A recent article from Tech Crunch mentions that Online Local Advertising was estimated to grow 26 percent this year - reaching $20B. This is in contrast to total online advertising which will only grow at a pace of 2 percent this year. The article cites a study that was done by BIA/Kelsey. The article mentions that four of the key advertising channels for these local ads are:

• Google Places
• Yelp
• Craigslist
• Foursquare

Basically all Denver small businesses should establish and maintain a presence on Google Places and Yelp. I have discussed Google Places in depth on this blog - along with how Yelp can help drive clients to your business - especially for restaurants. It is actually free to get listed through either of these website services.

While those sources are essential towards getting a free listing out there - and Yelp offers advertising services as well - Denver small business owners will want to concentrate their actual advertising budgets on Google AdWords.

Google AdWords shows ads for your business on the Google search engine whenever someone searches for goods or services that your business offers. Approximately 70% of all U.S. web searches are performed using Google AdWords - so you'll be reaching your largest possible target audience. You'll also be able to custom tailor your advertising message as well as the landing page that a visitor will be directed to when clicking on your ad.

One Surprise from the Study

I was actually quite shocked that while local online advertising is increasing, it makes up just 15 percent of the total local advertising spend. Considering that the cost per lead acquisition according to a study done Piper Jaffray is just $.29 for search engine advertising vs. $1.18 for the yellow pages and $9.94 for direct mail - it is shocking that more Denver small businesses aren't advertising online. It is still a largely untapped advertising opportunity.

How Does This Help Me Market My Denver Small Business?

There isn't going to be a better time than right now to get your Denver small business participating in online advertising. While the percentage of total local advertising budget is starting to gradually shift towards online marketing, there is still relatively little competition and lower cost than more traditional forms of advertising. Local online advertising also provides the best return on investment - by far - for your advertising dollars. If you're still getting solid returns using traditional marketing methods, by all means stick with them - but you should also explore online marketing with search engine ad platforms like Google AdWords and Microsoft AdCenter.

In a recent post on the adCenter Blog, Microsoft discussed it's upcoming AdCenter upgrade. Features to be included in the AdCenter fall upgrade include:

• Improved Budgeting Options
• Negative Keyword List Expansion
• Campaign Analytics
• Search Network Distribution and Website Exclusion

As with most things related to search engine, Google leads the way with the more advanced search engine ad platform. Google AdWords is a much easier ad platform to use and is the innovator when it comes to introducing worthwhile features their search engine advertising platform. It is good to see Microsoft continually trying to improve AdCenter - especially given the fact that they'll be taking over Yahoo search ads in the very near future. They really need to make AdCenter as easy to use as AdWords.

I recently put together a a more detailed analysis of Google vs. Bing and AdWords vs. AdCenter. It describes what Denver small busienss owners need to know when it comes to marketing their business online in the Denver metro area. You'll want to make use of both search engine advertising platforms to effectively promote your business.

Negative Keyword Use is Essential

The most important change in my eyes is being able to add thousands of negative keywords at the campaign and adgroup levels within AdCenter. This functionality has been present in Google - yet missing in AdCenter - for quite some time. The use of negative keywords is essential to prevent worthless clicks and impressions. It will save you money in the long run.

How Does This Help Me Market My Denver Small Business?

When first working with a Denver small business owner on an existing account, one of the biggest issues I usually identify is the lack of the effective use of negative keywords. I typically will run a search query report to determine what the actual search phrases were that triggered ads to appear for the AdWords campaign. Typically, the Denver small business owner will be receiving a lot of worthless clicks - there ads are showing for search phrases completely unrelated to the products or services that they offer. The effective use of negative keywords will prevent these ads from showing for unrelated or unwanted search phrases.

According to a recent report by Hitwise, searches on the major search engines basically held steady. Google stayed at 71%, Yahoo at 14%, and Microsoft Bing at just under 10%.

This isn't particularly good news for Bing which had been rising steadily since its inception. While the Yahoo/Microsoft search partnership will soon be taking effect - with Microsoft Bing powering Yahoo search results - this will still represent somewhere between 20% and 30% of total searches. Google still gets nearly three times the amount of search that this new partnership will bring to the table.

How Does This Help Me Market My Denver Small Business?

Despite the large difference in the reach within the world of search, it will still be worth it for Denver advertisers to have advertising campaigns established with Microsoft AdCenter. While it won't quite have the reach of Google AdWords, AdCenter does have some benefits that I highlighted in a previous blog post. Denver small businesses should first invest time and effort in AdWords to learn about the Search Engine Marketing process as well as their customer behavior online. Once you have a fairly mature, well optimized campaign - take the AdWords campaign and port it over to Microsoft AdCenter.

Entrepreneur Magazine recently did an article which discusses the pros and cons of investing your marketing dollars in Bing vs. Google. I don't want to ruin the whole article, and I encourage you to read it at the link above. I've highlighted two of the most important reasons to try Bing - as well as one that I have a slight issue with:

• Search traffic is about to grow - With the pending partnership with Yahoo, ad coverage provided by Bing will likely triple. Bing traditionally has covered around 10% of the search market, with Yahoo around 20%. This means that ads served by Microsoft AdCenter will now reach around 30% of all searches.
• You Should Diversify - I absolutely agree with this point. It allows you to show your ads in numerous places - your results on one platform may be slightly better than the other. What you learn in one campaign, you may be able to apply to the other. Now that AdCenter ads will be serving approximately 30% of all searches, it makes it worth your time to diversify.
• You can Import AdWords Campaigns into AdCenter - This is not a compelling reason to move to Bing in my opinion. I've gone through this process numerous times, and it is not easy - to say the least. I come from a database background, so I feel comfortable moving data from one format or system to another. Still - it isn't easy getting Google campaigns into AdCenter. I have it down to a system where time is minimized, but it is by no means a push button process - and Microsoft AdCenter could do a much better job with illustrative exapmles of how to successfully perform this action. A novice PPC marketer would likely have great difficulty porting AdWords campaigns into AdCenter using the AdCenter import process.

Should my Denver Small Business Advertise on Bing?

Absolutely - as long as you've tried AdWords first. Get your campaigns set up on AdWords - get your campaign optimized - and then move on to a search engine like Bing. Local businesses need more volume to learn about their markets - and Google's AdWords is the place where you can learn the most and then apply it to other search engine ad platforms.

How Does This Help Me Market My Denver Small Business?

As a Denver small business owner, you need to be aware of the various online advertising options that are available to you. The overriding factor is to make sure that you're getting a good return on your investment on the search engine ad platform that you choose. I would advise that Denver small business owners start with Google AdWords, learn what you can. Get the campaign optimized to the point that you're getting a good return on investment.

Once you've been able to achieve success with AdWords - port the ad campaigns to Microsoft AdCenter. You'll reach a large audience. My experience with Bing is that search volume has been low, but conversion rates have been good. Surprisingly though, in my experience, ad spend isn't that much less than AdWords for similar keywords.

A couple of months ago, there was an interesting post on the Microsoft adCenter blog that real estate professionals should find very vaulable. In the post, Tina Kelleher of Microsoft provided tips for real estate professionals as the market was moving into the summer. All good tips of course - but the most valuable resource provided in the post was a list of keywords and ads for online real estate campaigns.

I downloaded the spreasheet - which can be downloaded from here. There are over 900 keywords - some of which are very good from what I've seen. There are also over 20 ads - which I thought were somewhat useful, but not as useful as the great keyword list. If you're a real estate professional participating in online marketing, you'll want to check out these keywords to see if you can add any of them to your campaign.

How Does This Help Me Market My Denver Small Business?

This particular resource will only help your business if you're a Denver real estate agent participating in PPC (or SEO) activities. I guess businesses that support real estate agents may also receive a benefit from this list. Obviously, although this list was provided by the AdCenter blog, the keywords and ads would apply to AdWords as well. Be sure to consider adding location qualifiers to the keywords when you use them (e.g. Denver, 80234, Highlands Ranch, etc.).