(The Margie’s Travel Goes Online series tells the story of how Margie, John, Delores and their fictitious travel company use Microsoft Office Live Small Business to overcome everyday business challenges.)
Delores strolled into Margie’s Travel one morning humming a radio jingle.
“I can’t get that ad out of my head,” she told John. “Maybe you guys should run radio ads for Margie’s Travel.”
John shook his head. “I’m afraid they’re out of our league price-wise,” he told her. “Plus with so many people going online to search for business information, it seems like that’s the place we ought to spend marketing dollars.”
“Then why don’t you?” asked Delores.
“Well, for starters, it seems complicated. I really don’t understand how search marketing and search ads work.”
“My friend Benji has been doing it,” Delores said, putting down her coffee cup. “And he says Office Live Small Business makes it pretty easy with a tool called adManager. He told me how it works.”
“I’m listening.”
“So you know that people go online to search for information these days. They type words into a search engine and then get a results page back with links related to the word they entered. But have you noticed that on the results page there are usually lots of little business ads displayed?” she asked him.
“Sure, I see them all the time.”
“These are search ads,” Delores continued. “They’re usually very simple and contain a small amount of marketing text. Click on one and it takes you to the ad sponsor’s Web page.”
“OK, I’m with you so far,” said Margie, who had drifted over to listen to Delores. “It sounds like a great way to generate more Web site traffic. But how do you make sure your ads get displayed on the search results page?”
“That’s where adManager comes in,” Delores told them. “With adManager you bid on keywords. Keywords are words and phrases that match a search to your product or service. The higher you bid on keywords, the more times your search ads are included in the search results. And here’s the best part—you only pay when someone clicks on your sponsored ad.”
Margie jumped in again. “So, we might bid on “senior travel guides” to have the Margie’s Travel search ad appear in the search results, right?”
“Right,” Delores answered. “But adManager does more than handle bids. It guides you through creating your search ads that will be seen on Ask.com, Windows Live Search and other major search engines. It even recommends keywords and bid prices for each word.
“With adManager,” she continued, “you can also set and manage your monthly search marketing budget to control costs. You even get reports that show which words are generating clicks to our Web site and adjust your campaign accordingly. It’s pretty nifty.”
John leaned forward. “You know what I like about this type of advertising? It puts our business in front of people who are looking for what we offer. It’s far more targeted than the yellow pages or newspaper ads.”
“And what I like,” Margie said, “is that we only pay when someone actually lands on our Web site!” She turned to Delores.
“Delores, let’s give it a try. We could use some new customers and you seem to understand how it works. Why don’t you get adManager activated in our Office Live Small Business account and start placing some search ads?”
“You got it boss,” Delores said, rolling up her sleeves.
Next episode: Business picks up at Margie’s Travel and there are so many tours in the works that the travel agency gang is struggling to get necessary information out to customers and vendors. Until, that is, they discover the power of Office Live Small Business workspaces.
Margie’s Travel Goes Online series