Breaking the Streak: Lessons in Moving Forward
I failed, there was no post yesterday. It's a long story why, but all that matters is that I didn't post an article. How does that feel? Well, kind of average. I had been on a streak since 15 April, and with only nine days remaining, I missed a day.
The Art of Not Dwelling on the Past
The takeaway point here, and what I want to write about today, is dwelling on things that either don't matter in the big scheme of life, are out of your control, or are things in the past that can't be changed. I've never been that interested in news or politics primarily for these reasons. I can't do much about them, and it's largely historic - it's happened, and if it's bad, which most news seems to be, dwelling on it isn't going to benefit anyone.
Embracing Speed and Efficiency in Business
I'm far from perfect when it comes to overthinking things and over-analysing. I'm trying to get better, and the new alt. business model is really helping with this. The core values are speed and efficiency. Already I'm finding this both satisfying and challenging to live up to, especially when being reliant on other people and third parties.
The Google Ads Dilemma
What that reinforces is the need for supply chains that have similar values of efficiency and rapid turnaround. In the instance of using contractors, maybe that isn't effective; maybe employees are needed. This is one reason I posted a job this morning on the alt. website looking for a Google Ads Specialist. This has long been something that I've either outsourced, referred on, or generally avoided.
Time and time again, I run into people who are either unhappy with their current Google Ads person or they're doing it themselves with no idea if it's viable. The built-in reporting isn't easy to understand and requires proper setup. The preschool is actually a prime example of this. We were running ads for about six weeks, and although we could see click-throughs to both the website and click-to-calls, there was no further tracking set up to determine if users submitted enrolments or enquiries, or if the click-to-call customers were qualified buyers.
The Current State of Google Ads Services
The industry as a whole is broken down into two main types of providers. First, there's a raft of individual freelancers working from home or the coffee shop. While this may work in some circumstances, there are generally weaknesses. They may be good at Google Ads management but not at explaining what's happening, or they may live out of area, or vanish for days at a time.
The other main category comprises larger agencies with specialist employees or teams working on Google Ads. They're generally full-service design agencies offering Google Ads management alongside website design, graphic design and other services. Based on their size and overhead, these agencies typically have massive fees, minimum ad spends, or simply won't work with small to medium-sized customers.
Our Vision for Google Ads Management
Although there are providers that fall between these two main types, I think there's room for alt. to offer this as a service. My goal is to remove the mystery around Google Ads, create an understandable fee structure, and provide reporting that clearly shows results. For instance, if you're spending £1,000 but getting back £1,500 in profit, as long as that's scalable, it's probably good to spend more!
I've seen some excellent reports showing the exact cost to get one lead. This allows you to work through your business economics - how many leads you generally convert, what they spend, etc. I think this is the appeal of Google Ads that you generally don't get with other marketing options.
If you're interested in joining our team, please check our job posting at: https://www.altmarketing.co.nz/employment
I've just realised I was going to write about failing and ended up discussing Google Ads - oh well. As I say, there's no point dwelling on failure. I'm off for the daily 2km walk/run. Still 100% committed to that with zero days off!
