Analytics Power

Whew..! I just completed the Google Exam to earn my Qualified Google
AdWords Professional status.  Doing so deepened
my knowledge and reinforced the differences between search
marketing and traditional advertising.

The reason search marketing beats traditional advertising can be summed up in one word: timing.
Search marketing puts your ad in front of someone at the time they are
educating themselves (67% of people who search are educating themselves
on the query they search on) or shopping (33% of people who search are
shopping for the subject of their query).  It’s as simple (and
profound) as that.

For decades marketers have twisted over demographics, taking
great pains to place our clients’ ads in publications or shows that
best delivered the type of people who buy what we’re selling.  But if
you’re selling investment services to people with $500,000 to invest,
do you put your ad in MSNBC’s Mad Money, The Wall Street Journal or
Scottsdale Magazine?  All reasonable, logical choices in terms of
demographics.  All the media just mentioned have a portion of their
audience that fits your target.

Or wouldn’t you want to put your ad in a magazine called “I have
$500K that I want to invest now?”  Of course you would.  And while that
magazine doesn’t exist, this is what search marketing gives you: the
ability to get your ad in front of people when they are interested in what you’re selling.
As opposed to traditional advertising that gets your ad in front of
people who share similar demographics with your target customer.  Are
they in the market for what you sell at that moment?  Some, yes, most,
no.

Is search marketing your number one or two lead generation medium?  It should be.