5 Signs Google Adwords Isn’t For You

With a little help from The Simpsons

First things first — I’m not an Adwords hater.

In fact, we at Cave have provided Adwords services to hundreds of clients over the last few years. I speak publicly about ways businesses and marketers can improve Google Adwords campaigns, I write about things not to overlook when setting up a pay per click strategy, and my own business uses the product to promote our services.

That being said, I meet with a new business almost every day that I have to discourage from using the platform. If you meet the criteria listed below, count yourself in that category. D’oh!

1. You don’t have a budget

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Adwords can provide you with some of the highest quality leads on the web — but typically, you need a decent sized budget to capture those leads. Keyword bids can range from 20 cents to 20 dollars per click, and if you don’t have money to play with, it’s going to be hard to get the quality leads you’re looking for.

2. You have a bad website

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As the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him buy your product or service. Or something like that.

If you have an ugly, confusing, or otherwise bad website — you’re going to be spending a ton of money to get people to your website for two seconds. It happens in the blink of an eye. If you know your website is lacking, you’re much better off spending the money you’d be putting into Adwords on a new website. Ultimately, it can be your cheapest (and most productive) employee.

3. You have no funnel in place

Even if you have a fast, visually appealing, non-spammy website, you still need to make sure that your site’s visitors have a path to your product or service. Driving potential customers to a homepage and expecting them to know what to do is a pipe dream — unless your Adwords campaign is 100% a branding play. If you want to sell, you’ll need a well thought out funnel in place to guide people into your shopping cart/salesperson’s arms.

4. You’re out of time

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If you need to move a ton of units/products in under a month, you’d better have a monster budget. Adwords campaigns take time — as a digital marketer I know this first hand. Huge gains can be made if time is on your side. The more you can learn about how your customers search on Google, the better. Tinkering with campaigns, even slightly, can produce huge results.

5. You haven’t done your homework

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I speak with dozens of prospective clients every month that could truly use a Google Adwords campaign — but I also hear from dozens that would be much better suited to another strategy. If this is your first kick at the digital marketing can, you need to evaluate your options. Speak to marketing professionals who offer an array of services — not just Google Adwords. Remember, mechanics like to fix cars, and “Adwords Specialists” like to sell Adwords.

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