So you’ve got a Google Adwords credit.

A quick note on startups and your Adwords Credit

Someone once told me that it’s quality rather than quantity that matters.. actually, I think I hear that almost on a daily basis. I wanted to, a) Make my first, brief, mark on Medium, which I absolutely love (kudos), and b) Provide some advice that I think at least someone will use; here goes.

Have you ever received a Google Adwords credit inviting you to spend $50, get $100, or some other similar offer? Well, then this is for you. This is even more so for you if you’re a startup. I’ve heard it many times. You buy a domain, you start thinking about your vision, mission, goals, etc. That spurs into an exciting conversation about your name, the domain you’re going to snag and so on. Eventually, we hope, you arrive at the conversation of how you’re actually going to get people to use your beautiful product.. are you going to roll out a beta strategy, are you going to target a specific demographic and ensure that that 10%, power-user, organically converts the mass market or…or…or.

So, you’ve now launched your product, you’ve got a great marketing strategy and you’re actually acquiring users, a percentage of them seem to like you and best of all, you’re converting on your goals. Now comes the Google credit. You open the mail and you’ve got an offer to get x, if you spend x, Let’s just assume that’s get $100 if you spend $50. This is where my advice begins.

Almost all startups I’ve spoken with get excited and immediately begin thinking about what keywords they can target, how their banners will look, etc. This is a mistake, here’s why:

1. It’s very expensive to develop a proper running Adwords campaign: If you’re looking to do ppc marketing through either the search or display network, you will need to commit to spending a large amount of money before you even know what works, what converts and what doesn’t; it takes time, and money, to lean out the fat (FACT).
2. Too many people waste money without a plan: Before you even think about running any ads you need to have your whole ppc strategy planned out. This includes everything from knowing why you’re targeting who, or what, you’re targeting, to understanding all the intricate details regarding conversions, landers and hopefully, understanding what that paid traffic did with some basic cohort analysis (google analytics makes this idiot-proof now).
3. Run the numbers: Do you even need to run ppc campaigns? Why are you paying to get users? How much can you pay for each user? What is a user and why? How much is that user worth to you over x period of time? If you pay x for the user, what purchase frequency must she commit to to make it worthwhile for x? Run the numbers, ask the hard questions and EVERYTHING will be better in the long run.

My suggestions:

1. Wise up: Unless you’re ready to rollout a full blown ppc plan and have considered the above, and A LOT more, you should put that credit away and not even look at the expiry date. Actually, just throw it out, no… shred it, sorry Google.
2. Run a smart campaign: In the early stages you’ll likely want to focus on retaining that user who you consider your ‘power user’, this can be defined in many ways, but ideally your ‘power’ user aligns with your marketing strategy and represents some type of value by hitting your conversion, and growth, goals. In order to retain these power users, I would strongly suggest, if you have the budget, that you strictly run retention, or remarketing, ppc campaigns.

Why?

Lets assume your website sells gorgeous iPhone cases. People come to your website, they see these inspirational cases, a percentage of them go away, a percentage of them select a few then go away, and a small percentage actually buy; congrats.

Instead of wasting (BIG) money on Google targeting keywords like, “iPhone cases”, “best iPhone cases”, “cool iPhone cases”, you can use your money more effectively by targeting those people who abandon, or leave, your sales funnel, i.e. they put some stuff in their cart, A.D.D. kicked in and they went to have some ice cream. You see, instead of ‘blowing money fast’ you can focus your ppc dollars and create value, and retention, at the highest, and most valuable, conversion points (again assuming you’ve got a proper strategy and tracking).

Some ideas.

1. Target people who leave your sales funnel or abandon the card.
2. Target people who have bought from you with a coupon or a ‘refer a friend’ offer.
3. Target people who visit your website and browse with general ‘Branding’ ads.

In sum, I strongly suggest that instead of prematurely blowing your money on generalized search and display network ads you consider building out retention campaigns. You will save money, make more money (*if done right), grow out your core userbase, build referrals and hopefully, exponentially grow your business. Now, just match your retention campaigns with a #winning inbound (blog) strategy and you’re gold.