Browsing the web, I stumbled across this image and my illusion alarm went off.

It’s 4th in a collection of images called “Game Over!”. The artist, Henry Hargreaves has taken a series of monochromatic photos of childhood games.

The connect four game was immediately of interest to me as at first glance I wondered why all the pieces dropped into the slots were hanging from the top and hadn’t fallen straight to the bottom.

They had, of course, but because the discs show the shadows from the hole cut outs, the discs make it  appears that there’s a solid back on the frame.

The holes with no discs behind them show the background straight through with no shadows, which actually looks like the slots are occupied.

This unintentional illusion is strengthened by the fact that the front faces of the unused discs shown around the base of the game look closer in lightness to the background than the discs already in the slots. The discs in the slots look far too dark.

Compare the unused disc sitting almost vertically on at the bottom left with the disc in the slot directly above it and then compare it with the empty slot up and to the left of that.

Spooky.

Getting a professional to manage your PPC or Google Adwords campaigns is a great way of getting better results for less money spent - but there are dangers.

I’m going to show you 7 things you must ask before signing up with anyone.

There are many companies and individuals out there jumping on the “Pay Per Click Management” bandwagon.

Some of these people are making some great promises … on the surface … but when you look a little deeper, they seem to have more in common with snake oil salesmen.

I don’t want this post to be a big selling session for my services (which are great, by the way) but I have been alarmed at some of the unethical practices followed by some companies out there, so I’m going to give you 7 tips/questions that you can ask these people, which will weed out the charlatans from the genuine PPC managers who really know what they’re doing.

But first, here’s one company owner’s experience with almost being ‘taken in’:

I had this owner come to me via a colleague and ask my opinion on a group who were pestering him about doing his Google advertising (Google Adwords are a great idea, don’t get me wrong).

This group were promising that his advert would be on the first page of Google if they managed his account. First page on Google sounds great, right?

This isn’t hard to do … really! It’s no harder that getting an advert on the first page of your biggest city’s newspaper: you just pay a lot of money, and then you get your advert shown. Simple.

When I read through their 6 page terms and conditions document, I discovered that he’d only be on the first page when the money in his budget allowed (so he could be there for maybe just one day a month). Not only that, but this particular company has a clause explicitly stating that they didn’t guarantee to get any extra traffic to his website.

Listen up: The whole purpose of advertising online is to get more web traffic to your website. Why spend the time and money on it otherwise?

Anyway, advising this company (and having them decide to use my services in the end) prompted me to write these:

7 tips for choosing the best PPC or Adwords manager for your online advertising

1. They should run their own personal online advertising campaigns.

It’s one thing to play around with a client’s money, but nothing motivates an expert to stay at the top of their game like putting their own money on the line. (I’m constantly advertising for my own products and services online.)

2. They must run your campaigns with lots of keywords.

They should include as may keywords and phrases as your budget allows.  Any internet marketer worth their salt will know this. Using 3 keywords is just … dumb. (I might use 3 keywords as just a starting point and build from there.)

3. They should monitor your campaign results and progress regularly.Online advertising isn’t a ‘set and forget’ system. A professional should be constantly testing and tweaking the adverts and keyword selections. (I monitor keywords, adverts and the performance of pages of the website the adverts link to.)
4. They must have a performance guarantee.

If they don’t guarantee to improve your website traffic or lower your costs, you should get a refund. Simple. But make sure they don’t weasel out of it in their terms and conditions. (I have a 30 day ‘happiness’ guarantee. If you’re not happy with the increase in web visitors or a reduction of your costs, I’ll refund your money.)

5. They should be constantly learning new tricks for marketing.

The internet is changing all the time and what work well 6 months ago might not work so well now. A professional should be actively learning new tricks. (I personally spend hundreds of US dollars a month in training – just don’t tell my wife.)

6. They must research the best keywords for your particular business type.

Not all search keywords are created equal. They must also choose, or help choose the buying keywords for your products or services. Generally, using your company name or broad business type as keywords isn’t useful. (I’d rather have 10 buyers over 1,000 tyre-kickers any day.)

7. They must track everything.

They must be able to regularly tell your what the best performing adverts, keywords, phrases and website pages are. Everything needs to be tracked from the point where a potential customer clicks on your advert to when they buy or contact you for a quote. (I do this so I know what the buying keywords are, not just the ones that get lots of traffic.)

And here’s a bonus tip for you:

8. They should offer a service to increase your organic website rankings.

Adwords is a quick way to get more web traffic fast – within 24 hours. The great thing about online advertising this was is it lets you discover the buying keywords for your product. You can then do Search Engine Optimisation on your site to rank ‘organically’ for these keywords. (I’m not interested in wasting your money and effort optimising for keywords that don’t sell.)

So there you have it. Next time you’re contacted by a company offering to manage your PPC or Google Adwords advertising, ask them if they do these 8 things and you’ll have a much better idea if you’re dealing with a genuine and professional company.

If you don’t know why using online advertising is a good idea, stay tuned for another post on that topic soon.

But You can Learn how to Turn Your Website into a Place People are Happy to Stay (and Buy Your Services)

Now I haven’t actually seen your website, so how do I know this haemorrhaging is happening to you?

No, I’m not some kind of magician.

Well, studies indicate that when someone arrives at your website, you have less than 7 seconds to grab their attention and keep them there. You may even have as little as 3 seconds. That’s about the time it took you to read these last 2 sentences!

If you’re not telling those potential customers very quickly why they should stick around, they probably won’t. It is long known that a website’s homepage should answer the Who, What & Why Questions, yet very few sites actually address those questions immediately, directly and simply. They fluff around, mention ‘mission statements’ and use the word “we” a lot. And lose potential customers.

Does your website make this kind of mistake? Go and check it now … I’ll wait here

In my 16 years of web experience I’ve seen many, many website and very, very few do this right. Now the structure of a good homepage – and how to write one – would take too long to mention here but do make sure yours addresses those Who, What & Why questions.

Your customers will love you for it. Well, they will like you enough to stick around on your site longer, at least.

OK, here’s another question for you: What is the primary purpose of your website?

If you can’t answer that, how is a potential customer going to know? If you just want to have a ‘web presence’ (or brochureware site, as they’re known in the web design industry) because everyone else is on the web, that’s fine. But like those brochures that sit ignored on your receptionist’s desk, don’t expect your website to be viewed much either.

People have short attention spans and those are even shorter when on the web, so your website must be laser-beam focused on what you want to achieve with those potential customers. If the primary purpose of your website is to get potential customers to pick up the phone and give you a call, tell them to do it and give your phone number right there.

I am astounded by the number of sites which make it hard to find their contact details. Sure, this is often on the “Contact Us” page (and you’d better have one of these) but your phone number should really be on every page, in the header or in the footer, or both.

You could do worse than keeping the mantra “Don’t make my customers think” in your head when reviewing or creating your own site.

How easy is it to find your phone number on your website? Go and check it now … actually, finish reading this, then go and check.

As I mentioned in my previous post on How To Attract Local Customers via Google for Free, Google now shows local business listings for searches including a location. In that post I used the example search phrase “plumber auckland”. Google reports that there were over 6,000 searches per month in New Zealand for keywords related to “plumber” and almost 700 of those were people looking for plumber specifically in Auckland.

The numbers vary from industry to industry but does your website specifically target any of those groups of searching people relevant to you? If not, you should be. These are people who are searching the web for the answers and help you can give them.

What are you and your website doing to effectively capture a portion of those potential customers?

Have you thought about actively advertising with Google to capture those people and bring them to your website to sell your services to them? The Yellow Pages and traditional advertising is dying a slow death, by the way.

So if you know What the primary purpose of your website is, and everything on your site is geared towards achieving that goal and is customer friendly and focused, then  you’re already well ahead of the pack and ready for business in the 21st century.

P.S. If you’ve been thinking it’s time to update your website but aren’t sure where to start, here my blatant sales pitch: Take a look at my Website Warrant Of Fitness. It checks over 110 points on your website and gives you a full report on what issues need to be addressed.

It will save you time and money. Just recently an accountant had me check her ‘brand new’ website and I gave her my comments on what was required to bring it in line with what customers really want. The cost her web designer gave for ‘fixing’ her new site was almost the same as getting it built in the first place. Measure twice – cut once!