Howard’s Cameras: AdWords Proposal

Aadi James

Howard’s Cameras is a small chain of camera stores that are located in central Ohio. These stores sell everything camera and camera-related including the major brands of digital cameras for consumers, and a few leading high-end brands for professional photographers. The stores also offer photo finishing, portrait services, accessories, scrapbook supplies, and other items of interest to casual and photo enthusiasts. One of the best ways to drive traffic to Howard’s Cameras stores and its e-commerce store is through the Google AdWords program.
AdWords, at its simplest, is a system of keywords that are used to generate ads for a fee. If one searches for 12MP cameras, Howard’s Camera could purchase that term and the consumer would see an ad that would say “Howard’s Cameras: now selling all 12MP cameras for less!”. Each time a consumer clicks our ad, the store would be charged a fee that we choose, called the cost-per-click (CPC). The higher the fee, the more often the ad gets shown and the more likely it is clicked, whereas a lower fee would mean a less prominent placement and a lower click-through rate (CTR). AdSense is the associated program that Google uses to provide ads for websites with content, like news organizations, blogs, and other media. AdSense uses Adwords to figure out which ads should show with a selected story, such as a story about cats needing adoption might show ads for local humane societies and rescue organizations. Studies have shown that AdSense CTRs are lower than the AdWords CTRs, but this is also something to consider. Google has also recently adopted changes that can allow for automated optimization of advertisements by likely conversion into sales, however, the data is not yet thorough enough to evaluate this option.
Howards Cameras should aim for a middle placement, preferably the third place on the website, and bid for keywords that are not too generalized. A CPC bid for “scrapbooking supplies” might have an astronomical rate of $10.00 per click because of the high level of competition, but a CPC bid for “American Crafts photo scrapbooking supplies” might be as little as a few cents, based off of how specific it is. This way, the store would be assured that the consumer is looking to buy, as the consumer is looking for a specific item, rather than a simple search for what could be relevant to them. A promotional or landing page could be used to further pre-sell items to the consumer before reaching our direct link, increasing our chance of profit from the transaction. This is a highly recommended form of action, according to Wayne Wu, the owner of http://www.ecominfozone.net (Wu 2008).
Our ad line should have a direct call to action with a timeframe and a specific draw in order to create the highest CTR. For example, “Buy American Crafts photo pens for $1.99 today!” is a great AdWords advertisement because it contains a call to action with a suggested timeframe as well as giving a lot of information in a small space to the consumer. An ad that says “Howard’s Cameras: visit us now!” is not specific enough draw to attract attention but does give the call to action and a timeframe. An ad such as:
SLR Digital Cameras. Voted Best Camera Servicer in Ohio. Free Shipping http://www.howardscameras.com/SLR.

is another great example as it gives the call to action, gives some specific information to the consumer, and brings them to a premade landing page in which we can sell not only the cameras but the related accessories. AdWords has its negative side as well as the positives. Howards Cameras should be careful not to bid on a high placement because of the high cost per click, the amount of inadvertent clicks, and the potential for click-through fraud. Click-through fraud is when consumers are paid to click a link in order to deliberately drive up the cost of the AdWord, leading to higher prices for competitors. Google has a great system in place to combat this, but on occasion, it does happen. There are also legal ramifications of choosing inappropriate keywords, like competitors names. Firms have been sued for illegal competitive practives, unfair trade practices, and illegal use of trademarks, so Howard’s Cameras would have to be careful to use only appropriate keywords. If Howard’s Cameras wrote quality advertisements and aimed for a medium placement in the available areas on the Google website, it would be likely that we could receive a CTR of about 15% for the lowest cost. Google automatically optimizes ads based on their QualityScore, so the store could take advantage of Google’s knowledge of the market to optimize its advertising and test out several campaigns at a time. A SLR camera campaign might be more effective than say, a film camera campaign, as the market is now larger. A minimal investment in AdSense might be appropriate as well, as there are many good instructional pieces on the Internet. Three campaigns would be advisable to start: one for SLR digital cameras, one for film cameras, and one for specific areas of photo scrapbooking supplies.

References

Wu, Wayne. “6 Google AdWords Mistakes You Should Avoid”. 18 August 2008. Accessed 13 March 2011. http://www.wmtips.com/ppc/google-adwords-mistakes-you-should-avoid.htm