Places to Advertise

If you want to do business on the web you can’t afford to rely soley on organic search engine placement. You’ll need to advertise. However advertising online can be expensive. A recent study shows only a small portion of all advertising is effective. So how are you to know which places are worth advertising and which are not? Today I’m going to share with you the top 3 places I’ve found to advertise online.

1. Google.

This is a no-brainer and that’s why Google is getting extremely rich. Google has a monopoly over all search engines with close to 90% of all searches being conducted on Google. Not being on Google is like not being on the internet at all. Since this is no secret however, advertising on Google can be very expensive. Last year the most expensive keyword to advertise under on Google averaged $43 per click. BTW… that term was “health insurance”.

Why would a business pay so much for one visitor from Google? Easy – there’s no better place to advertise something than the moment they’re actively looking to buy or research it. Google has indeed found the grail of advertising. And altought it’s expensive there are still plenty of opportunities to be profitible while advertising on Google. You just need to do everything you can to convert the leads coming from Google into paying clients. I’ll talk more about that later.

2. Microsoft AdCenter.

Since Microsoft took over Yahoo’s ads they control basically the other 10% of searches online. Microsoft’s AdCenter powers the PPC ads on all of Microsoft’s search properties. The ads you place with AdCenter will not only show up on Bing but also Yahoo, and even Facebook searches. And althoug Microsoft’s AdCenter controls a fraction of the market when compared to Google the clicks seem to convert quite a bit better and the average lead spends more money.

3. Facebook.

There’s a lot of people who have questioned the effectiveness of Facebook ads. However considering the sheer size of the social network it’s impossible to ignore them as a legitimate advertsing space. Clicks you receive from Facebook are not as likely to convert as those you receive from Google or Microsoft but they’re only a fraction of the price. One thing I like about Facebook ads in the amount of exposure you can get for very little money. Facebook allows you to pay both via Pay Per Click or via impression. If you choose the option to pay per click your ads aren’t frequently clicked but you end up with this huge number of impressions. Facebook also has some amazing targeting options. You’re really able to drill down to your target demographic and advertise only to those who may patronize your business.

Of course regardless of what advertising method you choose you’re going to need a website. You can create a free website at WebStarts.com. Because we created WebStarts from the ground up with search engine optimization in mind – sites built with WebStarts are more likely to get better ranking on search engines like Google. And because you get complete control of your websit with WebStarts you’re able to build a website that converts better. Better conversion rates will allow you to spend more money getting those top ad positions on Google, Bing, and other search engines.