Karen Rubin's Ramblings

Is AdWords Expensive?

I recently used Google Adwords to generate some traffic to a landing page I created for a personal product I was advertising. I've been in the AdWords game since about 2005 and I've worked mostly with B2B companies, using AdWords to generate traffic and leads. I knew that by using AdWords I'd be able togenerate some quick traffic to my landing page without spending too much money. But I learned quickly that this wasn't necessarily the case.

2005 - The Online Gold Rush

What was great about 2005 and the advent of AdWords was affordability. It was a time where opportunity was ripe for businesses of all sizes to generate low cost, qualified traffic using AdWords. At that time, I had proposed to my current CEO to run an AdWords campaign to get us some leads. I remember the days of spending at most $1000/month and receiving Click Through Rates as high as 5%, plus a whole lot of traffic. But since 2005, keyword costs have increased.

Why the Increase?

There are a lot of legitimate reasons for keywords to increase in price. Much of it has to do with competition and new players entering a market. The popularity of AdWords and of using online as a way to advertise means more businesses are putting money into Google. AdWords is Google's primary source of revenue and in 2010 that number is a staggering $28B. And some may even go so far as to wonder if Google has any influence on the pricing of their keywords to increase their bottom line?

How Much Does it Cost?

It's actually hard for me to make a statistical inference that all keyword prices have gone up since 2005, due to my inability to access all of that data. But it is certain that you will find a lot of online sentiment making the case that it is indeed getting expensive. Since I can't speak on the behalf of everyone, I can only give you some personal examples and general observations from campaigns I've worked on since 2005.

Let’s take a look at some keyword pricing data:

Keyword term: wildflower seeds
Keyword Cost in 2005: $0.62*
Keyword Cost in 2011: $1.56**
Percentage Increase in Cost: 150%
*captured from a screenshot printed in Andrew Goodman's book Winning Results with Google AdWords
**keyword cost in 2011 is based on Google's own estimate using their keyword tool

Keyword term: human resources
Keyword Cost in 2005: $0.16*
Keyword Cost in 2011: $2.29**
Percentage Increase in Cost: 1293%
*captured from a screenshot printed in Andrew Goodman's book Winning Results with Google AdWords
**keyword cost in 2011 is based on Google's own estimate using their keyword tool

Keyword term: policy administration
Keyword Cost in 2008: $0.66*
Keyword Cost in 2011: $3.05**
Percentage Increase in Cost: 362%
* based on my own data from an Enterprise Insurance campaign (B2B)
**keyword cost in 2011 is based on Google's own estimate using their keyword tool

Keyword term: product development software
Keyword Cost in 2008: $0.85*
Keyword Cost in 2011*: $3.48
Percentage Increase in Cost: 309%
* based on my own data from an Enterprise Insurance campaign (B2B)
**keyword cost in 2011 is based on Google's own estimate using their keyword tool

What's Going on Here?

It's discouraging to see such dramatic price increases. If you look at the data above, it means that in 2005 you could run a campaign for the keyword 'human resources' that would cost $160 for 1000 clicks. If you ran that same campaign now it would cost $2,229, based on a single keyword. Add multiple keywords, and you get my point.

So What's the Alternative?

Fortunately, there are still ways to generate qualified traffic to your website. I'm not here to discount AdWords altogether but if you want to setup a campaign, make sure you do it carefully and optimize it well, otherwise you could burn through a lot of money quickly. Consider the other players in the industry as well like Microsoft and Yahoo.

And of course, using tools like SEO, blogging and inbound marketing are sure-fire ways to generate more qualified traffic to your site. Most of these methods are affordable and over a period of time the costs eventually diminish (considered an investment). So instead of pulling out your wallet, consider creating amazing and engaging content and getting it out to the masses.

I have to say, I didn't think the day would come where I wouldn't be a huge fan of AdWords. Frankly, it'sgetting too expensive and less democratic. The next few years should be interesting for Google.

Additional Resources
If you’re interested in learning more about using inbound marketing to drive your marketing efforts then I highly suggest you check out these resources:

Hubspot – it would be remiss of me to mention the company that pretty much put the term Inbound Marketing into our daily online lexicon. They have a ton of resources on their website and I highly suggest you check out their blog to get started.

If you do want to give AdWords a go, I would still recommend that you check out Andrew Goodman’s book called Winning Results with Google AdWords. It’s an intense ready but it still stands the test of time. And here’s an article from the Hubspot blog on Adwords: How to Maximize PPC Campaigns and Optimize Landing Pages

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About the author: Zaid Rasid is the founder of the internet marketing blog Better Social* Skills. He provides expert social media, lead generation & brand awareness advice to small and medium sized businesses. For a practical look at how online marketing can work for you, visit www.zaidrasid.com or follow him on twitter. 

One of my favorite podcasts is Stanford's Entrepreneurial Though Leaders series. Every couple of weeks during the semester they have fascinating people come talk about being entrepreneurs and they record the talks and make it all available online. 

A couple of weeks ago, they published a talk by Bill Gross the CEO of Idealab which included a brilliant section about the skill set needed in a management team. Bill outlines 4 different types of people you need on your management team to succeed. 

• The Entrepreneur -  is the visionary. They see the big picture, loves inventing things and can envision the future. They are frequently trying to do things ahead of their time.
• The Producer - is the person who actually makes things happen (or as we say at HubSpot, gets shit done.) They can take an idea, execute on it, sell it, and get things into peoples hands. 
• The Administrator - helps to organize things. They put systems in place to keeps the trains running on time, make sure everyone get's paid and that the company runs smoothly.
• The Integrator - is more of a people person. They understand the other three types of people and helps them get along. They are generally more worried about what other people are thinking or feeling than the product or customer and often bridges the gap between the other personality types. 

Bill explains that no one is just one of these personality types, but we each have strengths and weaknesses. For example, strength is as a P and I do alright as an I. I realized awhile ago that I am not an E. If you give me a vision, I can execute and get it done, but I am not the idea generator. 

Bill also explains that it's important when you are forming a company to make sure you have these personality types present. For example, if your two co-founders are E's, they have no one that can actually get the product built. They need to bring in a P. Once they have a P, they need to bring in an A to put some systems in place to keep things running smoothly. When you have an E, a P and an A in the same place, you have to have an I because there is going to be tension between them that has to be resolved. 

I thought this was an interesting way to think about the people and skill sets you need on a team. What do you think? What are you? And what skills do you need to add to fill in your weaknesses? 

While it was snowing away here in New England, I spent last week in sunny Las Vegas. I was there for the Marketing Sherpa Email Summit both as an attendee and as a speaker. 

Maggie was kind enough to record my presentation and I spent this snowy morning putting in my slides. If you are interested in the future of email marketing and how email marketing fits into an inbound marketing approach, enjoy!

On Friday, Mike Volpe suggested I start following ProductManagementTips.com, a blog run by a former colleague of his. I've been reading through some of the past posts, and just loved this quote from the article Managing Stakeholder Expectations via Product Council, 

"After all, product management is like herding cats. Sales goes and makes promises to customers without asking the product group, marketing wants their projects done first, your development team has their own pet projects, customer support wants customer’s burning issues fixed first, professional services want projects that will make them do implementations faster. And all of this needs to be done in a short time with limited engineering resources."

I'm not sure I could have described the challenges that come along with prioritizing projects better. The article goes on to talk about how monthly product council meetings can help you manage internal expectations about priorities better, but how you still need to manage communications about progress in between meetings. 

It was a timely article, because this past week we had our first product council meeting. At first I was skeptical, mostly because the name sounds so big company and I am partially allergic to meetings with fancy names. However I found it to be an excellent opportunity to run some of the prioritization decisions I am currently focused on by the HubSpot management team to get their thoughts. 

We didn't use the same approach suggested in the article, the meeting was less about decision making and more about discussion. With so many teams that have different priorities, as described above, it's hugely beneficial for each team to hear the thoughts and opinions of the others. I found that the meeting both succeeded in keeping the management team updated on the direction I am headed, and helped me take their thoughts and opinions into account more fully. 

What are some other approaches that you have used for keeping team with different priorities on the same page? 

* Photo Attributes to Morbuto

This is the 16th and last post in this series which has detailed everything you ever wanted to (and didn't want to) know about the two weeks Jared and I spent in Ireland and London. To start at the very beginning, go here

Day 16 – Time to go home

This morning was the most hectic day of our trip. We realized after we got up that we still needed to pay, and our hotel charged a 5% fee to use the credit card. I ran out to get cash and after 4 ATMs rejected me, I gave up and accepted the fee.

We then got to the Tube to go to the airport and I realized I had completely forgotten my Kindle under my pillow at the hotel. I ran back and got it.

Then we get into the Tube station and our Oyster Cards (tube tickets, like the Charlie Card in Boston) was 20 cents short of getting there. You can only put more than 5 pound on the card with a credit card, and the machines won’t give change for our 10 pound note, so I ran to the street, bought a banana and we added money to the card.

Then we get to the tube line we want to take, and they are saying they aren’t making any stops at Paddington station – the station we want to go to. We have no idea how to get to Heathrow without going through Paddington. We get on the tube and just hope they make announcements telling us what to do.

The train DOES stop at Paddington (our first break) and we find out we missed the train to the airport and have to wait 45 minutes for the next one. Fine, we get our ticket, some breakfast and sit down to wait.

Things went pretty smoothly from there, but the Heathrow airport is crazy. It has two times as many passport and security checks as any other airport we have gone through, we were both overwhelmed and exhausted by the time we got to our gate.

We made the flight, and as of writing this are on our way home to two lonely kitties and work tomorrow. You go away so you can remember how good your life is, and we are both excited to be coming home.

This is the 15th post in what will eventually be a 16 post series detailing everything you ever wanted to (and didn't want to) know about the two weeks Jared and I spent in Ireland and London. To start at the very beginning, go here. 

Day 15 – London

On our last day of vacation, I woke up and took a long run in Hyde Park. If there was one thing I wanted to do more of in London, it was spend time in the parks.  I was lucky enough to run every morning and thoroughly explore Hyde Park and it was some of the best running I’ve had. The park is HUGE, no loops required, and a fabulous mixture of wild woods and fields and manicured lawns and lakes. I loved getting myself lost and watching the Brits in their wellies with their dogs tramping through the long grass.

From there we did some packing, headed out for breakfast (a new place, I had delicious Huervos Ranchers and Jared had the best egg sandwich yet) and then to the post office to exchange some Irish Pounds. As silly as it is, North Ireland uses Irish Pounds and England uses British Pounds, they are a 1 to 1 conversion and yet you can’t use the other in either place.  We had a terrible time trying to convert the Irish Pounds into British Pounds. Euros no problem, the banks exchanged Euros with little or no fee, but they wouldn’t touch the Irish Pounds. Jared ran all over trying to figure it out, until someone told us the post office would do it. So there we went and we were told that they SHOULD accept them anywhere, but no one does. So silly.

Around 12 we hopped on the Tube and headed out to Emirates stadium for our very first Premier League football match. We were meeting up with Dee, a gentleman we met through Craig’s List, to get tickets. He had been wonderful over email and made us feel very good about the whole transaction (never mind that the tickets were half the price of buying from a broker.)  We met at one of the pubs around the stadium and the place was packed, red jerseys everywhere.

We had a fun time talking with Dee and his friends, they had been out until 9AM that morning celebrating his birthday so they were a bit worse for the wear, before heading to the stadium.  We got to the stadium, purchased some beers and food and went to go to our seats to find out you can’t bring beer in the “view of the pitch!” We gobbled it all down, and headed out to our seats.

In my experience, it is completely jaw dropping when you want into a stadium for the first time. Especially when it is for a sport you have never seen. It was much the same for my first baseball game at Fenway as it was at Emirates. The music was pumping, energy was rolling through the place, and the seats were starting to fill. Our seats were amazing, 17 rows back right near one of the goals. We took photos and just starred around in awe until the players came onto the field and we were blown away by how close they were!

Professional football (which from here on out means soccer players. When in Rome...) looks so clean on TV. The players always have incredible amounts of space between them, they always trap the ball perfectly, it looks like perfect football. Everything I was ever told to do by my high school coach. From the sideline you can see that they still get bunched and not every touch is perfect. The players are so very very young and so amazingly athletic. It was a fabulous sport to watch in person. No commercial breaks, constant action, instant replays of the goals on the big screen. Totally worth it.

After the game we were pretty pooped. We headed back to the Tube with the crowd and went to Covent Garden where we were meeting Jeremy (Jared’s high school buddy) for dinner at 7. We killed an hour in a restaurant and a coffee shop, reading and relaxing.

We went to a lovely Indian restaurant with Jeremy and his friend Emma. Jared and I had a great time so much time together on our vacation, but this was the first time in 2 weeks we had someone we knew well to talk to. It was great! The cocktails were great, the food was Indian tappas and was so much less filling than normal Indian food. We headed home around 10:30, packed up and went to bed. 

This is the 14th post in what will eventually be a 16 post series detailing everything you ever wanted to (and didn't want to) know about the two weeks Jared and I spent in Ireland and London. To start at the very beginning, go here. 

Day 14 – London

Since our first day in London was all touristy stuff, the second was about getting away from that (as much as a bunch of tourists can.) We started by having a lovely breakfast at the French café on the corner. The gorgonzola sandwich (minus the bacon, plus a fried egg) was amazing with butter, mayo, mustard, gorgonzola cheese an egg, spinach and tomatoes – how could it not be?

From there we headed up to Notting Hill to the Portobello Road market. We wandered through the antiques, food and clothing enjoying the immensity of the market, so different than our markets. We stopped at a lovely second floor café with a deck over looking the street and had a snack, some tea and watched the people.

Then we then picked up some bread and two kinds of cheese (oh the decadence) and were back on the tube to Regents Park.

We loved Regents Park. It was the perfect combination of formal gardens, playing fields and open grassy areas. We had a picnic that could have only been better with a glass of wine or pint of cider (we can’t quite get used to the idea that drinking in public is ok) and took a nap on the grass after battling for our position against some over aggressive squirrels (don’t people realize feeding squirrels is a bad idea!)

From there was wandered across the park to the café and had tea and a scone with jam and cream. I felt so British and loved it! We came home, again on the Tube, had a pint at the local pub, and took a rest before heading out to a lovely Thai dinner right near our hotel. The plan was to hit the pub again, since they were jumping, but we both ate too much and instead came home for Alka-seltzer. We are such old farts. 

This is the 13th post in what will eventually be a 16 post series detailing everything you ever wanted to (and didn't want to) know about the two weeks Jared and I spent in Ireland and London. To start at the very beginning, go here. 

Day 13 – London

I wasn’t excited to come to London, it’s a big city and in the past I have enjoyed the countryside more. As soon as I got here, I realized there are so many things to do in London! For our first day, we did one of the hop-on hop-off bus tours.

We jumped off at Trafalgar Square first and picked up some tickets at TKTS  for Avenue Q.  Then we swung into the Portrait Gallery and saw the finalists for the 2010 portrait competition. They were amazing. We didn’t bother with the old portraits since it was a lovely day, we didn’t want to spend all our time inside.

We then headed to St. Pauls Cathedral to walk to the top and get a view of the city. The Cathedral was amazing, a beautiful example of simplicity and Victorian opulence.  We headed up to the top, stopped in the Whispering Gallery (you can hear someone whisper all the way across the dome, 32 meters away. We tested it, it works.)  Then got views at two levels of the city. It was a fun way to over look London and get a feel for the place.

From there we walked across the river (over the bridge that the death eaters destroy in the most recent Harry Potter movie) to the Tate Modern and ducked inside just as the skies opened up. We spent some time sitting and giving our feet a rest, then wandered through the Dreams section and looked at all the surrealism masters.

Again the Tate is HUGE and we could have spent all day there, but we snuck out nice and quick and headed to the Borough Street Market, which was a wonderful find. Stalls of fruits and vegetables, cheeses and sweets, curries and baguettes where everywhere. We picked up some black current jam and truffle oil to bring home and a piping hot plate of curry to eat for lunch. I could have spent the afternoon there. I wish I had a kitchen in London to cook in!

From there we hopped back on the bus, finished the tour round the city with the best guide of the day, and ended up again at Trafalgar Square. We were hoping to take the bus back to Victoria Station, but the rush hour traffic was too much, and I was worried about not having time for dinner before the show, so we hopped in a cab.

We cleaned ourselves up, hopped on the Tube and headed up town to SoHo. We walked down through SoHo until we found a lovely café with seats right in the front window across the way from a hopping gay bar. We enjoyed an excellent dinner (with the best mojito I have ever had) while people watching. It was excellent and made me miss NYC for the first time in a while.

From there we walked over to the theater and laughed ourselves silly at Avenue Q. Half the fun was that Jared’s parents recommended the show, and we couldn’t imagine them watching it! It was outrageous and per a review “pants wettingly funny.” I forgot how much I love the theater. 

This is the 12th post in what will eventually be a 16 post series detailing everything you ever wanted to (and didn't want to) know about the two weeks Jared and I spent in Ireland and London. To start at the very beginning, go here. 

Day 12 – Drogheda and London

We woke early with plans to pack up the car, add more money to the meter and then have a nice last Irish breakfast at the café we had spotted in town the day before. All went well until we got to the café and found out it didn’t open until 10 (it was 8.) No harm done, there was also a B&B that would serve us an Irish breakfast for 5 pounds because we were staying at the hostel. So we walked there, not a soul in sight.

By this point, I was pretty hungry, used to my Irish fry at 8AM. Jared knew he needed to act fast, so we found the one place in town that was open – Insomnia – the Starbucks like coffee shop that distinguishes themselves by putting 2 shots of espresso in every cup of joe. We sat there for 2 hours, reading and stealing wifi until 10 when (according to my second guide book) the local and brand new art gallery opened. We wandered up there, only to find out it didn’t open until 10:30…..

Then I decided it was time to go, and we headed out of town to Monasterboice. Monasterboice was an abbey in 900AD. Not much is known about the abbey, except there are two church ruins, two of the oldest examples of Celtic crosses (9 and 12 meters tall) and a perfectly round tower. It was a very quiet cemetery, with crows cawing, adding to the atmosphere. The crosses were cool and we had the place to ourselves. It was another example of another way of living, long ago, in someone’s backyard in Ireland.

We then drove over to Mellifont, an abbey from around 1000 AD, which was the ultimate demise of Monasterboice. More ruins, these ones a little more defined, with a visitors center and other people. We got to the parking lot and decided we didn’t want to pay the entrance fee enough, and headed to Dublin. One thing I learned on vacation was that when Jared and I have a travel day, we travel. We don't do much else, we want to get it over and done with. So off to London we went. 

It took us significantly less time to get to London than it took me to finally write this blog post! Getting downtown and from the airport was easy as pie. Our hotel was right near Victoria Station, close to everything, and the room was smaller than our bedroom in NYC, the bathroom too. I did some organization and we are very used to, and comfortable with, small spaces. It was actually quite nice.

We had dinner at a lovely Middle Eastern restaurant (you don’t come to London for the British food!) and then spent the evening walking around. We saw Westminster, the Parliament, the London Eye and took our first London cab ride. It was an excellent way to get to know the city.

While on a two week vacation in Ireland & London, I kept track of what we did and my own thoughts in order to help me remember. Two weeks is a long time! I realized other might benefit from my experience, or at least enjoy my photos. This should not serve as the definitive guide to Ireland, just my own wandering trip.

Day 11 – Belfast and Drogheda 

We woke to blue skies and sun! It was so exciting we decided to head out and walk the Belfast Botanical gardens before leaving. At breakfast, we met a lovely American from San Diego who was here on a month long trip to find her ancestors. We talked with her about what we had seen and done, and she told us that the Irish men are ruthless when trying to get you into bed. We shared our story, and let her know that traveling married doesn’t always help!

We then headed to the Botanical gardens, which were somewhat of a disappointment. They were smaller than I had expected and it was early so much of it wasn’t open yet. We headed out of Belfast and started on our way back to Dublin.

The plan had always been to stop at a small town just north of Dublin the night before we left, so we didn’t have a lot of driving that morning. For whatever reason, I decided on Drogheda, something about “having heard of it before.” As we were walking down the street, wondering what we were doing in this nothing of a town, I remembered it’s a name of one of the plantations in Gone With The Wind!

On the way to Drogheda we stopped at Newgrange, which is one of the largest passage tombs in the world. It’s older than Stonehenge and the pyramids, and no one really knows why or how the Neolithic people built it.

In this section of Ireland, there are thousands of these tombs all over the place. Some have been excavated, some haven’t. Newgrange was excavated and “restored” in the 1970s. Its white stone façade is controversial, but since no one knows what these tombs really looked like, the team excavating it was able to take some liberties.

When we finally got to Drogheda, I needed to run more than anything. Getting runs in has been tough. By staying in B&B’s we have a set breakfast at 8AM and getting myself out of bed at 6:30 on vacation just isn’t happening. By the time we are done doing things, I am pretty pooped and need to rest before dinner. All lame excuses, but I had been feeling like I really needed to work out, so Jared and I went and explored the city. It was great.

However, our digs for the night were not. There aren’t any B&Bs in Drogheda town. So we had the choice of the 55 pound a night hostel or the 150 pound a night hotel. We chose the hostel and Jared’s very accurate comment was “I think I am beyond the point in my life where I need to be staying in hostels!” 

We did manage to shower without catching anything, and headed out for dinner, to find out there really isn’t any place to eat in Drogheda. Finally a nice woman took pity on us and showed us to The Hotel where the local prom was taking place. The bartender was nice enough to get us some dinner, even though dinner had technically ended. We ate surrounded by 18 year olds in formal wear while we ate chicken curry and stir-fry. It was awesome.  

 We then stopped by the pub, but there really isn’t any craic on Tuesday nights. So we headed back to the hostel and packed up to head to London in the morning.