If you received an email (or 3) about Adwords Express last week, you’re not alone. Google is currently pushing an Express version of Adwords for small business owners offering 2 months of FREE advertising. So, is this for you? If you’re currently running a regular Adwords account, then NO. As a matter of fact, contrary to what the Adwords Express cold callers say, the ads you are running in your regular account WILL compete against your Express ads. The hired Adwords Express sales reps are just trying to sell the product. Here is an email from an actual Google Adwords employee:

“You are correct that Adwords Express is a ‘lite’ version of Adwords. It meant for small business owners, such as local mom and pop restaurants, to have a quick and easy way to get their business online.

In contrast, dealers that sell more than 50 cars a month should be using the full Adwords product (i.e., monthly marketing budget greater than $30K). Inevitably, advertising the different car brands and models required much more sophistication than a single location restaurant. Moreover, we do not recommend clients to use Adwords and Adwords Express because, as you mentioned, your ads will be competing with one another. Here is a good source that walks through the differences between Google Places, Adwords Express and Adwords: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1689628”

Even for those of you that have never run an Adwords account for your small business, I would not recommend this Express product. Allowing Google to automatically choose your keywords and placement is a recipe for a wasted marketing budget. If you would like to discuss what’s right for your business give me a call sometime. I’ll even give you $100 worth of free Google Advertising just for NOT signing up for Adwords Express.

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