Google AdWords for Wineries: How NOT to do it

If you Google the phrase pinot noir, you'll find there are over 8 million results (see image below).  That makes it hard for an individual winery that makes Pinot Noir to stand out simply on the basis of "organic search placement" (i.e. the ranking of a page based on Google's opinion of the relevance of that page's content to someone searching for "pinot noir").

Google has an answer for businesses who want to place their products and services in front of people making specific searches.  It's called AdWords.  When someone searches for "pinot noir", your ad may be displayed alongside the "organic" search results.  If someone clicks on the ad, you pay Google for the click-through.  Whether your ad is actually displayed or not depends on (a) how much you are willing to pay for a click, relative to other businesses bidding on the same words, and (b) whether people actually click through on your ad.

If you did the search for pinot noir on Google, you should see an ad something like this one:

If you click through, you are taken to this page: Arista Winery | Sonoma County, California (the Arista Winery home page).  Pardon my saying so, but Arista just wasted the dollar or so that they will pay for that click.

Why?  Because the "landing page" (where you end up when you click on the ad) doesn't specifically address the fact that the searcher/visitor was (a) searching for "pinot noir", and (b) responded to an ad which talks specifically about "hand-crafted Pinot".  In fact, if you look at this page, the only mention of "Pinot Noir" is on the (very nice) picture of the bottle.

It gets worse.  If you click on "Wine Portfolio" (a fancy way of saying "Our Wines," which is clearer), there is *still* no mention of Pinot Noir (only three white wines from the 2004 vintage, two of which are sold out).

If you are going to spend money on Google AdWords, you need to preserve the "scent" of what your visitor is searching for.  The page they land on needs to preserve continuity and minimize distraction.  This is exactly what you would do in a face-to-face situation with a customer.

When Google sends you the click-through, you can see exactly what the searcher was looking for.  Your site should use that information to either (a) generate a landing page specific to their search, or (b) take the user directly to the most-relevant page on your site.  For Arista, that's probably this page: http://www.aristawinery.com/2003-portfolio.html, since it contains the most recent Pinot vintage still available for purchase.  Of course, if they're advertising "hand-crafted Pinot", a page describing their Pinot program might be even better.

Yes, it takes a little extra work to create an offer-specific landing page, but if you want Google AdWords to do a good job for your winery (as opposed to just making money for Google when visitors click through on your ad and then hit the Back button), you need to be willing to make that effort.

(By the way, if you're using Google AdWords, and the person taking care of your Web site doesn't know how to set up a search-specific landing page, you need to find someone who does.)

More on landing pages from Seth Godin.

Comments

[Timothy Li]

thank you for making the concept so clear.

When I first read Seth's post about this topic I couldn't immediate interpret what the problem was and how to go about solving it.

[rick gregory]

Even worse, some places do this on specialized engines like winesearcher.com - here you are, looking for a particular wine... you click on a link showing that wine and... get the home page. Sigh...

Another point here, BTW, is that a winery should have a clear purpose for bidding on words in Adwords or any other PPC network. Is this for branding? To sell a given wine? To get someone to signup for a mailing list? Any of those are fine objectives, but they all dictate different bidding strategies.

And never forget to ask yourself how you will measure success. If you're directing someone to a landing page that sells, ROI is easy... what did you spend on PPC ads to get people there and how much wine did you sell? But what about mailing list signups? Do you know the value of a mailing list subscriber?

Without clear business objectives, spending money on Adwords is a waste of marketing. With them, it can be a powerful tool, esp if you take the time to dig into the various options Google, Yahoo and (soon) MSN give you for targeting your ads.

[Tony Wright]

This type of thing is what I do for a living and while this is a basic concept, it's one of the fundamentals of marketing on the Web. I've been doing search engine marketing for more than 7 years, and I'm somewhat of a wine person, so when I saw this post on Seth's blog, I had to comment. So basic, yet so hard for companies to grasp. I'd love to do some work for vinyards. I think I could really help some out. Thanks for the great post.

Tony Wright

[Michael @ SEOG]

Nick
It is a point about branding but why would it hurt branding to have a focused appeal to the consumer? I work for an insurance and financial services company as an SEM manager and we try our best to directly appeal to the search phrase that customers come on. If the customer searches for the phrase, sees an appeal for that phrase in the ad, and then see that phrase and a message apppealing to them when they land -- thats what helps people to stick and take an action.

Every study says that people judge a website in under a second -- so why not do whatever you can to draw their attention in a little more?

Michael @ SEOG.net

[Paul Mabray]

Mike,
Great pointer - SEM or SMO seem to not be leveraged properly for our industry. As the largest e-commerce company in the industry, we try to help our wineries UNDERSTAND the purpose of buying keywords. It is an idea that is very alien to them and I look forward to seeing more of your blog to guide them.
P

[John Richardson]

Keywords are so important to online marketing. That all important landing page is your only tool for keeping visitors after they have clicked your link... make it count.

[Susan Abbott]

Oh my gawd. Guilty as charged. Along with nearly everyone else, at least. Great insight, thanks!

[Richard Howard]

Hi,

Thanks for the tip! I'm always trying to improve the Google PPC campaign for my Telecoms Site http://www.Phonenumbers4u.co.uk and find these little tips along with Perry Marshall's tips invaluable. Thanks again mate.

Kind Regards
Richard

[Frank]

I have loved your site for its useful and funny content and simple design.