7 Ways To Connect Locally With Your Customers (Part III)

Here is Part III of "How to Connect Locally With Your Customers".

Google AdWords:

Here's how it works: Businesses pay to be listed in the "Sponsored Links" column next to the results of a typical Google search.

If the searcher clicks on your company's link, you pay Google an amount based on how desirable your keywords are.

For example, if you want the search terms "hotel, Atlanta" to place your business in the Sponsored Links column, it will cost you more than, say, "Melanie's Bed & Breakfast, Atlanta," which is a lot more specific and would have served up your company's name anyway, with no additional help from Google.

For more, go to Google.com/adwords

What it costs: To open an AdWords account, you must pay an initial $5 fee.

Choose a budgeted amount per month or per day; once you've reached the amount of clicks equal to that dollar amount, Google simply takes you off the Sponsored Links column.

For bowling center clients, I usually recommend a budget of about $500 per month.

You can do less, of course, but $500 will give you a very good test. If that's a little too much, scale it back to $300, but don't budget any lower.

Check the price of keywords on Google's Traffic Estimator. Use key words like bowling, entertainment, family, fun, dates, weekends, kids, teens. You get the idea.