Online Advertising Can Cost a Fortune if You Don’t Fully Understand It

In ancient times, like for example, 1994, there was a lot of print advertising. People would read on trees (REALLY!), things like “newspapers” and “magazines”. Vendors would place ads in these dead tree instruments and pay for people to see their ads in print. You need expert help with online advertisingI know. I used to manage print advertising. Then in late 1994, Al Gore and I invented the Internet, and the world changed. OK, that’s a joke. Everything became “online,” including publications, and including the advertising that went with them.

Even before we had the Internet, you had to know what you were doing when advertising. For instance, you had to advertise in the right papers and magazines where your audience was. Even in those days, it was very easy to burn a ton of money on advertising if you didn’t do it right.

But with online advertising it has got ten times worse. You have Google Ads (formerly Adwords, back in the day), Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and all the rest of them. How do you know which one you should advertise on? How do you know how much you should bid per click?

You Pay Per Click, And Google Doesn’t Care What Happens After The Click

Google Ads, for example can be a minefield. You are paying per click, and Google doesn’t care what happens after that click has been made. You are paying for the click – not for a sale. And those clicks can be expensive. We are not talking 50 cents here. We are talking, in some cases, $10, $20, $50, and $100 or more. For a click! You can’t afford to get too many of those if they don’t lead on to a sale.

But with online advertising how do you know? How do you know that some 17-year-old isn’t sitting in his pajamas clicking around with absolutely no intention of spending any money because he hasn’t got any? You want to pay $10 for those sorts of clicks? Do you begin to see what I mean about losing your shirt on online advertising?

Oh sure, Google, and Facebook, and the rest of the gang will all give you lots and lots of information, but unless you are an online advertising expert like I am you will very quickly go cross-eyed as you struggle to understand it all. Online advertising isn’t easy – even for me, and I’m an expert at it. But the big difference between you and me is that I understand it even if you don’t.

That’s why it pays to have me help you with your online advertising, with keywords, with bidding, with your landing page, and with everything else that will make your advertising pay rather than bankrupt you.


Jason McDonald, Ph.D

Jason McDonald is a top-rated San Francisco SEO Consultant. His consulting services include search engine optimization consulting, social media marketing consulting, and Google AdWords consulting. Jason's motto as a consultant is that he doesn't do SEO 'for you' but rather he does SEO 'with you.' That goes as well for his social media marketing consultant activities and Google AdWords consultant services. Besides serving clients in the San Francisco Bay Area, Jason consults with clients in Silicon Valley (San Jose), Oakland and other cities throughout the Bay Area. Beyond the Bay Area, Jason is available as an SEO consultant, Social Media Consultant, and as an expert witness in litigation involving social media marketing, search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising.