If you are a home improvement contractor and have thought about advertising online to generate leads or build a pipeline then you need to have a foundation and a place to start. The first thing you need to realize is the power of search engines. Google alone accounts for 90 billion searches a month in the United States. While Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine, accounts for 9% of total search volume, while Ask.com get’s less than 2%. Google provides results through organic or “natural” results, paid search results through their pay-per-click Adwords campaigns, mapping results and finally local business results with Places.
Of the four search results listed, one has a direct cost to contractors who want to advertise online; Google Adwords. Sponsored search results are what you see at the top and far right of the results page after you have performed a search request. Google provides up to 11 slots which can be purchased for contextual advertisements. Costs to advertise on the network vary by industry and keyword, but as more and more contractors move advertising budgets online, pay-per-click pricing will be sure to rise with it.
If you are just getting started, here are a few books you can buy to help you out.