eight_ballEveryone seems to be asking the Magic 8-Ball these days, “Should I pay for online advertising?” The Magic 8-Ball is giving all sorts of answers ranging from “Signs point to yes” to “My sources say no.”  Does it make sense for your company to pay for Google Adwords or placement in other search engines? Take this quiz to find out.

  1. Do you sell your products directly online via an e-commerce / online store?
  2. Is your product or service new to the market?
  3. Is your product or service easily searchable by people in your target market? For example, “Brighton remodeling company” is an easily searchable term; “Ethical Assurance Engineering Consultant” or “Unrefined Idea Specialist” are probably not logical, intuitive searchable terms.
  4. Do your prospective and current customers already look for products or services like yours online?
  5. Are you in a hurry to get placement in the search engines?
  6. Are you willing to invest at least several hundred dollars a month to online advertising?
  7. Does your website currently get listed on page one of Google for your top search terms?


If you answered YES to any of questions 1 through 6, then you should definitely consider paying for Google Adwords and placement in other search engines. If you also answered YES to question 7, then you should be strategic about what search terms you target in your Adwords campaigns. For example, if you already rank at the top of page one of Google for “Ann Arbor mechanic,” then you could use Adwords to target other more widely searched terms like “Ann Arbor auto repair“ or “Michigan car maintenance.”


Question 3 is a tricky one. If you answered, NO then you believe that your product or service is obscure, difficult to define, or not immediately thought of by your target audience. This means you might have a marketing problem, and before you commit your hard earned money to any type of advertising (online or offline) you need to clearly define your target market’s needs and the ways your products or services meet those needs. Then you need to write marketing messages that help your prospective customers immediately understand what your product or service can do for them.


The good news is obscure products or services (or those with a very targeted niche market) can actually benefit greatly from using Google Adwords. For example, a new trend in exercise is AcroYoga (it’s a combination of acrobatics and yoga, and I’ve heard from participants that is fun but hardcore!). While “acroyoga” is currently a very obscure term, AcroYoga franchises could benefit from Google Adwords by targeting broader search terms like “fitness classes,” “yoga strength training,” and “power yoga.”