How to use Google Adwords as more than just a way to pay the two-hour parking meter

I normally don’t like to repeat content, but I wrote a post earlier this week over at Other Side Group on when to start using Google Adwords for their B2B company website. Since some sort of pay-for advertising is pretty run-of-the-mill in many B2B industries, this ends up being an interesting topic.

The case company had a very old, static, and simple website that hadn’t changed in five years, has old and weak SEO, had no metrics or analytics installed or was any web activity being tracked….. yet they were still paying a large hunk of money each month for PPC ads.

So what do they do while they’re redoing their website? Do they stop Adwords?

I use the following analogy:

They’re simply paying the meter to reserve a parking spot, and hope they don’t have a cop come around and write them a ticket or tow the car away. Because that’s what would happen the minute they stopped paying the meter if they’d relied on their existing website.  The Adwords are only giving them short-term benefits while they’re still paying.

What we’re working towards is building their own parking lot where they won’t have to worry about paying the meter: An architecturally strong website, with sophisticated SEO, continually updated content, metrics in place to determine how people are accessing and using the site, and developing more paths for people to get there.

It’s about creating a strong, long-term foundation through an architecturally sound website (SEO, keywords… all that good stuff) and only then supplementing it with the short-term gains felt by PPC.

You can find the full discussion here, and I’ll be sure to update you as we move through the process.

What have been your experiences with Google Adwords?