So, Christmas is just around the corner and for many businesses this is the time of the year when, fingers crossed, sales rocket before slowing down in the new year. This makes it a very important time for many retail outlets, especially those who massively depend on Christmas as most of their turnover comes from this period.
Shopping Online
Over the last few years it has become evident that more and more people are preferring to do their shopping online. It’s easier, less time consuming and usually more cost effective. Amazon will, most likely, be one of the companies who will once again be top of the tree when it comes to turnover and profit this festive season.
False Promises
Surprisingly, there are many retailers who have a high street presence but don’t trade their wares or services on the Internet. Alternatively, there are businesses who don’t really understand the power of advertising online or who, for one reason or another, have had a bad experience in the past.
Firstly, there is no excuse for not trading on the internet, it’s where the business is and there’s plenty of information on the Internet to get a working idea on just how you can exploit your products.
Secondly, in most cases, people who have had a bad experience with either Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Pay Per Click (PPC) have either had a go themselves without the knowledge or employed a company who has probably enticed them with statements like “We can get your products to the top of page one of Google in a week” or “We will rank you on page one for five keywords” or “We can manage your PPC campaign for £1000 per month all in”.
Tips to Avoid Disaster
There is always someone who will be happy taking your money and delivering hardly anything in return, it’s a fact of life, it happens. If you are thinking of an SEO or PPC campaign but are concerned about engaging the wrong company, take a look at the following tips.
- If what an agency is telling you sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
- Don’t let an agency try and tell you that they will run your PPC campaign for a single fee using their account. You will never know exactly what they are spending on your ads and Google doesn’t allow it anyway.
- Your agency should be totally transparent. You may not like what they are telling you but a good agency will not hide anything.
- Prioritise PPC over SEO if you want faster results. SEO takes time and is best used once you start seeing results you’re happy with.
- Decide on a decent budget. The more you are able to spend means the data comes in faster and therefore can be acted on faster.
- Insist on comprehensive monthly reports so that you are aware of what the agency is doing.
- Never be afraid to ask questions because a good agency will certainly be doing the same to you. Like all relationships you need to converse.
- Don’t expect miracles even if it is Christmas.
- Before you get started, take some time to learn a little about procedures by reading Google Guidelines. This will prepare you for what is acceptable to Google and what isn’t. It could just avoid you getting a penalty or excluded from the search results entirely.
If you’re thinking about starting a PPC campaign before this Christmas, you might just be in time if you have a decent budget and can get cracking. That aside, a strong account run well can certainly make a big difference to your bottom line.
PPC doesn’t work for everyone. Failure can be down to several reasons, budget too low, extremely high competition, failure to act on advice etc. For most businesses though it does work and it works well, just ask anyone with a successful campaign.
