LinkedIn Direct Ads vs. Google Adwords: Which one is better?

This article contains the results of a recent experiment I did to determine whether a LinkedIn ad would perform any better than an identical Google AdWords ad. My conclusion was that neither ad was worth the time and money.

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  Posted by Matt Lawrence, Seattle, Washington | May 21, 2010

  Great way to kick this off. I am also of the mindset that quality content mixed with great customers passing along recommendations to friends is the best way to grow...albeit slowly.

  Biznik Community Manager
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  Posted by Teresa Springer-Grounds, Seattle, Washington | May 21, 2010

  I appreciate your opinion. I have never been too fond of paid advertising unless it is for the marketing materials itself.
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  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 21, 2010

  Hi Matt,

  I agree about it being slow, but I always think of the phrase, "Slow and Steady Wins the Race" whenever I feel discouraged. I actually picture myself as a tortoise. :-)

  Thanks for the comments
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  Posted by Eli Poblitz, Pacifica, California | May 21, 2010

  I do not think I would have my business with out adwords. When it comes to return on investment ... it's there for my business (creating 360 tours). I've gone through ups and downs with my campaign with paying too much at points, and being too broad with my keywords.

  Google rewards relevance. My home page talks all about me being a "virtual tour provider" in the "bay area". I used to have pages full of key words (360 "this", virtual "that", etc.). And because of my exhaustive list of keywords, I paid for it.

  For example someone might put in "virtual tour of 123 ABC lane" or "virtual tour of the Palace of fine arts" - and then click my adword ad, only to click right back out of my site. They didn't want what I had, which was virtual tour services.

  So I go smart ... I made my keywords/phrases relevant. I was tired of people clicking my ad when they were looking for a virtual tour of something else. So I limited my ad to two phrases (from over 60).

  • "virtual tour provider"
  • "360 degree virtual tour"

  The two things I am, and specialize in. Now if some one types "virtual tour of ...." my ad does not show. The only people who see my ad is someone specifically looking for a a virtual tour provider. With the money saved from frivolous clicks, I was able to bid higher on those two specific key phrases. So if someone wants a virtual tour provider in the Bay Area - they see me #1. Google also rewards me by charging less, because my home page is very relevant and SEO rich towards those key phrases.

  So I believe these philosphies can help your campaign:

  1. Precise keywords/phrases that are a bit more specific to your business (less broad "blanket" approaches)
  2. SEO on your landing that matches your phrases
  3. Geo-target ... exclude cities/counties/states that you feel may not be "rich" targets for your niche.
  4. Only do google search, don't distribute ads across content partners ... that's where you get the "web surfers" ... and not the hot leads who are specifically looking for your services.

  And with the proper social networking, and great content being posted on your site - you do have the choice of one walking away from pay-per-click campaigns, but if you are in "build mode" of your business, you'd be taking a risk by NOT using adwords.
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  Posted by Gary Silverstein, Olympia, Washington | May 21, 2010

  Thanks for the interesting and informative article. LinkedIn ads sound like a waste of time, which I know was the case with Google Adwords for me.

  I tried Google Adwords several times and came to the conclusion that the only one that got anything out of my participation was Google itself. I since went to a great SEO person who has me up there in the search engine rankings, including top of page one for several keyword phrases. Now, all I need are clients who have a desire for my services, and have the intelligence to type in specific phrases that set me apart from my competitors.

  Gary Silverstein We Shoot
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  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 21, 2010

  Eli,

  That is GREAT advice. I may have to give AdWords another shot now and try some of the things you suggested. I really appreciate that you took the time to write all that out. This is my favorite part about networking.

  One more thing, who did you use for SEO? I have resisted up until this point, but may reconsider. I was thinking of using Dan Thies, cause I love his Fast Start guide. So, I am curious to know who you used.

  Thanks, Sara
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  Posted by Barry Hurd, Everett, Washington | May 21, 2010

  While I like the idea - I'm pretty sure this isn't a valid experiment, as Google and Linkedin ads are like Apples and Oranges.

  Impressions, clicks, and even conversions are fundamentally different unless we detail a very specific type of action and metric to measure.

  I would also really think about the conversion points and layers of consideration in the sales funnel, from consideration to decision. Of either set of ad visitors: did they stay longer, view more information, or look at specific information?

  If you did manage to get the experiment to a level of sales being created, then we need to look at the value of the sale, possibility of upsell, possibility of return orders, and marketing value of WOM for that type of customer.

  With both of those things aside, $50 in ad spend on either service is entirely too low. Most keywords would not produce a trend with that little data. (I would say $250 to $500 is the minimum range for testing)

  Another key point to consider: when thinking about keywords targeting conversion as a goal, Eli is onto something. You have to think about very specific and very tactical search phrases user for purchase.

  An example could be tennis shoes with some theoretical numbers :

  shoes =
  0% chance of purchase
  tennis shoes =
  5% chance of purchase
  nike tennis shoes =
  10% 5 chance of purchase
  red nike tennis shoes =
  15% chance of purchase
  red size 8 nike tennis shoes =
  25% chance of purchase
  red size 8 nike tennis shoes with arch support =
  30% chance of purchase
  cheap red size 8 nike tennis shoes with arch support =
  35% chance of purchase

  The more specific and relevant, the better. You can also ad a whole variety of negative keywords that affect conversion.
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  Posted by Josh Bereano, Seattle, Washington | May 22, 2010

  I say bag them both! use free marketing to get qualified free proactive leads!

  Twitter as an example. use Twitter search type in the topic and get plenty of hot fresh leads!

  Josh

  Guerilla Social Media Marketing
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  Posted by Stuart Cutler, Issaquah, Washington | May 22, 2010

  I think you miss the point on the use of LinkedIn vs Adwords and I think it is wrong and misleading to try and compare the two in the crude manner you did.

  There is no doubting the power of adwords as a keyword based marketing tool aimed at the masses. However, LinkedIn allows you to be more targeted in your audience. We use both adwords and then use a more direct approach with LinkedIn to reach out to potential accounts.

  To me no sales is not the failure you make it out to be in LinkedIn. For me, building a network of followers who are related to my business and aware of what I offer allows me to build a valuable contact list for future use and potential long term sales. Unfortunatley people always want the quick sale, but if you go after the larger fish it takes time to build relationships, show what you offer, and then close a deal.

  So the bottom line for me is that it depends on your business and what approach you want. However for me, longer term relationship building and networking is far more important than a quick sale from an adwords account.
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  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 22, 2010

  Hi Barry and Stuart,

  Thanks for your comments. I agree that the experiment was not as thorough as it could be. I wish I could have afforded to do a longer test, but I became concerned when the LinkedIn balance jumped so quickly.

  I wrote the article mostly to warn people about starting an ad and then not monitoring it. If I had let the ad go for the entire week, there is no telling how high it would have gotten.

  But, your points are certainly valid. Would you mind sharing some specifics about the LinkedIn ads you ran and why you found them effective. Also, how much did it cost. I really want to figure out where I can get the biggest bang for my buck, ya know?

  Thanks again, Sara
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  Posted by Greg Giersch, Beaverton, Oregon | May 22, 2010

  Sara, Your test showed AdWords to be better than LinkedIn in generating clicks to your site. However, your click-thru rate is also influenced by your actual ad, and no sales has much more to do with what happens after they arrive at your site.

  Your experience is valuable in comparing LinkedIn and AdWords for clicks, but any other conclusion would not be "scientific."

  Thanks for sharing. We all can learn from each others experiences.
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  Posted by Michael Schuett, Renton, Washington | May 23, 2010

  I have had ads on Adwords and LinkedIn recently. Also taking advantage of discount coupons I received. Here's a lesson/mistake learned you can benefit from. I foolishly chose a keyword on the Adwords that was too general and too popular. So it brought a lot of clicks AND COST to my ad from people who were I came to realize were looking for something else than the service and products we provide. So the result is our Adwords ad has cost a lot and produced nothing. LinkIn's ad is very specific and has not resulted in any sales. Good article. Important too, though I suspect its likely to draw interest from a lot of disgruntled Adwords and LinkedIn customers which kinda describes me. I was impressed with results from a Facebook ad we ran last year. We were able to direct it very specificly and got results.

  Michael Schuett

  www.totalbroadcasting.com
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  Posted by Richard Berman, Chappaqua, New York | May 23, 2010

  Sara, this was a very interesting post and this is a very substantial thread with lots of hard facts. It's this kind of sharing that makes Biznik such a valuable site. Thanks to all. Best, Rich
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  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 23, 2010

  Greg,

  You're right The experiment was not very scientific. I mostly wanted to warn others about starting ads and not checking on them, but I also wanted to find out whether those kind of ads were working for someone else. Because of this post, I am going to give AdWords another shot. But, I think I will wait a bit on the LinkedIn ads.

  Michael, Thanks for sharing. I agree that more targeted keywords are better at generating sales. I am going to try another AdWords ad and use only three long tail and specific keywords and see how that goes.

  Richard, I am glad you found value in this. I have too. And you're right, it is just this kind of thing that makes BizNik and any social network for that matter so important (especially to small business owners like myself).

  Sara
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  Posted by George Sandoval, San Rafael, California | May 23, 2010

  Hi Sara

  Great points!

  It's true, not easy. The medium is great? yes, great!. Ok, but how can anyone justify paying for nearly 12k passes with only four stopping...

  Networks are appearing more as the general pot luck of online advertising. The persistent failure in the click vs impression vs sales argument.

  At the moment with the medium so affordable it makes sense firms and clients (small business owners) saturating areas, but perhaps to mimic, believe, hope, or make believe it works, secures impressions.

  You have to think, with each day, the current approach of site, display, web this web that, a tool, a game, a CMS, an SEO outline - for small business owners is not only becoming less than effective, its leading unattractive, and I'm finding a leading failure in making client to-do lists.

  As an advertisement tool, the entire process being a 100 man hour investment, it should return xyz percent with every use. Yes? !,Yes. The return should be consistent and any new effort should only increase an asset's value, rather than drawn from it. It, the tool set, should also support marketing, improve position, branding, and return the investment with sales and profit, every day, each day, all day.

  I know as a small business owner, ad placements have a less the highest priority on the host's list of to-do's. It's business. My business and their business are different, and it's acceptable they have a different agenda. Not a great partner, but unfortunately the only partner until small businesses invest in developing their networks (sales support tools). I have to.

  All of us have to.

  But a caution for those reading, not having usable data after an effort is unacceptable. Since SEO/Google and SEO/Linked In, for instance, are self serving - works in their system - the true, usable data is not only unavailable, but misappropriated - an expensive investment.

  We have to remember an online business activity is the sale of tables to research, direct mail, and marketing firms.

  To correct this, I've started my outlines for wish list networks, present and proprietary - where I can secure brackets and bracketed dsiplays. It follows the economy of advertising.

  These brackets secure demo's. Pre screened and interested. I'm on the servce side of biz, so it's a little different for each SM Owner, but the basic model follows publication.

  Conde Naste is the example I'll pull here. The mastheads being the example of audience, demoographic, and extensions securing retention. Well establshed, they are also great examples of how networks should be and how they can form.

  Contrasting the page on page turns you get within a magazine, print, the returns, it sitting in a visible area, offered to others, retained etc, online - we get - oh, maybe a 1.75 inch column of a Google second.

  Quick hunch here, the leading behaviour tapping into searches (generally speaking) are the "for comparisons". It was originally a male-only behaviour - had something to do with role, income earning, changing roles of women, intellect etc. and is now a female and male behavior online. It's encouraged by the information is free, why not, man! syndrome. Helps guise the cost versus consumption issues between marketers and consumers. Anyway, the assumption is it's a wide and superficial data intake securing social activity rather than sales interest or purchase support, latent and immediate.

  Thank you for the topic.

  George
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  Posted by Michael Hartzell, Seattle, Washington | May 23, 2010

  Sara,

  First? Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson. Consume it via audio for a while. Since 1990 I have doubled, tripled, quintupled sales using principles (even thought the tools change every year)

  Then? Inbound Marketing University. It is free. It has amazing professors from every angle of the Internet.
  http://www.michaelhartzell.com/inbound-marketing-training/

  You could use Dan Thies and a few others for SEO. The real challenge to think about? The game is in constant flux and my challenge to you would be: Think about 1/1/11 Where will it be? How will people find you?

  How you did this was GREAT!

  Go Read Evolve Act Teach

  Very cool!

  Thought? Marketing campaign, offline and online. Impressions or distribution? Number of responses? Number of conversions? $ per conversion? $ per impression / distribution? Total income vs. total cost for campaign? *Campaigns have multiple legs to create multiple touch points.

  Thus (who says thus?) if a business says: I want 100 transactions at $50 each for $5000 results, and the response (click through) is 2% and the conversion is 10%, then how many impressions do I need?

  These numbers are arbitrary and very liberal and only serve as an example.

  As someone said, since responses via click throughs are historically such a low percentage, not sure a $50 sampling has enough legs to create a test. (Like running 2 radio commercials in a week to see what happens) Unless your add could say: "Buy Cure for Getting Old - 5 left" :) Even then suspicion and "what ever" would be a response.

  Very interesting how you took the actual dollars and shared details. I love that! But then I love numbers.

  Let me know what you think of Jay Conrad and Inbound Marketing resources.

  Best.

  Guerrilla Marketing Ideas that Rock!
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  Posted by Christine Ely, Seattle, Washington | May 24, 2010

  I've found that writing articles, blogs and having good content on your own website/blog as well as social media sites is more effective that online advertising. You can say so much more and the search engines find relevant content.
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  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 24, 2010

  Hi Michael,

  Great advice. I will check out that stuff. And, I agree that Dan Thies is good. I was already considering hiring him.

  Hi Christine, I agree that good content is key to online success. In the 6 months since I started focusing more on good content and less on what everyone was suggesting I do, my business has done sooooo much better and the hits just keep going up.
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  Posted by David Berkey, Bothell, Washington | May 24, 2010

  Sara,

  You might want to pay attention to Barry Hurd. He's a smart SEO specialist. His and Eli's advice on specific keywords works.

  Our firm, ColoFind, increases opportunities every time one of our partners places Google ads. He's very targeted on where and what is offered. We rotate ads to target various areas nationally. I can always tell when the ads get placed because of the activity coming in from those areas. Of course, once in our system, they can fulfill their need or define their need for colocation within certain localities more specifically. So, ColoFind creates opportunities through Google Adwords all the time. Whether we convert those opportunities to sales is up to us.

  Thank you for putting this out there. I appreciate all the comments, dialogue and input from everyone. Fun reading.
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  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 24, 2010

  Thanks David.

  I am blown away by all the good advice I am getting. I am going to wait a few days and go back through all the comments before I decide on a final strategy.

  I have learned (through failure mostly) that it is better to wait on these things and not jump too quickly to any one conclusion.
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  Posted by Beau Brewer, Washington, D.C. | May 25, 2010

  Hey Sara,

  Great article. I'm not sure why people are attacking your work as unscientific--after all, you've spent your own money on a marketing experiment and were kind enough to share the results with all of us. And if you made any claims about statistical significance, I missed them.

  I'm actually delving into the Social Network Advertising (SNA) space, which I feel has the potential to rival SEM spend in a few years. I've run similar experiments with larger budgets, and here's some bullets on what I've found:

  • LinkedIn is expensive although for some campaigns (high value leads + extremely competitive keywords on search engines), it can be more cost effective than Google

  • There is a lag in the time from when a LinkedIn campaign exceeds your daily budget and when your campaign is suspended for a day. I've never had the overrun exceed my budget by more than 20% (a threshold that I believe is in their terms of service).

  • Hyper targeted campaigns are much more cost effective (similar to the great point that Barry made about hyper-targeted keywords).

  • Unfortunately, LinkedIn limits the number of segmentation criteria you can use. In this respect, I've found Facebook much much more cost effective on a CPC basis and the resulting traffic quality is higher (i.e. higher conversion rates).

  Hope this helps and thanks again for the article!

  Beau
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  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 25, 2010

  Hi Beau,

  Great information you provided. All of this has been very helpful to me as I decide on a new strategy. I just love how social networking allows us to all learn so much and hopefully avoid some of each others mistakes.

  Sara
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  Posted by Sarah Idriss-Miller, Vancouver, Washington | May 27, 2010

  Hey Sara,

  I think that to firm up your conclusions about advertising, I would have to see your ad and know your target market. Direct marketing is a far better way to expand businesses.

  Sarah.
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  Posted by Paul Kyriazi, San Francisco, California | May 27, 2010

  Hi Sara,

  Your experiment and article kicked off a amount of interest and information from all. Thanks for doing that. And thanks for the observations by others.

  Last year I had to go it alone with linkedin ads, etc. and your article and comments really clearified alot for me.

  Paul
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  Posted by Marc Karell, Mamaroneck, New York | May 27, 2010

  Hi Sara, Good article. As an engineer, I appreciate your efforts.

  I'm not sure what you mean by "create quality content" as a marketing strategy? Do you mean write and publish articles like this one to gain exposure?

  Marc
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  Posted by Aaron Savage, London, Greater London United Kingdom | May 27, 2010

  What a fantastic conversation and one that is sure to bring out a number of points.

  As a marketing professional, I am going to go down the path of how advertising is measured and what advertising effectiveness actually is. Having worked in the Internet for some fifteen years, and often dismissed as, “oh he sells stuff”, by techies who don’t realise that I also have a strong set of technical and creative knowledge, I can tell you that giving everyone the ability to create marketing communications is not a good enough reason for everyone to go ahead and do it.

  If you give someone new to shooting two rifles to try out they might do so, not hit a thing and conclude that both rifles were useless. If you put the same two rifles in the hands of a trained person, they may get perfect scores with both and conclude that they are the finest rifles in the world, simply used for different target conditions.

  I suspect that your own knowledge and skill may have something to do with this as well, and there are plenty of people who can point to excellent campaigns which produce effective results. If they didn’t exist Google would not be Kings of the World and LinkedIn would be behind a paywall.

  Marketing and advertising is a skill, and it takes knowledge and practice. I know there are plenty of people out there that tell you to simply copy what somebody else is doing (and that may work in a buoyant market) but real advertising and marketing professionals know that the best results are achieved through a mixture of understanding your prospects, engaging creative and building trust. If you simply copy what everyone else is doing you don’t stand out, you fit in, and who is to say that you haven’t joined the lemmings as they approach the cliff.

  Both Adwords and LinkedIn are designed to generate traffic, and unless you take a strategic approach to marketing you cannot and should not expect anything more than that. It isn’t your ad that generates the sale, it is your site, and even with the best ad in the world, if your site is bad then it won’t matter how much traffic visits you.

  Our latest client was launched yesterday and you might like to take a look at how we try to engage people on the site, to lead them up to a point of sale. It is http://www.prices-gas.com, and delivers news and the latest gas prices in the UK.

  Advertising can rarely be measured in terms of direct sales because other factors can affect the result (a fact that has enabled above the line agencies to take credit for everything that works and deny responsibility for anything that doesn’t for years). The web is a great equaliser though because it can point to exactly where the bottlenecks and underperforming areas of your marketing plan are.

  Does ad traffic have a higher conversion than traffic from natural search? Do you measure that? I would recommend creating lots of analytical charts which look at all the angles not simply a bottom line output from a top line input. It’s often what happens along the journey that tells the real story.

  I hope that helps
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  Posted by Tom Forgione, Toms River, New Jersey | May 27, 2010

  Hi Sara,

  Great article and I understand your frustration. The only problem is you can't really say one way or another from the small test you did.

  I agree with what Aaron said "Advertising can rarely be measured in terms of direct sales" I would not have used rarely as there are many forms of advertising that can be.

  Also, keep in mind that when you added your logo to the ad you now are putting a stronger emphasis on branding then you did with just the text ads. Some companies feel that branding is a better way to go so they go for the highest impressions to the correct demographic for the money. These companies realize too that a click might not result in a sale "right now" but in the future the name will stick.

  Next time you do a test (which is always advised for any client) you need to run two different ads in the same medium then make small tweaks to see which pulls more. Keep tweaking until it becomes stable. Then once you have a winning ad you place that and another version in another medium and do the same.

  I hope this helps.

  Tom
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  Posted by Elaine Way, Seattle, Washington | May 27, 2010

  Hi Sara. Your article is SO TIMELY for what I have been experiencing with Google over the past year. A year ago when I started my business, my business coach set me up on Google Adwords. She literally built my campaign for me and it must have been a pretty good campaign because I was paying $500-600/month to Google. Or was it? Like you, contacts and impressions were good but the income generated by the clicks was not justifying the monthly amount I was paying google. So I turned off -- or "paused" my campaign. That was about 6 months ago and fortunately my new webmaster built some keywords into my web site or however she did it (I don't understand all that) and I continued to get business over those 6 months. And now I'm doing more referral business as well. Then I got a call from a company who does SEO work. They guaranteed me that I could be first, first, first all the time. That sounds pretty enticing, right? My first question was: "How much?" Well, they nearly knocked me off my chair when they told me they would charge me $1,000/month to keep me on top of the Google search engine. At that moment a light went on and I realized that I wanted to turn Google back on (enable my campaign) and simply tweak my budget and the times my ads run. So I went from my initial 100% run time ($500-600/month) to 37% run time ($250/month). I only need to make one sale to justify this new cost and I couldn't be happier because this is my season right now (Wedding season) and the clicks are not only accumulating...the calls are coming in and I have already booked 6 weddings in the last week since turning Google back on.

  Yes, Google Adwords can be a pain. But what I found is that you need to review and tweak the numbers constantly. Don't let Google be in the driver's seat. This is your campaign and you can make it work for you. The other thing I found out is that it does take time for calls to start coming in. I may have 25 clicks in a day and not hear from folks for another 5 days...but ultimately, they do call.

  This is all good for me but obviously you have an entirely diffferent business so Google may just not be for you. I am just happy that I am now in the driver's seat...not Google!
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  Posted by Lisa Reese, Nashville, Tennessee | May 27, 2010

  Thank you, Sara, for bringing light to this topic. I think that we can all learn from each other and that just by presenting this topic for discussion, you have added value for many. Thank you all for some really good and useful information.
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  Posted by Marian Hobson, Arden, North Carolina | May 27, 2010

  WOW!

  Okay my thoughts first Sara were the lack of sale is as much or more dependent on your website not as much on the actual add... of course then I saw people much more expert making similar or more direct comments....

  AWESOME discussion, thank you all for the learning.

  May have to just put in my own article to stir up discussion:)!
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  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 27, 2010

  Hi Sarah,

  I am not sure that I am brave enough to share the actual ad here. The way I have been attacked by some in the comments, I am afraid that posting the ad may draw a blood bath. I assure you that I have not given up on direct marketing entirely, but I am very cautious of it.

  Hi Paul, Going it alone sucks. I did that for far too long and it cost me. I now check almost everything I do by one or more people. I am glad this article helped you and I hope it helps others too.

  Hi Marc, When I spoke of quality content, I did mean good articles, but I also meant good content for my website, for my social network, and really any web-based medium that I use. I now try hard to think before I write and think about the consequences of it all. It takes more effort, but I am seeing better results.

  Hi Aaron, I agree with you about my knowledge being a factor and that marketing is a skill that is developed over time. I spent 15 years as a web developer, but I had no clue how to market myself. I have been learning over the past 5 years, but it has been slow and I am just now starting to get a little good at it. Conversations like this and good feedback like yours helps a lot though. Thanks for that.

  Hi Tom, I also agree that the test was too small. I am coming up with another test, but this time I am going to be VERY careful about how I do it. I honestly cannot afford another costly mistake like that last test which cost over $14.00/click. I do not have deep pockets like the big companies do.
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  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 27, 2010

  Hi Elaine, That has been some of the best feedback yet and quite encouraging. I am coming up with another plan for the direct ads and I will most certainly incorporate your advice. This has just been fantastic. I just LOVE Biznik.
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  Posted by Tina Gleisner, NH Seacoast, New Hampshire | May 27, 2010

  As I'm about to jump into the PPC fray, this was a great discussion to join. For me, the most beneficial things from Sara's story are be very weary when you are not allowed to cap bid price as she likely wouldn't have tried LinkedIn with even $50 free ads, if she knew potential cost per click. Also she was very smart to monitor daily which is a lesson I often learn the hard way ... and hopefully I will always remember her story, and not mess up with google adwords or Facebook advertising.

  Thanks to everyone else for sharing such great info and the red Nike tennis shoe scenario was great.
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  Posted by Angela Bustamante, New York, New York | May 27, 2010

  re:Linked in , so some good info here on campaign setup. However I would hesitate to compare Linkedin vs Google as only one is a search engine. There are many steps in setting up a Google adwords campaign - exact match, phrase match, negative match, content network, website content, landing page testing to text ads and your quality score are all factors in a good adwords program. Optimization on keyword, bids and match types is based on feedback. These factors need to be tweaked ongoing.

  But I concur before spending money on paid PPC, always check your website 1st. Organic traffic is preferred and if your site is not designed properly or not informative it is better time spent addressing this before investing in paid ads.
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  Posted by Sara Lancaster, Denver, Colorado | May 27, 2010

  Great article, great comments. I've not used LinkedIn advertising, but I do see why you might want too. However, I'm not up for a $14 click either.

  As with some of the others who have commented here, my business succeeds because of Google AdWords. Yes, referrals and personal connections are the best way to get new clients, but again, that takes a lot of time. With AdWords I feel confident that the work will keep coming and I don't have to hit the pavement begging anyone to hire me:)
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  Posted by Danielle Parsons, Ventura, California | May 27, 2010

  Have had experience with Google Ad Words and had good results in the past. I set a specific keyword with brackets around those keywords so as not to draw in anyone searching a broad keyword. I abandoned Google Ad Words when the keyword I was paying for became too competitive.

  I was thinking about trying the Linked In coupon. I am glad you shared about the results you experienced and to be aware of where your account balance stands.

  I have found blogging and Facebook to be much more effective for bringing clients to my products and services. Several articles have appeared on Web Pro World over the past year about how Facebook is the place to get good quality prospects for your business at a much lower price than Adwords.

  Publishing articles about my products and services frequently and building websites around those same products and services is much more effective. I rank very high in organic search and therefore do not need to pay for advertising right now.
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  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 27, 2010

  Hi Tina,

  I am so glad you found value in my story. That is what I wanted most of all. But, I have been pleasantly surprised by the response to this post. I have learned so much in the last few days and I am very excited to start a new campaign next week.

  Hi Angela,

  You are absolutely right about the fact that there are many variables to consider when setting up an ad that determine it's success. I wrote this mostly to warn people about jumping in to quickly and not monitoring closely, but the response has been much more than I ever thought. I think this has been an excellent learning lesson for us all. I only wish I had the extra money to invest in a real proper and unbiased test.

  Anyone out there want to give me a whole bunch of money to do that? (LOL)
• 

  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 27, 2010

  Hi Danielle,

  I agree about the organic search. I really would prefer to have my business come from that end, since I feel it is more legitimate in some way.

  Thanks for your comments. Sara
• 

  Posted by Robert Stoeber, Sausalito, California | May 27, 2010

  Hi Sara,

  I think you're being a bit too sensitive about some of the comments posted here. Biznik isn't a place people "attack" each other, at least in my experience. It's true that sometimes the way people write their "constructive criticism" can appear a little harsh, but that's the real world. This is actually quite a friendly venue, compared to most places, so read the comments again with an open mind to see if you can learn more from them. Anyway, here's my 2 cents.

  First of all, you say that your ad didn't result in any "sale," but you don't say what action people actually took. Did they all "bounce" off the first page or take some other action? If they all bounced it was most likely because the landing page didn't match their expectations after clicking the ad. People don't click ads for fun, so at least some of the 60+ visitors were probably interested in your ad at least, if not what they saw next.

  Second, you don't say what you were selling. Was the ad about selling a $25 ebook, or about consulting services? Selling a product is very different from selling a service and the sales process has to reflect that.

  Third, it's impossible to evaluate your experiment without seeing either the ad or the landing page people got after clicking the ad. The fact that you did get over 60 clicks probably indicates that your ad actually reached at least some of your target customers so it's premature to call this experiment a failure.

  If the landing page for your ads was the home page of your website, that's most likely your problem. There are over 700 words, plus a video and a Flash banner that people might not see, and the call-to-action isn't clear. Are you selling a book? Selling websites? Offering a free web design guide? Too many words, and too many choices.

  Feel free to contact me directly if you have questions about these comments or want some suggestions for your next experiment.
• 

  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 27, 2010

  Hi Robert,

  I agree that I am too sensitive. I am actually kind of proud of that. I think most people are too insensitive and in the end I would rather be thought of as too sensitive.

  However, I am a professional author and have been publishing for 12 years, so the editors have thickened my skin a bit. I agree with your comments and think they are valuable. I think all the comments I have gotten are valuable and I am very grateful for them all. My plan is to go back this weekend to read them all and then spend the weekend formulating a new plan. Next week I will implement the plan and I may just create another article that shows the results.

  Thanks again for your insight. It is much appreciated.

  Sara
• 

  Posted by Angela Bustamante, New York, New York | May 27, 2010

  Thanks Sara for moderating an interesting discussion! You got everyone engaged and sharing info is a good thing for all of us-angela
• 

  Posted by Scott Plamondon, Redwood City, California | May 27, 2010

  Hi, I have wasted money on both Google ads and LI ads and come to the same conclusion: It is easy to get clicks (and spend) but very hard to get orders.

  LI was marginally better because it let me target individuals, but the rates are very high.
• 

  Posted by Brian Hansford, Redmond, Washington | May 27, 2010

  Excellent article that documented your test. I always learn when I read real world experiences.

  I haven't been a fan of AdWords for quite some time. The single biggest problem AdWords has is not being able to appropriately target the right audience. Advertisers are at the mercy of a user and how they enter a query.

  I would have hoped LinkedIn would perform better for you because I have considered evaluating that channel based on better targeting - guess not.

  A colleague of mine who is a CPA has had tremendous success using Facebook ads. She tried AdWords but punted on them.

  Cheers, Brian www.Zephyr47.com
• 

  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 27, 2010

  Hi Angela,

  Yes, this discussion has been awesome. I am just thrilled to be a part of it.

  Hi Scott,

  This whole thing is quite complicated (as the stream of emerging comments has revealed), but luckily we have sites like this where we can all learn from each other and hopefully avoid mistakes.

  Hi Brian,

  Thanks for saying that. I had hoped LinkedIn would have done better. I am reconsidering everything at the moment and hope to come out with a killer strategy soon.
• 

  Posted by John Huddleston, Bellevue, Washington | May 27, 2010

  I have many channels going (referrals, educational presentations, social media, SEO and Google Adwords). I have found Adwords to be very successful. I don't have specific statistics because it's not an online sale. Rather, a click results in an email or a telephone call. Further, upon inquiry I get a response like "I found you online" or even "I Googled . . ." This doesn't tell me if it was Adwords or my SEO efforts. However, once a potential client clicks, I assume I would have the same chance for success regardless of whether they clicked a paid ad or an organic listing. Since many of the people that call (and become clients for years) say "I found you online", my conclusion is that both my SEO efforts and Google Adwords are effective.

  Side Note: I did stop content advertising on Google Adwords because these are more likely to be people researching a particular tax topic anywhere in the World as opposed to someone looking for a local CPA.

  John Huddleston, CPA

  Bellevue/Seattle Accountants

  CPA tax preparation in Seattle Bellevue Redmond
• 

  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 27, 2010

  Hi John,

  Thanks for the input. It is all very helpful.

  Sara
• 

  Posted by Paul Travis, CMC, Bainbridge Island, Washington | May 27, 2010

  Sara, I might have missed these suggestions in skimming through all the feedback, but (a) it would be interesting to test a LinkedIn ad that IS pulling successfully in Google, as well as (b) testing the same ad on Facebook.
• 

  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 27, 2010

  Hi Paul,

  I have not tested Facebook ads and was not planning to. I have made a decision myself to only use Facebook for family and friends and not business. I use Twitter and LinkedIn, along with my own social network for business and Facebook is mostly just to connect with old friends.

  But someone else out there might do a test like that. The results could be interesting and would certainly add to the discussion.

  Sara
• 

  Posted by Christian Jacobsen, Seattle, Washington | May 27, 2010

  Hi Sara, Thank you for doing the experiment, presenting your results, and then keeping engaged with the conversation. This has turned into a VERY valuable thread!

  I'm wondering what audience you were targeting with your ad... I've looked at your profile, and been thinking about it, and I'm not sure what kind of an ad finds a common home on both LinkedIn and Google?

  If you are you targeting job seekers, then why advertise on Google? (This is the "needle in the haystack" argument.) Or are you advertising your custom tech solutions for small businesses? Then why advertise on a job hunters site?

  To boil it down to two focused questions:

  1. How did you decide that LinkedIn and Google were the appropriate audiences for your ad?

  2. Did you ever present your math to LinkedIn and get any explanation from them about how $10 x 3 = over $50? I would be curious to see what they have to say about this...

  Thank you for writing the article! This has been a great conversation!
• 

  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 28, 2010

  Hi Christian,

  Those are both excellent questions. As to #1, I only decided to do it because f the coupon they offered. If I had not had that, I honestly would not have done it. So, I have no good reason.

  As for #2, no I did not present my math to LinkedIn, but I will attempt to contact them now and see if I can find an explanation. If I get one, I will post it in the comments. Thanks for asking that.

  Sara
• 

  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 28, 2010

  I have a GREAT idea, I think.

  If a representative from Google and LinkedIn reads this, please contact me.

  I would love it if you would allow me to preform a proper scientific test which compares two ads using all the input we have gotten from this post, and you all (Google and LinkedIn) would pay the bill.

  I agree to write an article that presents my results and I would go into it as a third party observer, who is neither attached to either company, but looking for results.

  What do you say Google and LinkedIn?

  How about a Gladiator type scenario and may the best ad win.

  Heck, if Facebook wants to join the party, so be it.

  As long as I am not paying for it and it benefits my business I am locked in. I just love statistics. Oh, and just so you know, I actually majored in a degree that is all about statistics, so I am the perfect person to do this. YEAH!!!
• 

  Posted by Susan Templeton, Bellingham, Washington | May 28, 2010

  Sarah,

  Communication is an art --not a science!

  You did not state where your audience would most likely hang out---ie in which medium. THIS is the biggest point of all in making any media decision. for example: Realtors spend 2 hours on average per day on Facebook. Many don't even bother with Linkedin profiles. What does that tell you?

  The art of your communication--ie the relevance and attractiveness of your message-- has far more effect than how many people clicked on it.
• 

  Posted by Laura Joki, CPC, Portland, Oregon | May 28, 2010

  Thank you for the valuable insight! Have you heard anything about the facebook ads?
• 

  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 28, 2010

  Hi Susan,

  I agree that communication is an art, but when it comes to having measurable results that people respond to on a consistent basis, statistics rule. I'm just saying...

  Hey Laura, Nothing yet from Facebook, LinkedIn or Google, but I will contact them tomorrow morning and see if I get any nibbles. I am really pumped about the possibilities here. I never expected this kind of viral response, but it has me so energized. I feel like I am ready for anything now....

  more to come

  Sara
• 

  Posted by Elaine Way, Seattle, Washington | May 28, 2010

  Sara, Good luck on getting a hold of Google, let alone getting them to participate in anything. No offense but they are this big internet conglomerate sort of like the Borg and you need some kind of luck to get a hold of anybody there. I think that must be why many people are so frustrated with Google...there's nobody home when you need them!

  Elaine
• 

  Posted by Andy Havens, Galena, Maryland | May 28, 2010

  Hi Sara,

  I read and wrote a response yesterday while trying to resolve an issue with joining Biznik. (they let me in anyway as you can see :-) Please excuse me if someone has already dealt with this issue - it's a long discussion. That said...

  Good for you for trying something new. I agree there is lots of good advice here and some maybe not-so-good. But there is one key point to your success or lack of thereof that has been missed. More on that in a moment...

  So you know which side of the coin I landed on, I think Aaron Savage made some of the better points.

  Like if advertising is useless, why is Google making billions? Are all these so-called smart business people just throwing their money away? I doubt it.

  Do target your ads as much as possible.

  Do consider the conversion value of keywords per Barry Hurd

  Do other forms of marketing too.

  But above all - forget about how many "sales" you made!

  You heard me. Would you stand in an alley way and say to people walking by "Pssst. Buddy? Wanna buy a website?" Of course not.

  Did you send traffic to your home page or to a landing page designed specifically for your audience?

  Should you expect people coming to your website to think "Hey! Wow. Sara will show me how to build a website using web templates for only $25. I'm in!

  Or maybe you want visitors to buy your book on Social Networking?

  Or are you looking for clients to hire you for your design services? Are you going to slap together a template-based website for them? What are they going to think?

  Barry Hurd mentioned a sales funnel and again, I'd say he's on the right track.

  Decide on what your ultimate goal is going to be. Do you want a long-term customers or do you prefer to sell ebooks?

  If you want long-term clients who will spend a substantial amount of money on your services... do you think they will just walk in and drop a blank check in your lap? Hardly.

  Give them a chance to get to know you.

  Your one goal - for advertising campaigns, SEO and content marketing, social marketing should be to get people to raise their hands and say "Yeah, I'm interested." Get them started in your sales funnel. Take them by the hand and lead them step by step to a logical conclusion.

  In conclusion, part of the problem may be where you sent this traffic and what you expected from them. It is so hard to determine the success or failure of your experiment without first defining a specific goal.

  Regards,

  Andy
• 

  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 28, 2010

  Hi Andy,

  All excellent advice. I really appreciate that you took the time to write that.

  Sara
• 

  Posted by Aaron Savage, London, Greater London United Kingdom | May 28, 2010

  Sara

  I wrote a piece on how to engage visitors on your site, and was going to email you the address but I can apparently only send out a few messages a day.

  http://biznik.com/members/aaron-savage/articles/how-to-make-your-website-fulfil-your-marketing-requirements

  is where you will find the article. I hope it helps you.

  Sorry to everyone else about spamming the comments.
• 

  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 28, 2010

  Hi Aaron,

  Thanks and I will check it out.

  Sara
• 

  Posted by Gregory Goetz, Everett, Washington | May 28, 2010

  Even though our paralegal service (uncontested divorces and Wills) gets 40% of our business from referrals, we still would not be in business without AdWords, Yahoo Search, and my favorite .. Ask (super cheap). For us they bring in $3.35 for every dollar spent, vs. $1.12 for yellow pages, and .88 for TV ads. I like the fact that I have full control, not only over keywords and bids, but I can turn them off at any time, try different wording, run them at different times of day, etc. All my other advertising is set as one ad for a LONG period of time with no control to try something a little different. Linkedin sounds BAD though, and I thank you for relating information on them so I can avoid this one. Greg Goetz, Operations Manager
• 

  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 28, 2010

  Hi Greg,

  I may have to try out Ask. Thanks for telling me about your experiences.

  Sara
• 

  Posted by Paul Travis, CMC, Bainbridge Island, Washington | May 29, 2010

  You've gotten a ton of good input Sara, so I won't cover any of it other than the point I brought up about Facebook advertising.

  One of the things I learned 20 years ago when I left engineering for marketing, is that I am not my customer. Figure out where THEY hang out and fish in that pond. Ask people who've bought your book what magazines and websites they peruse.

  I thought your book was targeting corporate slaves. Do you think they hang out on Facebook? Guaranteed. Regardless of how you use it, their traffic is astonishing. See: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37398110/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

  Good luck with getting noticed by Google and LinkedIn!
• 

  Posted by Alan Boyer, Liberty, Missouri | May 29, 2010

  Sara

  The reason your ads didn't produce a sale was not the fault of the ad, but very likely the fault of the website landing page conversion rate.

  What conversion rate does that landing page have on it's own, with other sources of traffic?

  I've found that most websites have a conversion rate well less than 0.1%, but if you change the content of the landing page (what you say and how you say it until you are seriously connecting with that target market), conversion rates up in the 5% area is a good starting point, and, depending on what you are doing it could be 40%+ (probably not for a big dollar sale, but by leading them into a marketing funnel, you can get bigger results faster).

  90% of the people I hear that have just started a Google Adwords campaign say that it's costly and doesn't work. Yet, there are those of us that do EXTREMELY well with it.

  The cost of ANY marketing shouldn't be determined by the UP FRONT cost of marketing, but, instead by the "cost to acquire a client" the final cost.

  If you pay $1 per click, and send them to a website page that only gets 0.1% doing what you wanted them to do, then you'd have to have 1,000 people on that site at $1 each, or you'd pay $1,000 to get that lead. Unless you are selling something in the thousands of dollars that won't work. It'll kill your business quickly.

  BUT, if your website has a 10% conversion rate, which is possibly with the right marketing message, then you only have to have 10 people on the site before you get your first call, signup, or sale, or whatever it was you wanted to happen. That's only $10 to acquire that client. Now a $50 or more sale might just work, but if it's a smaller sale then you have to work on the cost per click.

  The whole point here is to NEVER EVER throw the marketing media out before you've DESIGNED the end result and then made it happen. Marketing is usually done with HOPE and PRAY type of marketing. Try this and HOPE it works. if it doesn't throw it out and try something else. But it won't work any better . . . because the same marketing message will have the same results.

  DESIGN the results so that you know what the conversion rate is for every step from landing page to click thru rates, and how many dollars you can afford to pay. Then align the end to end process to deliver at a rate you can afford.

  When you have a system that says that every time you do X, then Y number of clients fall out at $Z then the next question should be

  How many of these new clients do I want to buy?

  That's a totally different way of looking at marketing don't you think?
• 

  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 29, 2010

  Hey Paul,

  Great advice and good point about Facebook. I will certainly reconsider using it. I am reconsidering everything at the moment. And I agree about not being your own customer. That applies for me too and has made all of this very difficult. But, I am learning at a hyper pace, so I am very hopeful about it all.

  Hey Alan,

  Wow, that was some of the best advice so far. I do think that is a much better way of looking at marketing and I will definitley start looking at it like that. Thanks for the excellent feedback.

  Sara
• 

  Posted by Julie Murphy, Delray Beach, Florida | May 29, 2010

  What a wealth of useful comments and advice. Thank you, Sara, for getting the topic going, and thanks to all for their input.

  GoogleAds has always worked well for me, but our product is very specific and so using the right words in the ad description as well as the word search will lead people directly to us (the product is a bracelet with Nelson Mandela's prisoner number on it, so it's easy to make a targeted ad).

  I was recently tempted by fb ads and will experiment with that, as I like the idea of reaching a community that is aware of, and interested in, Nelson Mandela - and therefore most likely interested in finding out about our product. We can't do broad marketing to the masses - we need to find the people who will be interested in the messages of our campaign. I'm hoping that targeting large metropolitan cities like NYC, San Fran, LA, Chicago, Washington would make sense for our product, and some other criteria such as age and education.

  I'll give it a try and let you know the results!

  Julie
• 

  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | May 30, 2010

  Hi Julie,

  I would love to hear how your FB experiment goes. Please send me a message when you do.

  I have decided everyone that next week, I am going to design another ad campaign and redesign my landing page (maybe even my products). I will then do another experiment for a week and present the results in another article here. So, keep an eye out for that if you want to learn more.

  I think doing this will not only help me, but everyone else here too and I think that is just awesome!

  Sara
• 

  Posted by Daryl Welch, Portland, Oregon | Jun 01, 2010

  Hello Sara,

  I do a lot of AdWords work for my clients. Done correctly, it can bring business to local vendors and service providers that otherwise wouldn't get a phone call.

  While it isn't for everyone... and everyone's mileage will vary, it's a great tool!

  I too, received an offer from LinkedIn. I fired it up and ran through the credit in about 3 days with nothing to show for it. I received about 40,000 impressions (where they show the ad), I received a handful of clicks. The Click Through Ratio (CTR) was pathetic.

  If I had results like that from AdWords, it too would have been labeled a failure. The reality is that my clients get much better results from Google Adwords.

  Like any advertising medium, you have to know the game and how to play it. You also need to know the acceptable cost of getting a lead as well as the lifetime value of your customers.

  Thanks Daryl Welch
• 

  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | Jun 01, 2010

  Good points Daryl and thanks for sharing your results with us. I am in the middle of big changes to my website, along with the design of another set of ads. I plan on doing another big test and writing a follow-up article with the results. It is all very exciting.
• 

  Posted by Alan Boyer, Liberty, Missouri | Jun 01, 2010

  Daryl

  I haven't tried the LinkedIn Adwords, nor Facebook. But I had already assumed that the response rates would likely be very much like the content matching on Google Adwords.

  The response rates for the regular Google Adwords ads that appear on Google's search pages are where people are actually actively searching for that specific keyword. They are READY to click on SOMETHING, so the click thru rates are high for those with a good ad, and position.

  But, ads that show up on content matching partnering sites are an "afterthought." They are off to the side of someone's web content, someone's article, or something else. People only see the ad after reading the page. Sometimes it is only an accident that they see the ad over at the side.

  So, the response rates are usually EXTREMELY low. Where Google Adwords can hit response rates of 5% upwards to 20+%, the content matching is usually below 0.1%.

  I assume that same thing applies to ads that show up on LinkedIn, Facebook, or others. The ad is off to the side and not a primary thought, but, on occasion it catches someone's eye.

  However, since they are pay per clicks, what does it hurt to place the ad. You only pay if and when someone clicks on it. But I wouldn't DEPEND on it as a primary marketing tool.

  When you NEED a flow of clients this might not be the thing to do. But if it's in addition to well designed marketing that delivers exactly what you want, then this could become an added benefit.
• 

  Posted by Daryl Welch, Portland, Oregon | Jun 01, 2010

  Good Afternoon Alan,

  Good points. My comments were limited to "Search" related ads, NOT "content" placed ads.

  LinkedIn, Facebook, and other sites do operate in a "content" mode.

  Our readers should understand that these "tools", and many times it takes more than a single tool to complete a given job.

  Thanks Daryl Welch
• 

  Posted by Natalie Walker, Brooklyn, New York | Jun 04, 2010

  Hi Sara

  Great Article , I have recieved a free advertising dollars from Google , and will use it . Your article this thread could not have come at a better time . The feedback is great , as well ! Thanks again to Sara and all who contributed with thier expertise !
• 

  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | Jun 04, 2010

  Hey Natalie,

  Check back in a couple of weeks. It is going to get better. I am in the process of a major site redesign and will start a new experiment next week based on all the feedback here. When I am done, I will be creating an article with the results. I have great expectations about it all.

  Sara
• 

  Posted by Maximus Kang, Issaquah, Washington | Jun 06, 2010

  I think it's been mentioned above in prior comments, but I've found Facebook ads to be the greatest bang for your buck over Google Adwords by far. I haven't done any trial runs on Linked In so I'm afraid I cannot vouch for that. Great test & thanks for sharing Sara!
• 

  Posted by Elena Polyakova, Reading, Massachusetts | Jun 06, 2010

  I just found out that we might set a record: they charged me $36.60 per click.

  Below are the numbers:

  Clicks:17 Impressions: 207422 CTR:0.009% Price per click: $36.60 Total: $622.27

  I use Google and typically get CTR around 0.5% for similar adds. I believe that LinkedIn is a total fraud. Please stay away!
• 

  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | Jun 07, 2010

  Maximus,

  Thanks for the comment on Facebook. I saw you responded on the post I did too. As I said there, I will definitley be considering Facebook in the future, based on what I have learned here.

  Elena, OMG, you must be so furious. 36.60/click. That is incredible and awful too. Was it LinkedIn that charged you that? Surely that was not Google.

  Sara
• 

  Posted by Elena Polyakova, Reading, Massachusetts | Jun 07, 2010

  Google works great for us. I typically pay $0.3 per click and very happy with their services.

  I just got reply for LinkedIn: Hi Elena,

  As we have stated we cannot issue a refund regarding this ad. Our numbers are correct that are under the dashboard.

  Those are not fraudulent charges as we ran your ad as you set it up.

  You should review the ads agreement again to review what you agreed to at the time the ads were set up with us.

  Regards,

  Troy LinkedIn Customer Support

  ---

  Basically they say: "We do what we want". I think that something is wrong with their computer system and they just cheat. With Google I get CTR 0.4% and with LinkedIn 0.001%.

  Stay away form LinkedIn scam!!!!!!
• 

  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | Jun 07, 2010

  Absolutely!

  Eleana, thanks so much for sharing that. I will mention it in the follow-up article I do on this. Our greatest power as small business owners is through communication with each other, so that we can watch out for stuff like that.

  Sara
• 

  Posted by Alan Boyer, Liberty, Missouri | Jun 07, 2010

  $36 per click sounds like a lot, and not sure why that may have happened.

  Is that for exactly the same keywords as you were paying less for on Google?

  Although the click thru rates seem significantly less, they don't bother me. You don't pay for those you don't get, only for those you do get. And, LinkedIn works pretty much like Google's content matching which always delivers considerably lower click thru rates. The reason is that no one was directly looking for those keywords like they are on Google. Those ads are off to the side, and are an "after thought" for any reader of that profile. The result is always MUCH LOWER click thru rates.

  But, they should result in a much higher conversion rate for the traffic it generates on your website because they should be much more targeted prospects, at least IF you set up the target definition right.

  Alan Boyer $100K Coach

  A Shortcut to your first $100K within a couple of months
• 

  Posted by Mr. Dennis Ford Jr, Houston, Texas | Jun 08, 2010

  Morning Sara,

  Here is my 2cents lol...Go here and then follow the steps then let me know what you think.

  Anyone that wants to understand how to Master the Internet, and Market like the Pro's.

  Click Here......
• 

  Posted by Eric Basir, Evanston, Illinois | Jun 08, 2010

  Great article. I got really burned with adwords. It's extremely technical and I don't have the brains or funds to staff real research to get it done right. I use GoogleAnalytics for no-charge. However, that too, is highly technical. Seems I get alot of "organic" clicks and traffic from blog/articles/videos/e-newsletter.
• 

  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | Jun 09, 2010

  Hi Denis, I am afraid your link did not who up. You may have to type it out fully.

  Hi Eric, I am in the middle of a huge experiment that involves a total redesign of my website and a whole new set of ads that will run longer. I will be running the test next week and monitoring the whole time. When I am done, I will put out another article which shows the results. Hopefully, it will do more than just boost my business, it will help boost everyone else's as well and to me, that is the best kind of effort possible. I am so pumped up about it, I can hardly sit still.

  More to come everyone....
• 

  Posted by Shaun Lawrence, Irvine, California | Jun 12, 2010

  Interesting post. I have used Adwords with success but not LinkedIn or Facebook. I have been thinking about trying both to see what kind of results I can get. I am concerned about LinkedIn now, do the limits not work?
• 

  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | Jun 14, 2010

  Hi Shaun,

  I understand your concern. I am starting a new experiment this week and I will be carefully monitoring the limits. I hope to have some more info regarding this issue soon.

  more to come....The big experiment starts today
• 

  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | Jun 14, 2010

  Ok everyone, The AdWars have officially begun. After a major strategic web redesign, I have started a new experiment that I am calling AdWars. At the end of the experiment, I will write a follow-up article with the results, but basically, I have incorporated most of the advice offered in the comments of this article. If you would like to follow the daily chronicles of this experiment, you can check out my blog.

  Oh, and get this: Today, when I went in to create my LinkedIn ad, I saw that LinkedIn changed my total charge for the last experiment to be $30. They changed it. It was not that in the beginning. I bet someone from there read this article and they are covering their tracks. Sneaky, sneaky. Beware large companies with daily limits. I'm just saying.

  Sara
• 

  Posted by Natalie Walker, Brooklyn, New York | Jun 14, 2010

  Hi Sara

  I really appreciate what you are doing , Its fabulous ! I will follow you day by day ! Wishing you loads of roi!

  -Natalie
• 

  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | Jun 14, 2010

  Thanks Natalie,

  Honestly, I am having so much fun that even if I do not get a great ROI, it will be worth it. I am also learning so much and I just love that I can share it with everyone.

  Sara
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  Posted by James V Jackson II, Coppell, Texas | Jun 14, 2010

  Great ad Natalie, also great response from everyone who responded. What I would like to say first as a 7yrs. experienced internet sales consultant that worked for superpages.com yellowpages.com, Dallas Morning News and now a Adzoo Campaign Directors is that paid internet marketing is changing month in and month out. Which means you have to watch and manage your ads daily. Second thing is do not put all your eggs in one basket now days you need a total market ad campaign mixed with social media mixed with high traffic sites that is managed by a dedicated account representative. There are companies out there with patent software that is managing businesses ads and keeping the monthly cost to a flat minnimum. Google changes its algorithm for adwords almost ever quater which make it a little difficult for the average business owner to be successful and keep up with the changes and focus on his or her business. That being said, it is best to find a company that specilized in internet and social media marketing and has been certified as a premire Google Adword specialist. This way you will be able to track all your results and have a open door communication with your account mangager about your campaign. Last I am a rep and would be more than happy to help any business owner who would like to advertise on Google, Facebook etc, for a flat monthly fee. No contract and money back guarantee, there are several options. Please see the following website for more info. Please feel free to contact me with any questions we are all here for a reason and that is to help each other out! Thank and God Bless
  http://www.localidentity.adzzoo.biz
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  Posted by Sara Morgan, St Francisville, Louisiana | Jun 15, 2010

  Hi James,

  I understand what you are saying about how the game is changing and hiring experience is good. But, here is the problem most small business owners like myself face:

  1.) We usually cannot afford to pay someone

  and

  2.) Even if we do have the money, it is hard to find someone you can trust. There are just too many people out there that take advantage of other people. It makes me sick because it makes it 1000 times harder for legitimate people to prove themselves.

  What I like to do is help empower small business owners so that they can do things for themselves and not have to hire someone.

  That is what I am hoping this experiment will do for others like me - give us the knowledge to get the biggest bang for our buck.
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  Posted by Stephen Lalla, Candler, North Carolina | Jul 28, 2010

  Hi Sara,

  Great response to James and great article. Had a friend who got talked into a way too expensive monthly internet yellowpages ad campaign that completely failed and nearly drove him out of business. Side note: I'm originally from New Orleans and graduated from LSU. Spent some fun days hiking in the woods of St. Francisville. All the best..SJL
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  Posted by wayne atherton, london, london United Kingdom | Sep 29, 2010

  Most forms of advertising Don't Work I see these kind of comments all over the web I however can guarantee that google marketing works That is natural search not adwords getting your website on page one of google can have dramatic results on your traffic. I have spent the last 3 years perfecting this want to know more email me or visit http://140marketing.co.uk
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  Posted by Chris Keller, Waterloo, Ontario Canada | Nov 26, 2010

  I definitely think there are some advantages to Linkedin Direct Ads over Google Adwords.

  Check this out

  http://www.profitworks.ca/joomla/index.php/blog/81-linkedin-advertising-in-waterloo
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  Posted by David Godbold, Melbourne, Victoria Australia | Dec 17, 2010

  I have trying out linkedin ads using a coupon that they sent me. My experience was firstly they hit me up for a $5.00 charge on my CC without telling me.

  Firstly I configured my add for impression which was a big mistake as these clock up quick without any clicks being generated.

  Secondly I reconfigured the account to use CPC and set my limit to $10 a day. This worked better as the number of clicks is low so well under the $10 a day budget.

  I will be monitoring Analytics to try and determine how this relates vs my adwords.

  I believe you need to use a combination of: adwords other advertising SEO Social media FB, twitter Article writing Good page content and time, to generate sales
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  Posted by Jonathan Rackowe, London United Kingdom | Feb 12, 2011

  Beware! Don't get caught out by the LinkedIn Ads promotions. - I recommend avoiding LinkedIn DirectAds.

  Just before Christmas 2010 I got a $100 promotional coupon emailed to me by LinkedIn to try DirectAds. I had to register my credit card with them for a $5 initial charge to open the account. A few weeks later I checked to see how the ad trial was going and found that over $250 had been taken from my credit card account (in four separate transactions) as the $100 coupon amount had been used in just a few days! I had received no notification from LinkedIn of any of these charges to my credit card.

  I have disputed this with LinkedIn and they say that the user agreement says they can charge the registered credit card for any amount at any time !

  LinkedIn refuse to accept that the promotion was unclear about charging and they point blank refuse to refund any of the charges. In fact they took a final $48 more after I asked for my credit card to be removed from their system. I never had any trouble like this with Google Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing.

  Don't fall for the marketing hype - save your money and avoid LinkedIn Ads.
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  Posted by David Berkey, Edmonds, Washington | Feb 14, 2011

  I see a lot of comments from people who successfully utilize both Google and LinkedIn. That's great! But Jonathan pointed out what the real issue here is poor customer service, which lowers the brand value. LinkedIn thought they owned him, while Google recognized the value of his dollar and notified him prior spending his money. The point I see here is that LinkedIn's professionalism is a bit tarnished by Jonathan's example. Their brand is lowered, possibly not making them the best choice, especially for the uninitiated. Perhaps, it's best to only use LinkedIn if you hire a professional social media marketer that utilizes LinkedIn, understanding their billing policy. Let Google be the better choice for others, as their barrier to entry is lower, being more understandable. So, Jonathan, you make a great point. It's not about which company's adwords are better. It's about service to the customer and how a customer wants to be treated.
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  Posted by Paul Kyriazi, San Francisco, California | Mar 09, 2011

  I replied before, but see you have re-newed interest in this. Great. You're helping a lot of people Sara. Thank you. I didn't get burned as bad, but yes, no results. Better to market elsewhere. T
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  Posted by Charles Wyatt, Gladstone, Oregon | May 22, 2011

  Sara, thank you for posting this; if nothing else, for the Gold Mine of feedback you have unearthed. I received a $100.00 Adwords voucher from my website host and traffic did pick-up, but, it didn't result in conversions. What I found interesting from the campaign, however, was that most of the clicks came from government entities, primarily school districts. Most of them were from Canada or the New York area; I attribute this to the nature of the product. I agree Google's Customer Service is something to be desired, but, it isn't nearly as much pain as Bing/Yahoo!'s ad service. I hadn't even thought about trying LinkedIn and after the feedback, I will forgo any such forays- thanks for saving me some money. I have kicked-off another Adwords campaign, though, with a different product, and I will see what results I get with that. Thank you for the article.
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  Posted by Paul Kyriazi, San Francisco, California | May 22, 2011

  Sara, your article is a few days short of a year now, and it's still helping people I see. Your saving many people time, money, and disapointment.