VISIONARY - Music Inc. Magazine

your ad. If you bid 99 cents per
click and a customer clicks on it,
Google will charge you 99 cents.
Pretty easy. Still, if you only bid
25 cents per click, your ranking
will be pretty low — you may not
even show up on the first page.
And if you’re willing to spend
$100 per click, you’d better believe
that Google will put you on
the first page. Experiment with
how much you’d like to spend per
click to get your desired ranking.
When setting up your
Google AdWords, be as targeted
as you can be. Select a
geographic area that makes
sense to your market. You don’t
want people in Salt Lake City
clicking on your ad and costing
you money if you’re attempting
to lure them to Florida. You can
include or exclude certain regions
around your store. Plus, add a
description that makes people
think you’re talking to them.
“Looking for a guitar that plays
great? We’ve got it in stock.”
Make sure your landing page
— the page the person goes to if
he or she clicks your ad — will
talk to the customer, as well. If
you have a targeted ad for keyboards,
don’t have them land on
a page with shredder guitars.
The list of words that will
trigger you to show up can
be ridiculously long — one
of my ads has more than 600
keywords. After a period of time,
Google will suggest new keywords
for your ad that you may
have missed. Go ahead and add
them if they’re relevant. A tip:
Put the names of your competitors,
both local and Web-based,
as keywords. If someone searches
for Steve Weiss in my town, my
store shows up.
Here’s an example that speaks
to the power of targeted advertising.
New York-based Alec
Brownstein created Google ad
campaigns targeting directors of
various advertising companies
where he wanted jobs. When
these executives were ego surfing
their names on the Web, they
noticed the Google ads with their
own names, asking for an interview.
This sort of targeting
can find and attract your target
market — people in your town,
searching for the stuff that you
sell, and you only pay if they
click on your ad.
TRACKING SEARCHES
Google Analytics offers a service
that lets you find out
more about people visiting your
site and where they’re coming
from. And it’s free! Free is good.
You sign up with Google Analytics,
and it will give you an
HTML code that you insert on
you Web pages. This code will
send info back to the company,
and you can see such things as
how many hits you’ve received
from search engines, referring
sites and direct traffic.
You can see what country
people are visiting from, what
operating system and browser
they’re using, how much time
they’re spending on your site, and
the most popular pages.
Your Web presence is an
extension of your advertising
plan and budget. It’s easy to take
charge of. Make it work for you
to find your target customer. MI
Leslie Faltin is the co-owner of Instrumental
Music Center in Tucson, Ariz.
JULY 2011 I MUSIC INC. I 47