More Fun With Local Online Advertising Clients
Sometimes, when you are dealing with clients, since they are paying you the money, you need to do what they say.
I had a client insist it would be a good idea to bid on Nissan terms as part of a “bad credit car financing” paid search campaign. They were advised against it, but insisted. The results? :
Google then gave us the old:
Keyword(s) are currently inactive for search.
These keywords are marked in the Status column of the Keywords tab below. Improve their quality through optimization, delete them, or raise the keywords’ bids to the minimum bids indicated. (Raising the bids to at least the minimum will activate the keywords.)
The lesson behind this is pretty simple. If you forget WHY search engine marketing works, it will never WORK for YOU! Search engine marketing works because people have intent behind the searches they make. If you can match your ad with the users intent, you now have a good campaign. The intent behind a search performed on a Nissan related keyword is not to find someone who will give them a “bad credit car loan.” The intent behind that search is to either find information about a Nissan, Nissan pricing, Nissan Dealers etc.
Step 1: Match your ad with the searchers intent
Step 2: Profit
We have the same issue with some of our clients. It is really laughable, some of the things they demand.
As a side note, I would love to see a post about how you go about recruiting new clients, whether through cold-calling, online marketing, etc…
Once again, thanks for doing this series!
On the subject of suggested keywords, i always laugh at online merchants who give “free” keyword lists to affiliates which consist of 1 or 2 word broad keywords.
Nothing better to piss off your affs than suggesting terms which will likely be $5 per click. (and it wasn’t like the offer was anywhere near $100 per lead to begin with…)
Hey Mark!
The ultimate question in marketing will always be:
“Who is the campaign being designed for – viewers or marketing head of client/decision makers?
That is one helluva question that never gets answered completely.
good point. Andrew Wee good point on keywords. I try hard to give a real list that we have proven to work and makes sense for the CPA
@Brian – That’s because you are a calling card pimp. 🙂
Brandon,
Well put! It’s almost always bad news when a client tries to tell you how to do your job. If they were so skilled, why are they hiring you?
When you find a client like that– don’t take them on. It nearly always results in them being unhappy, no matter how well you actually perform or how hard you try.
Every client should be REQUIRED to read “Scientific Advertising” by Claude Hopkins before you agree to go to work for them…