Ad Words works perfectly well but there are some things you to have learn about using them to get maximum use.
First, you have to be dedicated to an on going program, $200 a month, $300 an $400 a month. It has to be on going and not hit or miss.
The other thing is you do not want to use words that will pretty much get you hits, but they will not get you quality hits.
For instance. I am dealer for signed and numbered prints by some very well know artist in the "collector" business. One of the best selling artist I sell is Martin Grelle. He specializes in Western and Native American artwork. So one would think that you would want terms like "western art" or "Native American Art" or "limited edition". These are the kinds of terms they will suggest to you and yes, they will get you hits. But they are way to broad. Just like Art, Art Prints, Giclee, etc, etc.
I know for sure there are people out there searching on Martin Grelle and on specific titles. If they know enough to search on the name and the title, they are a higher quality buyer vs some on searching on "art prints".
You have to understand your market to tweak those words. For instance, there are a lot of people that will buy "cowboy" art but would never think of buying "Native American" and visa versa.
So when I run AdWords for Martin Grelle I buy only the name Martin Grelle and only the name of the individual title of the print such as "Autumn Gather". The true Grelle collectors will know the titles.
After you get your search terms set, you then have to pick your markets. I only do Martin Grelle in the south west and Japan. I do Rod Chase all over the east coast, not much west of the Mississippi. I even have some artist that I target exact cities. Rod Chase for instance, does scenes of famous locations in Washing DC or New York. I have artist that does Texas Ranger art. That I put a heavy emphasis in Austin Texas.
I also package artist that have similar art work in same campaigns. This is were having that detailed tracking information will really pay off.
After you target your Pay Per Click program, you target the same area with a email campaign. You may also want to send out a press release if there is something newsworthy like a new print being released for a fund raiser.
I try to tie this in with the release of a new image where the publisher is making some sort of push. I also send out press releases. At the same time.
Incidentally, there used to be several Pay Per Click outfits out there that were a lot less money then AdWords. I used to use them all the time. I could buy the same keywords for 10 or 15 cents that I had to pay $1 or $2 for on AdWords. These may be obscure search engines or other programs, but the search term is it self is the same. It does not matter if some one searching for Martin Grelle is searching via Google or some lessor know search program.
