One Half Amazing!

Infographic by PPC Blog

If Google or Apple went out of business tomorrow, which one would you be more disappointed about? Discuss.

I don’t think I could think of a better way to show off the speed of the new Google Chrome browser. They pulled out the high speed cameras and tested its quickness against a shot out of a potato gun, a bolt of electricity or paint splattering. I’d like to see the 7 yr old in the Windows commercial handle 4.2M volts of electricity. Totally awesome.

This got me thinking, what could other businesses do to show their prowess to their customers? If you’re an answering service, maybe you pick up in the middle of the first ring or a real estate agent that gets to work before the keys hit the floor. It doesn’t have to always be about speed, but it does have to be something they care about. (There you have it; my Seth Godin-ism for the week )

• Facebook “likes” are starting to show up in searches.  Before you know it, Facebook will unleash it’s search engine and “likes” will be the new pagerank.
• Cleaver ways to use Dropbox.  Even use it to host your website.
• Pepsi is launching a location-based loyalty program in mid-May called Pepsi Loot.  Check-in at a restaurant or establishment that serves Pepsi through their mobile app and earn rewards towards free music, behind-the-scenes content and special offers.
• How to add a retweet anywhere button to your WordPress site. *See an example of this below this post.
• RUMOR:  Google could reveal details about their TV project during their I/O conference on May 18.

Here’s a quick tip from PPCBlog. They suggest using 1st-person quotes in the title of your Google Adwords to distinguish your product from other bland ads.

You don’t want to go too over-the-top and keeping it believable and relevant could be something to consider, but I’d be interested to hear how a 1st-person text ad like the samples below perform against similar ads.

If you have a small business, you know you don’t have tons of money to waste on pay-per-click advertising that doesn’t convert. But, how do you target the right local customers in their given location?  Here’s a cool hack that uses Google Local Business Center coupled with Adwords to create a hyperlocal, spot-on ad campaign that will crush your competitors.

• If you haven’t already, set up a free listing for your business on Google Local Business Center (if you’re just getting started, its going to take a few days to gather the data that’s needed below).
• Google offers a dashboard of analytics for each listing to show you who is looking for you, how they’re finding you and most importantly, where they are coming from.  Take note of your most popular zip codes.
• Go to your Adwords account, click into one of your Campaigns and then Edit the location under the Settings tab.
• Editing brings up a cool little tool that allows you to draw an irregular polygon over any area.  Draw a polygon over the most popular zip codes you found above. Game, set, match.

What you end up with is creating a super-targeted and hyperlocal PPC advertising that focuses directly on the customers that ring your cash register without breaking your budget.