The first thing any advertiser must keep at the top of his/her mind is Google is what it is. It is a directory, that's it...a directory.
Google is not:
Altruistic
Impartial
Static
Open to understanding
Openly competitive
Google is:
Secretive
Dynamic
Profit Driven
Intelligently designed and executed
Well insulated
So what does this mean for your business? It means you have to understand how all of the benefits and challenges of working with Google applies to your business. So don't look at McDonalds as an example of Google adwords, display marketing, ad redirect, retargeting or anything else. Unless you are BK it doesn't mean anything to you. Their bread and butter is not the large corporation but it is the local large business that wants to dominate a city or a region. If that is you, then you are in the most competitive segment of the market. If you want your business to grow to the point where it dominates or becomes a major player within a market or region then your task is even harder. Keep in mind, money talks. It always has and always will. But there are ways to accomplish a goal in a more efficient manner spending excessively to gain market share. And regardless of whether you handle your online marketing in-house or you use the services of a marketing/advertising agency there are things you must understand and solid principles that you need to follow in order to gain market share without spending yourself into trouble. I'll cover some of those in my next post
