I’m seeing a trend lately with new Google Adwords accounts and wanted to share my findings and get your feedback.

Back on January 11, I set up a Google Adwords account for a new client. We went all out, writing multiple ads for testing purposes, splitting the keywords into similar groups and targeting the ads geographically.

The results, at first, were poor. The campaign got one or two clicks the first couple of days, then went for days without a click. We decided to raise the bids significantly and write landing pages for each ad group that were designed to be highly relevant to the Google Adwords ads to drive conversion.

After we employed a more aggressive bidding strategy and directed ads to landing pages, the clicks started coming in, and just this week we’re seeing much better results. I’m unsure of what factor (the landing pages or the higher bids) had the biggest impact.

I recently read that advertisers should expect to bid higher at first to get desired results. This is good advice for all of you starting new Adwords campaigns. The folks over at MindValley Labs blogged earlier in the month that new advertisers “get crushed” when employing the same bidding strategies as an established advertiser, and they backed it up with test results.

My advice for those starting a new Google advertising campaign is to a) write and design your landing pages before you activate your campaign and b) start keyword bids higher than normal while also setting daily budgets high. Monitor your campaign closely, and if you’re getting a high clickthrough rate, test the effect on clickthrough rate of backing off of your bids gradually.

Back in June of 2005, Charlene Li posted a piece on the Forrester blog called “Calculating the ROI of blogs - it�s not about the math.”

After reading this, I posted some commentary on calculating business blog ROI here on my blog. Forrester read my post and asked for permission to use my post as a part of their research for an upcoming report on business blog ROI.

For a cool $379, you can download and read the newly-published Forrester report titled “The ROI Of Blogging,” where I’m named as a contributor to the report.

I thought I’d share a real story about how important your web site design (specifically, your landing pages) is to your search engine marketing program’s success. Here’s the story.

A company recently approached me about a running a Google Adwords campaign for them with the goal of getting more people to their web site. After some initial keyword research, I confirmed my hunches that their target keywords bring a hefty price tag.

I told myself that I could still make it work, but after looking at their web site, I’m squarely sitting on the fence. The web site isn’t structured well at all — in fact, there are no good destination pages with relevant content on the site, and the homepage is one image (no text at all). Surely the quality score that Google will assign to the client’s destination pages will be very low. Unless we build some custom landing pages, we’ll have to live with the higher price-per-click and a low conversion rate.

When companies hire consultants to revamp their search engine marketing campaigns, they should understand that an effective search engine marketing campaign often requires more than just the campaign setup and monitoring. We consultants want to make our clients’ campaigns as effective as they possibly can be, so allowing a consultant the budget to create some targeted landing pages to place on the client’s web site is something that should be included in every campaign.

Here’s why — Persuasion/the selling process doesn’t end with the ad.

Selling and generating leads online requires that you capture the user’s attention in the ad, get them to click, and then push them to your web site where you can convince them to do business with your company. After they are sold, they will call or buy online.

If your landing page simply provides a phone number or contact form, you’ve missed the opportunity to convince that visitor to do business with your company. Worse, you’ve wasted your money on the click.

A quality landing page on your web site is critical to the success of the search engine marketing campaign. Your web site is where most of the selling should happen, and your web site should engage your potential customer with relevance and credibility. It should also make the process of becoming a customer intuitive.

Understanding this concept will make your company’s search engine marketing campaign much more effective.

So 2006 is over, and chances are you’re looking ahead to 2007 and wondering how you can improve your web-based business. I thought I’d take a few minutes to share some of my experiences from the past few weeks and provide some ideas to get you started on your 2007 planning.

Unlike large corporations, small businesses are nimble and more flexible, but they often fail to plan for the future. Here are some ideas to solidify your small business online marketing plan for 2007.

1. Perform a SWOT analysis

I know, you probably think a college professor paid me to include this one, but marketing geeks everywhere swear by the SWOT analysis. SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Strengths and weaknesses are internal to your company, while opportunities and threats are external factors that influence your business.

Despite nine years of solid e-business growth, I advised a client to have a professional SWOT analysis done. We hired Right Angle Consulting here in Richmond to do this, and we all went to their office for two hours and discussed the business. I must admit, I didn’t know how much the client would get from it, and the client was a bit skeptical also. It was a phenomenal value, however. We generated an opportunities list a mile long and even put steps in place to properly handle a major threat to their business in the coming year.

A SWOT analysis will help you understand your business better and help you form a plan to seize business opportunities in the coming year.

2. Advertise on search engines

A lot of small businesses are doing this already, but advertising on search engines (Google Adwords, MSN, Yahoo! Search Marketing) can be a very profitable venture for your business. Hiring a professional to help will ensure that you’re bidding on the most profitable terms and that your ads are written properly. There really is an art and science to this. If your campaign is already optimized, then tweak landing pages that you send ad traffic to and find a page design that works better.

Finally, don’t forget Local Search. Sign up on Google Local and Yahoo Local.

3. Start an e-mail marketing program

You’ll be amazed at how well permission-based email marketing works. If you create your own email marketing promotions, it can cost you as little as $25 per month to send out campaigns.

Start by registering with an e-mail vendor like Constant Contact and put an e-mail collection box prominently on your web site. Customers will visit your site and sign up. Also, if you run an internet retail store, offer an opt-in in checkout so customers can check a box to subscribe to your list.

If you’re not comfortable creating your own campaigns, consult a professional that can create campaigns for you. When selecting a professional, make sure they have managed e-mail marketing campaigns before and get some references. There are many guidelines that a seasoned e-mail marketer will know about that a novice will not, and a professional’s work will help you get the highest return on your investment.

4. Make your site easier for customers to use

Making your site easier to use will help customers use your web site more efficiently, saving them time. Here are a few tips:

• Put your company name, address, email, phone and fax number on every page of your web site.
• Provide a contact form so customers can contact you.
• Provide a detailed customer service area on your site where customers can find answers to all commonly asked questions.
• Make sure links and buttons are properly labeled.
• Look at your site in different web browsers to make sure your site renders properly in each.
• Write some articles for your web site that help educate customers about the products you sell or the services you offer.
• Review your notes — what site improvements have customers been asking for in 2006? Provide those improvements in 2007.

5. Improve your customer service

The best way to provide value for your customers aside from making sure your product or service meets their expectations is to offer superior customer service. Each year after the holidays, one of my customers always gets an onslaught of positive feedback for hand-writing thank-you’s on packing slips.

Customers also will be more inclined to frequent your business when they can speak to a person on the phone and get fast responses to email from your web site.

I tell my customers that even though customer service costs you money in the short term, they will always get more loyal customers in the long term. Also, genuine helpfulness is what separates the small business from the large corporation. Not only will you be providing a better experience for your customers, but you’ll also be able to have satisfaction that you’re helping others.