial details is paramount, whether you’re using an agency or doing it yourself.
