Search engine giants Google and Yahoo are set to ramp up their fight over the SME market by launching marketing campaigns that will see them give free advertising to small businesses.
Google has announced it will offer small businesses a free Google AdWords campaign to the value of $75.
While Google labelled the campaign its own "small business stimulus", it is more likely in response to rumours that Yahoo7 is set to launch a similar campaign - called the Yahoo Big Bang - which is also expected to involve offering SMEs free advertising.
Google's campaign will launch over the next few weeks, with businesses able to apply for the offer before 30 June on Google's website.
Google general manager of Australia and New Zealand, Karim Temsamani, says Google is keen to help small businesses through the downturn.
"It's really important at a time when more and more Australians are looking for their information online, that businesses understand the power of search as a medium to provide them with very efficient, low cost ability to reach users."
Temsamani also says that while Google is investing in new products such as the Android operating system, there is also a wide-spread company move towards primary revenue-generating products such as AdWords.
"Clearly search is a very important part of Google's products, and we're putting resources into that and making sure people are using Google products in search. Search is a very key product for us, and we will continue to invest in it."
Temsamani says that the campaign will allow businesses to track which key-words are generating the most leads, and then can develop those that work while discarding others.
"It requires very little upfront cost and provides companies an ability to manage them on a continuous basis," he says.
But search engine optimisation expert and SmartCompany blogger Chris Thomas says that while AdWords is generally effective, a Google campaign does not deliver guaranteed success.
"Two things can happen here. One is that businesses can jump on AdWords and set it up really badly, and screw up their $75. The second is that they can throw the ad up and business goes really well."
Thomas says the success of the campaign depends on how well businesses manage their AdWords, and if they continue to spend more money on keywords that deliver return-on-investment.
"I've got a client in the not-for-profit space, and since we started their AdWords campaign he's seen a ROI increase of over 4000%. That's their most stunning success rate," he says.
"The point with AdWords is not how much you spend, but how much you make on the return. The more you spend on good keywords the more you will make. So don't set a limit; you figure out how much business it brings in. For Google this is a good move."
Yahoo7 representatives did not return calls before publication.
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