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Google Engage Program: A Win- Win for All?

Google has started up a new program called Google Engage. 

What is it?

It's designed for webmasters, internet marketing agencies and others to get their clients to try Adwords for free.

Here's how it works:  Google provides you with free online training on Adwords, Analytics, Places, etc.  You get the free training and coupons you can give to your clients so they can be encouraged to try out Adwords.

Who it benefits:

1.  Your agency:  You get free training, and can get your clients to try Adwords risk free by giving them free coupons.  Hopefully they will quickly realize that they need your expertise to really benefit from Adwords and become long term clients.

2.  Your clients:  They get to try out Adwords for free and it can lead to them getting more sales, leads, etc.

3.  Google:  They get more people started into Adwords, they get you to help spread the word with your free coupons and they make more $$$.

We have signed up for this new program in an effort to provide a risk free trial of Adwords to future clients with these coupons and our start using our professional services.  After all, the coupons will only be for so much money but at least a client can dip their toe in the water with little risk.

In most cases it will probably be enough for a client to say "This could work for me but I have no clue how to do PPC", I need help.

Check out the video below for full info:


Click to call- Useful New Feature for Advertisers?

With the advent of the game-changing iphone and its app store Smartphone morphed from being something used by techies and corporate types to a truly fun & usable device that everyone wants.   Add to this the popularity of the Blackberry and Google's new operating system and you have a fast growing segment of the mobile phone market that are heavy users of the internet.  This segment makes up about 15% off all mobile phones in the U.S., or about 50 million smart phones.  

Mobile device makers such as Apple are trying to get advertising revenue from all these eyeballs by putting together new advertising platforms such as iAd.  Google has recent release their Click to Call phone extensions for Adword advertisers.  What's the basic idea behind this and how do you put it to work for your business or clients?

According to Google, "Phone extensions are a type of ad extension, an ad feature that allows advertisers to add additional information about their businesses and offering to their text ads. In the case of phone extension, this additional information is your business phone number, which can be accessed directly from the ad with a single click on a user's high-end mobile device.

Phone extensions will appear as clickable phone numbers beneath the main text ad, and will be visible to high-end mobile device users who access Google.com search, Voice search, Google Mobile App or Google Maps for Mobile from their phone."

Check out the picture to the right to see what it looks like to a person searching on your site.  To find out how to completely set up Click to Call, go to the Google Inside Adwords Blog

Why Click to Call?

Think about it.  You're surfing on your mobile phone and you search for say, "pizza", or "electrician", or even "travel agent".  With the new Click to Call feature you're going to see that phone number in an advertiser's sponsored results PPC ad.  By having a phone number right in that ad that calls the business it makes for s seamless and easy experience for the searcher, more money for Google and possibly more business for you or your client. 

In addition, Google has rolled this feature out nationwide not only for local advertisers but for national advertisers.

Does it Work?

According to a Google spokesperson, on average, advertisers who participated in the original Click-to-Call beta saw very positive results, ranging from a 5 to 30 % increase in click-through rates.  But we'll just have to see over the next few months how this is working out for advertisers.

Final Thoughts

The idea that anyone with an iPhone, Android phone or other phone can just search and quickly click your ad to call you is interested because it kind of goes along with the thought of how people use smart phone differently than a regular computer.  Also, it's interesting that by searching, seeing your ad and clicking the number to call totally bypasses your website. 

Like a lot of things in advertising, learning, researching your potential clients, writing relevant ads with relevant keywords and just trying it out and carefully tracking results to see if this is for your business is a great way to see if this new feature is for you.

What time is it? Time Management Secrets Revealed on 3/4/10

How many books or articles have you read about time management?  

Many people time managment tactics is anything but a work of art. (Painting by Salvador Dali).

In the always changing world of Internet Marketing, It’s important to get a multitude of tasks done each day.  The more focused, efficient and productive you are each day can go a long way to getting the most work done.

These tasks usually fall into a few (but there is surely more) major areas: 

1.  Doing the work for your clients:  SEO, PPC, Social Media & all the other aspects of internet marketing. 

2.  Doing the work of running a business:  Invoicing, reading email, opening mail. 

3.  Keeping up with the latest changes in developments in the industry which may include:  Reading blog posts, attending classes, conferences, meeting with colleagues, etc. 

4.    Anything not in numbers 1-3

How do you keep up?  What system have you come up with?  Do you read books from time management gurus to learn how to better manage your time? 

No doubt, even those with the best intentions often find themselves running like crazy just to accomplish all the things they need to get done. 

Which came first- The time saved by reading a time management book or the time to read it in the first place?

It’s the chicken and egg syndrome:  How do you find the time to read a book on time management when so many other things need to be done first?  We  here at Echo Internet Marketing strive to be efficient, have systems in place and overall not waste time but we have to confess:  There’s still an unopened, unread copy of  Getting Things Done by David Allen in our office (it’s on someone’s to do list to read it). 

The problem with all these different time management philosophies is twofold:  1.  Either they are so time consuming to read about that you never get around to them or 2.  they are in generalities that don’t really apply to those of us who work as Internet Marketers. 

Wouldn’t it be great if there was someone who was an actual internet marketer who has a system that not only allows him to manage his time in an extremely productive way but can show you how to do it in just a short amount of time? 

Well, our friend Corey Creed, who runs Hippo Internet Marketing & Training in Cornelius, NC is giving what will prove to be a lively, practical presentation on “How to Get a LOT More Done Online - in less time”  this coming Thursday at the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce in downtown Charlotte, NC.  Here’s some more detailed info:

“How to Get a LOT More Done Online - in less time” 

Location:

    Charlotte Chamber - Belk Center

    330 S Tryon Street

    Suite LI2

    Charlotte, NC 28202

We’ve known Corey a long time and not only is he an excellent person but he’s an experienced internet marketer who owns a number of successful ecommerce sites and also teaches classes on SEO, PPC, Social Media and more (http://www.hippoimt.com). 

So we’re definitely going to be there this Thursday.  If you’re in the Charlotte area you should too.  P.S.:  It’s free and there’s no catch to it:  No high pressure sales stuff whatsoever or anything even remotely like that.  If you’re not able to attend in person go ahead and signup for Corey’s free email newsletter as he’s sending out the info to watch it live on UStream. 

Here’s the links for full info:

Corey’s blog post on his presentation:  http://www.thejunglemap.com/post/678

The Charlotte Search Engine Marketing Meetup Group to sign up to go to this presentation (Last check there’s 88 of 100 spaces taken so only 11 left): 

http://www.meetup.com/The-Official-Charlotte-SEO-Search-Engine-Marketing-Meetup/calendar/12431981

If you can’t attend in person link to signup form to get the info to watch it on UStream by clicking here.

See You There!

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