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Patrysha
06-22-2009, 08:53 AM
I started with some Facebook CPC ads this weekend, getting about a 10% click thru rate through the weekend, but then I started thinking maybe I should be looking at Google instead, but I only have a small budget ($200 for paid internet marketing) so should I make the switch...go back and forth...do both?

Target is local people or those who will be going through at some point during the summer (July 2nd to August 31st) - I've just been targeting our town and the nearest town over, over 18 - about 1700 ppl on Facebook...

The promotion is supported on the outside world by Video Billboard (for one week, starts Thursday), radio (two stations, low repetition) and posters (in store and around town).

vangogh
06-22-2009, 12:17 PM
It depends on your market and where they are, but in general I'd think ads on Google would work better than ads on Facebook. Most research seems to say social media users aren't buyers. That may change as more people use social media.

You could still do Google for $200 a month, but why not try $100 in each and test for a month or two in order to see which works best.

KristineS
06-22-2009, 12:49 PM
I'm thinking Google ads, but just because then you could get the people who are Googling your area to see what's happening and what's available. Don't know how much tourist traffic you get in your area, but I'm guessing they would be more inclined to go to Google than Facebook.

Patrysha
06-22-2009, 06:42 PM
Yeah, I'm thinking I may have to hunker down and learn the art of Google...

I'll worry about that on Thursday...

Tourists drive through here, but don't really stop and stay unless they have family. Well except for campers and outdoor enthusiasts I think. We do get a lot of drive through traffic from the northern parts of the province of ppl heading to the city. If we could get them to stop for more than gas & food, that would be cool :-)

painperdu
06-23-2009, 06:54 AM
Try both. Google is great for location targeting. Also check out Google "Local Business Center". One of the hot topics right now is how to get your listing to rank high on Google local maps, which would be great advertisement in your case.

Patrysha
06-23-2009, 08:28 AM
I am on Google local for my business...as are most of the merchants on board with the program. Not sure it could be applied to a short term program though and am not going to mess with it using my address and phone number as that could get messed up if they thought it was a duplicate submission from what I've read.

Aaron Hats
07-09-2009, 12:10 PM
I've been using Adwords for quite a while but just started Facebook ads about five days ago. Got my first order from it last night. I'm not spending a lot and have it only showing in our home state, NH. I put in the ad that we're the only hat store in NH and since it's only targeted to those over 18 and in NH I figured it would be a good test.

Aaron

PS: Become a fan of ours (http://www.facebook.com/pages/North-Conway-NH/Aaron-Hats-GetaHatOncom/98251832260?ref=mf)

vangogh
07-09-2009, 12:21 PM
Aaron definitely keep us updated on how the Facebook ads are working for you. Nice that you already have an order from it.

dwiads
07-11-2009, 11:50 PM
Have you try offline ads as well? I think if the target is local people it is better to have offline ads.
However if you targeted the age of your website visitors, I think facebook could be effective when google cannot target on the age of the visitors but google can target the keywords or people interest.

Patrysha
07-12-2009, 01:58 AM
Yeah the offline stuff includes in-store (21 different merchants around town), radio, video board, publicity and posters on the "yard sale" boards...I've pulled the facebook ads for now though and never did get started with the google...we're at just under 2000 customers registered and until I get more registration cards printed (I had started with 1500, went with 1000 more and am not sure whether to go with 500 or 1000 more when I order on Monday...I thought we'd top out at about 10% of the town participating but obviously I underestimated...

SearchDarren
07-14-2009, 01:42 PM
Whatever marketing activity you chose to go with, and my advice would be to try both, it's crucial to track and analyze the results and learn from this data.

Providing you understand your conversion rate and Lifetime Value of a new customer, you can apply reverse engineering to make sure that you are not paying too much high CPC's on Google or other search engines.

Hope this helps.

vangogh
07-14-2009, 01:46 PM
t's crucial to track and analyze the results and learn from this data.

Great point. Truthfully none of us can really tell you what will or won't work. We can take a best guess based on our experience and the experience of others, but ultimately the only way to know what will or won't work for you is to test both and see.