How to Advertise Your Small Business on the Internet

Author: Jim Personius, SmallBiz123.com

Many small business owners advertise—they are accustomed to the local newspaper, blue envelope inserts, printed flyers, inflatable dancers, and even sign-waving guys.

But, advertising on the Internet can seem a bit intimidating. After all, the Internet is a huge place and you might only do business in one corner of town. Who wants to pay for advertising in Hungary, Egypt, Japan, and Australia if you only do business on the east side of Springfield?

Here is good news for you! Google makes it possible to target people only in your area—country, state, city, or 3 miles from your store (for example) who are searching for businesses like yours. You do not have to worry about Internet surfers outside your geographic preference zone. That’s pretty cool, isn’t it?

Even better, you do not have to be a marketing expert or an Internet techie to advertise your business on the Internet. You just need to understand what people are looking for on the Internet when you want them to find you. You can do this yourself; you do not need to hire an expert.

Good ads generate clicks--and business!

You do, however, need a website for your business before you start advertising. Your Internet ads will cause people to click on your ad. Then, their browser will immediately take them to your website where they can read more about your business, products, and services. Once there, your site should help close the sale by completing the online transaction or by directing people to call or visit your shop. If you do not have a website, read our article How to Build a Really Good Website for Under $100.

You also need a credit card to sign up for Google advertising. You can set the dollar-budget limit per month and if/when you hit your limit, your advertising will stop until the next month. You can end your program or change your budget limit at any time. You can also suspend your program if you go on vacation or need to tone things down during a busy season.

Before you start

Print this article so you can follow the links and keep track of the steps.
Next, grab your credit card and determine your monthly budget. You can start with $50 per month for instance and see how that goes. Depending on your business and key words, Google may recommend adjusting the level based on the competitive nature of your product/service.
Build a preliminary list of key words that you want Google to use to trigger your ads. For example, if you are a baker, you might choose wedding cake, birthday cake, anniversary cake, custom cookie, bakery, bakery pie, bakery cakes, etc. Then, when someone searches for “bakery” in your area, your ad might appear along with several other Google ads. Your ads may appear next to search results and also within certain website pages that contain content matching to your key words. Google statistics will tell you how many times your ads appeared and how many times they were clicked so you can judge the effectiveness of your campaign and your ad.

Start Your Internet Advertising

Go to Google.com. Click on Advertising Programs on the left side of Google’s front page.
Look for For Advertisers: Google AdWords. Google moves this around, but AdWords will be either on the top or on the left side. Click on Sign Up Now in the blue box.
You can read some success stories with Google AdWords. Click on the blue Sign Up Now >> box.
Google will walk you through the account creation process by asking you some questions. You will create a new account using your email address and a password. Be sure to create a good password because your email address is known to many people. We recommend reading the Google Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. We are not impressed with the plot and character development, but the lawyers think this is important. And, you are signing a contract with Google when you create an account.
Google will send you an email to make sure you are a real person with a real email account. The email will arrive in a minute or so. Click the link in the email to verify your account. On the verification page, find the Click here to continue at the bottom and click.
On the Google AdWords page, sign in with your email address and your password.
Once logged in, Google has a pretty good tutorial system and good answers to frequently asked questions.
From this point, follow the Google steps and click Create Your First Campaign. Google will help you: a) Choose your budget; b) Create your ad; c) Select keywords that match your ads to potential customers; and d) Enter your billing information. When you activate your account and enter credit card information, Google will charge you an activation fee.
Enter your geographic and language preferences. Google recommends selecting all devices for new advertisers.
At bidding and budget, Google offers many options. Each business is different. Some businesses are highly competitive and others not so much. Google can provide recommendations and you can read about the options in greater detail on AdWords site. Since this is your first Internet advertising campaign, the odds are that you will be fine by entering a daily budget limit. If you are just experimenting, you can start with $1 per day. Click continue.
Build your ad on the Create ad and keywords page. Google provides an example ad and walks you right through the ad design. Your ad will appear on the side as your type! At the bottom, enter 10-20 different important keywords that relate to your business and your ad. You can add more keywords later.
In the Billing area, select your country and enter your preferred payment information. Google walks you through the process. Once again, the lawyers recommend you read Understanding AdWords.
Congratulations! Now you are advertising on the Internet.

After your campaign begins, you can log back in to the AdWords area through the Google front page. Monitor your performance and read the Google recommendations for your advertising campaign.

Avoid the temptation to click on your own ad when you see it or you will be charging yourself and reducing the budget available for advertising to real prospects.

Over time, you may see certain words are more effective than other keywords. For example, cherry pie, blueberry pie, and apple pie may generate more clicks than “pie” alone. You may want to add every pie flavor your bakery can make to the list of keywords. And, add every flavor of cake to birthday cake, for example.

Click around the Google AdWords site to get ideas and recommendations, learn more, see opportunities, and view reports. Have fun and make money!