I'm looking for defined steps on approaching a customer and selling them on adwords, meaning; what should be in proposal, what type of contract, if any, how do I evaluate their site, and with what program, how should I present the data to them, should I use a spreadsheet, what about pricing? Right now I'm stumbling along making tons of mistakes, which I know can be helpful but they are time consuming.
There are so many tools, courses, and topics that I get overwhelmed.
I know there are many ways to do this but it would be helpful to find defined steps someone is using successfully.
Example:
Go to their site
Use this tool to check for keywords
Use this tool to check their google page ranking
Use this tool for keywords competition is using
Use this tool create a keywords list
Use this tool to show client data
Next do this
Then do this etc.
Thanks if you can even provide just step one.
Billy
I will leave it to others to tackle your questions directly, if they choose, but I did want to post with an opinion.
I should perhaps be even more clear by saying that while I am a Google employee who posts here with the 'blessings' of my employer (not to mention the kind permission of WebmasterWorld's moderators, in this post I am posting with my own opinion.
In truth, I think you may be underestimating the complexity of what you are asking, not to mention the complexity of the AdWords program itself. I strongly believe that AdWords can be an exceptional way to deliver targeted traffic - but it absolutely has a learning curve, and, for example, some of the most established posters on this excellent forum have literally spent years learning the nuances of marketing Online in general, and doing so using AdWords in particular.
It really is a very deep and broad subject.
My personal opinion is that I would not even consider managing AdWords accounts for others, until I had managed one for myself for as long as it takes to really understand the program, and know how to use it effectively. I almost think of it as a recipe for dissatisfaction to do otherwise.
Effectively managing AdWords for others is anything but a cookie-cutter process. Really, it's more like a lot of hard work, learning, experimentation, more learning, more experimentation, testing, incorporating the results of those tests, testing again, and on. And on.
I hope you'll pardon me for posting with this long answer which I do know is not what you were looking for - but as someone who actually loves AdWords I have a stake in what happens with those customers who are having their accounts managed - and I want them to be very successful, as opposed to frustrated with the results they get from the program.
Since you are a new member and unknown to me, I can not know your level of AdWords expertise. So, please also pardon me if you already have a great understanding of what it takes to use AdWords effectively.
Lastly, thanks for letting me ramble on a bit. A rainy Friday, I guess. :)
AWA
I'll try and give you one simple example. I ran a search yesterday for a small local computer repair service using the search based keyword tool [google.com...]
It produced 100 keyword suggestions. Now at this point all I'm trying to find out are how good are the natural listings with google searches for these keywords. I'm basically doing a search evaluation. I find out that using those keywords and appending the local area name, (computer repair service rowlett) that the customers is getting excellent natural listings.
1.
I did the keyword searches one at a time by hand, a lot of cut and pasting from browser to word doc and wrote the description of search results. I did it this way for 80 or so keywords, took an hr. or more.
computer repair service rowlett = 1 natural listing.
Q Is there a quicker way or application that would do this process?
2.
I also wanted to turn this into a report so I could show customer, that their natural listings are excellent and you may not need an AdWords campaign.
Q is there a quicker way or application to do this? Just to generate the report.
I'll stop the post at this point, I dont' want to take more of your time. If I can get just one of these answered by someone then I'm one step closer to what I want to know.
Thanks once again.
Billy
If you don't have something of your own to cut your adwords teeth on, offer some free consulting to some small local companies, one at a time. While doing so, use a daily spend limit that caps your spend at a level where your "on the job" training and education doesn't include missteps that cost you or your client a bundle.
Google's help materials are a great starting place, and a great place to revisit and relearn and reinforce.
[google.com...]
And realize that two things now, it'll save you a lot of pain as you go:
1) there are no magic tools or shortcuts, tools just amplify what you can do. a chainsaw in the hands of an experienced lumberjack is a wonderful thing! but a chainsaw in a kindergartner's hands, ain't so wonderful at all. learn to saw manually before searching for ways to extend your skills.
2) managing adwords advertising requires two distinct and very different skillsets:
+learning the technical aspects of controlling an account, figuring out how to use the controls. analogous to learning to drive a car.
+learning how to aim and capture your advertised population. analogous to planning a driving trip to chicago.
REMEMBER that you need both skillsets to get there. It is something I commonly see, somebody inexperienced chooses to focus mainly on one skillset over the other, for various reasons, and they stop learning in the other area.
Picture a bad driver who is an excellent navigator, or a good driver who is a poor navigator... you want to be neither of those things.
In your quest to refine your skills, to become more effective in your advertising, focus on both how and why things happen.
Best of luck to you!
The GAP qualification is a great tool and learning resource, do you meet the other criteria for getting the qualification (account spend and length of time)?
What is concerning is that you seem to be saying you are spending the time learning adwords, which is great, but you cannot learn on someone else's dime, it is unethical and could land you in very hot water. If you do not know exactly what you are doing now, don't charge people for expertise that you are in the process of learning.
As someone else has mentioned if you are in the process of gaining experience you could offer your services for free, this will give you the opportunity to get hands on experience. all the books and marketing courses in the world won't give you the skills and know how to look at an adwords account where the CTR has dropped by 10% overnight and diagnose the issue and rectify it, or any of the other thousand things that can and do happen that need hands on experience to deal with.
Please don't see my post and others' as trying to be evasive or unhelpful, it is simply that we are trying to give you the information you need, even if that's not the information you want.
What is concerning is that you seem to be saying you are spending the time learning adwords, which is great, but you cannot learn on someone else's dime, it is unethical and could land you in very hot water. If you do not know exactly what you are doing now, don't charge people for expertise that you are in the process of learning.
To be honest, that's how I learned it. I started my clients out within a month or so of when AdWords was first announced.
But my clients were aware that I was no expert; basically I called 'em up and said "Google's got this new thing I think we should try" and we went from there. We all were learning together (but I was definitely charging them for my time)
As I got more and more familiar with it, and we started getting some amazing (and measurable) returns - I raised my rates.
I don't think it's necessarily unethical to learn on someone else's dime, as long as they realize you're doing it. And I think it's just smart business practice to discount your price while you're learning.
within a month or so of when AdWords was first announced.
I wouldn't say that was a fair comparison, not only was the adwords market very different, the system wasn't as complicated, and as you say your clients were aware that you didn't know what you were doing (how could anyone with such a new service launch)
If Google were to produce a new advertising offering tomorrow, I would fully expect existing consultants to contact their clients and sell it in.
However for someone to start a "Google AdWords Business" without experience managing adwords imo is unethical. When computers first hit the public, the people who were available to fix them had no idea what they were doing, many of them had worked or had knowledge of areas that enabled them to take a pc apart & put it back together again and many of them then started offering their services to others. This is fine at the start of a new industry, I wouldn't like to take my computer to a PC repair shop today though, and it be the first machine the repairer had ever taken the back off (unsupervised anyway)...would you?
Having said all that you are right that many people will be happy to take someone up on the offer of discounted service when using someone who is learning the ropes, and as long as it is made totally clear from day one, and the risks are clear to the buyer, that is not unethical.
[edited by: Yoshimi at 3:33 pm (utc) on Feb. 9, 2009]
This is fine at the start of a new industry, I wouldn't like to take my computer to a PC repair shop today though, and it be the first machine the repairer had ever taken the back off (unsupervised anyway)...would you?
No; I've always built and fixed my own (or replaced if it's beyond my ken). But that kind of thing actually happens a lot; I've worked at places like that. They'll never tell you, but it happens.
So to the OP, remove the issue, tell your clients - there are so many end users desperate for AdWords help you shouldn't have a problem, even at a discounted "learning" rate.
