Your small business has countless choices to spend marketing dollars--it’s no surprise there are so many questions about the best options. But just like the rest of life--the best way for one may not be so great for the next. And so it’s true with digital marketing acquisition as well.

I really believe that all marketing works. TV ads--yup. Radio--I’ve had success in earlier parts of my career on the radio. SEO--for sure it works. Email marketing, social media marketing, paid social ads--content marketing, youtube--yes, yes, yes and yes. We have seen them all work and work really well. It’s just to what degree and at what cost and with what efficiency--more commonly referred to as return on investment. I’ve gotten calls on direct response print ads before. The cost per call was embarrassing. But given enough money to invest in advertising--you could acquire clients that way. Probably not at a profit though.

So the question, ‘Does Google Adwords work for small business’ is a relative one--not an absolute. In certain circumstances it’s an excellent component of a bigger picture. In others--there are likely other marketing channels that will serve you better.

It Depends on What You Sell

Or maybe not so much what you sell, but how much a sale is worth to your business. If you sell $10 t-shirts we’re not going to recommend Adwords to you. Although you will find Product Listing Ads for t-shirts--and that’s not necessarily a bad idea. The economics of PLA’s are quite a bit different due to significantly lower CPC’s and typically, with good targeting--rock solid conversion rates.