O'Reilly Network: What Are Google AdWords

Direct Marketing: The Bigger Picture

Direct marketing—which includes junk mail like catalogs and charity appeals, plus telemarketing calls and spam—is a distinct type of advertising. It’s a cousin to mass marketing, which includes billboards, TV commercials, and magazine ads—all of which advertisers hope will influence consumers in a general way. Direct marketing, on the other hand, allows an advertiser to carefully choose who sees am ad and to gauge whether the ad led to a sale or other desired activity— like signing up for future mailings. Not surprisingly, direct marketers tend to be obsessed with measures like return on investment, which help them decide whether the sales generated by an ad justify the amount they spent on it.

AdWords is very much a direct marketing tool. And your competition may include not just a savvy Webmaster or two, but teams of marketing experts who know direct campaign angles inside out and work full-time to massage AdWords. That’s important to remember, because when you run a campaign, you have to pay close attention to your competition to make sure your ads are getting the positioning and clicks that make it worth doing in the first place.

Think of joining AdWords as a way of running a direct marketing campaign rather than a way of appearing on Google, and you’ll be in the right mindset.

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