I’m still very much a “newbie” with regard to running an online business, but I think I’ve learned something over the past few months about online advertising. In this article I’ll talk about what I’ve learned and how my approach has developed over time.
Google AdWords
When I first got started with online advertising I did what most folks do: go to Google AdWords. In fact, I didn’t even consider any other advertising avenues at first (which turned out to be a mistake, but more on that later). Before going any further, here’s an extremely oversimplified description of how this all works:
Google already an enormous index of Internet content. They’ve developed very complicated algorithms to try and figure out what each piece of content is about. It uses the content and algorithms to show you web pages that are related to the search terms that you type in. It didn’t take long before they started using that same process to show advertisements to people based both on the search terms that they enter and on the websites that they visit. Through the AdWords advertising platform Google lets you create advertisements and associate them with keywords. They then use those keywords to show your ads to people who are searching for or viewing related content. Each time Google shows an ad to someone it’s called an ‘impression’. Each time someone clicks on an ad it’s simply called a ‘click’. As the creator of the ad you pay each time someone clicks on your ad. Simple right?
Ok, not exactly simple. When you first get started with AdWords it can a bit… scary. AdWords is filled with seemingly endless metrics and options; quite honestly I don’t think I could tell you what even a fraction of them mean. People have built entire careers around running AdWords campaigns for businesses and after a few hours of using it it’s easy to see why. I’ve spent many hours and dollars using AdWords. How many? Well, far more than I’d care to admit. After all of that time, energy, and money, guess how many sales AdWords has generated for me? Zero.
So what gives? AdWords is the way to go right? It’s basically the only show in town for online advertising! I mean, just look at all those options! It’s so complicated it has to be good.
Sarcasm aside, AdWords is good. It’s hands down the most sophisticated advertising platform with the farthest global reach of any out there. Unfortunately for me it’s those same strengths that make it such a poor fit for my business. Since time and money are in a neck-and-neck race for being my scarcest resources, I simply don’t have time to figure out AdWords.
Another reason AdWords doesn’t work for my business: it’s all based on showing ads to people who are searching for products. I sell eyewear with interchangeable temple inserts. This is a completely new concept to most people. No one is going out and searching for my product. Meanwhile AdWords makes me compete with the likes of major brand names and “off-brand” warehouse websites with enormous marketing budgets for keywords related to eyewear. There’s no way I can compete in that arena.
Remember back in my very first post when I talked about how I went about starting an online business backwards? I didn’t do what you’re supposed to do and start by researching products that people are searching for online. Rather, I started with the product. As it turns out, already having a product to sell (especially one that people aren’t familiar with) makes using AdWords an uphill battle.
Enter Facebook
After a few weeks of futile AdWords campaigns I decided to give advertising on Facebook a try. At its core, Facebook’s advertising platform is very similar to AdWords: you set up campaigns, define budgets, and create ads. The key difference between these two platforms is how you define a target audience for your ads. Rather than defining keywords that describe the products you’re trying to sell, Facebook lets you target your ads using user profile data. You can target ads by any combination of age range, gender, geographic location, interests, and education level. If you stop and think about that for a minute you’ll realize that this is an insanely powerful advertising platform. That said, comparing AdWords to Facebook Advertising is definitely an apples-to-oranges comparison.
AdWords is a great tool if you have a product or service that you know people are looking for online. People are always searching Google for “cheap designer sunglasses”, so if you sell designer sunglasses at deep discounts AdWords is where you want to be. Facebook Advertising works better for things that might be considered an ‘impulse buy’. To illustrate what I mean by this let me tell you a little bit about my first foray into Facebook advertising.
My wife and I have dogs and like all crazy dog people we love them like family. One of our favorite designs that we sell depicts a Boston Terrier and is called “Stella Special” in honor of our dog Stella. I realized one day that other crazy dog people would probably like this design as much as we do, so I created a simple Facebook ad and targeted it at people who had “Boston Terriers” listed in the “Interests” section of their Facebook profile. Within 10 minutes of starting that ad we had our first order come in. That’s what I call results.
I don’t expect that people would ever go online and explicitly search for “Boston Terrier Sunglasses” because it’s not something that people would even know exists. If you can put some Boston Terrier Sunglasses in front of people who you know like Boston Terriers, however, you’ll generate some sales. So my current marketing strategy has two major components to it:
- Create designs that people will love or be passionate about.
- Put these designs in front of those people.
Because it’s so easy for us to create and produce new designs, this approach lets us constantly experiment. Some designs generate interest and some don’t, but it only costs us the time involved in doing the graphic design work and a meager Facebook advertising campaign to find out which ones are worth a larger investment.
The Lesson
I want to be clear that I’m not trying to put AdWords down in any way. As I said, I think it’s the most sophisticated and wide-reaching advertising platform available; it just doesn’t work for my particular business. That said, it’s not the only platform in town and I think that virtually any product or service could make use of the Facebook Advertising platform by targeting people who are likely to be passionate about what you’re selling.
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