So Many Hats!

Fortunately, for those of us who don’t intuitively understand how to analyze the amazing amount of data that can be collected from a website, there is Google Analytics. Delving into not only the information Google Analytics supplies, but also the recommendations it makes helps me to feel as though I have a marketing partner, holding my hand through this learning process.

Once I overcame the surprise of seeing the number of clicks and impressions on my site, and determining to issue a newsletter soon for those who have signed up, I found the information from Google Ads and Google Analytics valuable as I adjust my ads for the future.

My biggest hiccup in this process is figuring out what Wix (my hosting site) does and what information I need to provide. In some senses, it’s as though Wix and Google Analytics are providing the same information and I ask myself whether I need them both. For the purposes of this class, I will, of course, do both. But as I look to the weeks ahead when I don’t have assignment deadlines and more information to learn, I can take a more careful approach to the type of information each site offers. I may stay with them both, but I may find that one is enough.

Moving forward this week, I updated my ad for heritage products and turned off a couple keywords that weren’t working. I’m look forward to seeing whether these changes have any positive result.

Now, to create my first newsletter, because there are eight people out there in the world who are waiting on me!

Google Analytics

Many years ago, there was a commercial on TV showing four or five people surrounding a lonely laptop computer sitting on a folding table in the middle of an empty warehouse-type room. Someone clicked “Start” and they were thrilled when the order box turned from zero to one. Within minutes another several orders popped up and the group became excited, laughing and cheering each other on. It quickly got out of hand, though, when several became many and many became an overwhelming number in the thousands; sort of an oh-my-gosh-what-have-we-got-ourselves-into moment. (The ad was for UPS).

As I signed up for Google Analytics this week, I opened my Google Ads Campaign and quickly discovered that my ad was running. I had over 85 hits and 2.53k impressions! When I went to my store page, I also realized I didn’t have the right kind of hosting set up to actually make sales online. This learning process is a bit of a “J” curve.

I can see that the different pieces of information Google shows me in relation to my ad campaign will help me make decisions going forward; things like the timing of my ads and the demographics of who is clicking on my site. I hope to understand better the data on each of the charts as time goes by and I generate sales. It will be exciting to see monetary results of my efforts.

With the limited amount of traffic already to my site, I can tell that people are actually reading my ads and responding to them. That’s a pretty heady feeling. And on top of all that, four people signed up for my newsletter! A newsletter that doesn’t exist yet!

I’ll be working on that in the coming days…

Advertising

One of my favorite movies, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dreamhouse, includes a quote with an interesting slant on advertising:

Jim Blandings, the father and an advertising executive, is sitting with his wife and two daughters at the breakfast table. His daughter, Joan, is sharing her teacher's opinion...

Joan Blandings: Miss Stellwagon says advertising is a basically parasitic profession.Jim Blandings: You don't say?Joan Blandings: Miss Stellwagon says advertising makes people who can't afford it, buy things they don't want, with money they haven't got.Jim Blandings: Oh she does, does she? Well perhaps your Miss Stellwagon is right. Perhaps I should quit this basically parasitic profession, which at the very moment is paying for your fancy tuition and those extra French lessons and that progressive summer camp - to say nothing of the very braces on your back teeth.

I would love to have a profession where people desparately needed my [advice, skills, talents] and I didn't need to advertise at all. My husband has been a general contractor for his entire career and he hasn't advertised once. We haven't always known what he was going to be doing six months down the road, but he has never been out of work. 

That being said, creating ads for my new website is a chance for me to exercise my creativity in a way that is so completely different from my normal writing that it becomes an exciting challenge. Google Ads is a fairly easy to use tool to work with. 

In addition, the focus of our website is to reincarnate old wood into something new and useful, while maintaining a sentimental legacy. When I think of the joy and happiness someone can derive from turning a piece of junk into something new and beautiful, I believe we are doing something worthwhile, all while helping people remember their heritage or ancestry.

Advertising is a necessary function of letting potential customers know we're here in the middle of the country willing and able to share what we know with the world. The Internet has made it possible for us to reach others on a global level, but good advertising separates us from the competition. We have something special. We just need to get the word out and do it well.

I don't want to influence people to buy from me who can't afford it. I want to share beautiful things with people who will appreciate the skill and talent required to create it. At the same time, most of the things I plan to sell have some kind of practical use. 

Perhaps it isn't so parasitical after all.

The power of words

For the last several years, words have been my life. After publishing six novels, I believe in the importance of word choice. In a story, the difference between choosing a passive phrase or an active phrase influences how connected your reader feels to your character (and whether or not they finish your book). As a writer, I have had to learn to write differently from how I talk. And although I’m getting better with my first drafts, there are still multiple revisions that fine tune my use of words.

Keywords share a similar power. The right keyword will bring the buyer you are hoping for. The wrong keyword will bring someone who might surf through your website, but won’t be interested in what you’re selling. My target market isn’t as big as others may be and I want to make sure the people who come to my website are looking for high quality, hand-crafted turned wood sculpture and dishes. Even those looking for wood wall art will not be happy with my product line. Therefore, it is essential to choose keywords effectively.

Google is that vast ethereal cyber-something that honestly overwhelms me most of the time. Thank goodness for a class that holds my hand through a system so big it could handle any size of company; from a mom-and-pop operation to the largest corporation. Being able to get computerized help with advertising and keywords gives me a confidence I truly need to succeed. As I slowly navigate my way through creating my first ad campaign, I can see the value of taking advantage of the Internet benefits as much as simply being able to launch my website.

I’m looking forward to seeing the results of my journey through GoogleAds.