By Jacob Baadsgaard
That's far from the truth, however. As digital takes on an increasingly larger role in the advertising landscape, it is easier than ever for a small business to compete with even its largest competitor.
Here are a few ideas to help you make your AdWords campaign look like a big player.
Adding sitelinks to ads will give customers more options as they research, as well as help an ad stand out visually on the results page. Ads with sitelinks can take up almost double the real estate as a traditional ad; just look at this ad from Beats.
In addition to the ad, Beats included links to their other products and some of their promotions too. This gives the customer additional choices and ensures that the Beats ad is the most obvious and appealing.
Despite these benefits, very few small businesses take advantage of the opportunity that sitelinks provide. By spending a few minutes on the AdWords knowledge base (or within Website Magazine's "Quick Guide to AdWords Sitelinks" at wsm.co/qgsitelinks) advertisers will experience higher click-through rates, improved quality scores and increased ROI.
Display ads are also a very powerful tool in generating traffic to websites. Clicks from display ads are not only significantly cheaper than text ads appearing in the search results, but also more ubiquitous. Instead of only reaching customers when they are searching online, advertisers can ensure their ads (and subsequently, their logos, products, services and promotions) are seen when users are scanning the news, shopping online or reading their emails.
Display campaigns, however, can be a little more difficult to set up than traditional search campaigns. It is critical that the targeting criteria being used are thoroughly tested and re-tested in order to ensure that ads are only driving traffic to the site or page desired (display campaigns can often run amok if not optimized properly).
Chances are, clients are searching for your business on their mobile devices. With this in mind, 60 percent of searchers want directions and the call button (a.k.a. call extension pictured here) in ads served on their smartphones, according to Google.
As you can see, a customer that is searching on their mobile device can call a business with one click. This is invaluable for local businesses or any company that sells products or services. To make a customer's experience as convenient as possible, giving them the option to call the business from the results page is a surefire way to improve conversion rates.
AdWords also gives advertisers the ability to track these phone calls, their duration and when they occurred. This is convenient, as advertisers don't have to worry about online-to-offline conversion tracking.
While these tactics are slightly more advanced than the basics, they can provide businesses with the boost in sales they've been looking for.
Jacob Baadsgaard is the CEO of Disruptive Advertising and a passionate digital marketer and entrepreneur.