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As one of the host sites in all 50 states of the Google Partners seminar today, Ad House Advertising had a good turnout of locally owned businesses and organizations interested in online marketing.

The live seminar, streamed from Google’s Mountain View, CA campus, addressed many questions that small and medium sized business ask about the internet and online pay-per-click marketing. Some interesting points that we really agreed with from the seminar:

1. Your website is the same as a shop window to a retail business. It should entice people to come in, browse, have a great experience, and become a buyer. Just like a “We’re Closed” sign on a business, a website that isn’t user-friendly will drive prospective customers away.

2. In online marketing (and ALL marketing), first ask the three basic questions: How is your business different from your competitors? What do you want this marketing effort to achieve? Who is your best target?

3. Determine what your average customer is worth. Once you know that, a solid ROI-based marketing effort can be designed that will improve your bottom line.

4. Online reviews are vital. 90% of consumers look for reviews and use them to determine which company or product to purchase. Only 45% of businesses have any reviews. (We advocate heavily for Google+ pages for businesses and to make it easy for your customers to write reviews on Google versus other review sites like Yelp. Why? With 85% market share, Google gives you more exposure. Reviews there can also favorably impact PPC ads.)

5. Attracting customers through online pay-per-click advertising is about the relevance of the ad. Ad content, as well as your website, must focus on targeted keywords. Generic cook

ie-cutter ads provide wasted clicks, weaker results and a poor user experience.

The Google presentation lasted just over one hour, then our guests asked questions specific to their businesses for the next 90 minutes! From business services to home improvement, non-profits to start up endeavors, it was a mix of very interested owners and leaders learning about changes in marketing.

This was the first event with a live stream from Google experts, targeted to business owners. Ad House Advertising frequently holds short seminars on topics such as website development, video advertising, online marketing and others. Seminars are always at no charge, and are posted at AdHouseAdvertising.com/seminars.