Google Engage, Small Business Portal to Online Advertising
Source: Marie Kazalia
Accessing the Google Engage dashboard, or "portal to the world of online advertising", definitely gives one the feeling of being back stage. Or, as Google stated in their Intro, "Online (is) Not Just Another Media--(but) a Whole Parallel Universe"
You knew someone was handling all that backstage stuff--but you may be surprised that it's not just Google employees-- outside small businesses can now handle Google AdWord campaigns via Engage.
According to Google, their Engage program has thousands of members, including entrepreneurs, agents, and marketers who work with small businesses. These entrepreneurs, agents, and marketers are small business owners themselves, who, via their membership in the Google Engage program have the option to offer their clients Google AdWords campaign development and management.
It's true that anyone can go to Google Adwords, create an account and set up an ad. But with a membership in the Engage program entrepreneurs and small business service providers can do all those things for multiple client (for a fee) with access to the free advanced online tools Google provides.
If you think this may be something worth offering your clients, complete an application for the Google Engage program, then wait to received the mandatory phone call from a Google 800 number. It won't be a verification call. Expect to be interviewed about your small business. Afterward, you will be given access to the Google AdWords on-demand training course, consisting of informative YouTube videos. (Though simple and basic, Google mixes labels and terms in these fast paced sessions that can make it a bit hard to follow in places).
There are 4 lessons to complete to become a member of Google Engage, each ending with a code. Jot down all 4 codes and enter the the codes into a form to become a member of Engage.
Here is a quick content summary for the 4 lessons:
Lesson # 1: The Introduction, with a runtime of 24:02 minutes.
The first tutorial (aka course) introduces the online world and explains where Google fits into it. They discuss important trends. According to Google the economic downturn is fueling online growth. Or, "staying in is the new going out." Staying in saves on travel and other expenses. In other words, there is a massive captive audience out there eager to go online to make Google searches and see your ads. There was nothing surprising in other facts presented, such as, "online ads have cannibalized traditional newspaper ads" and, "TV is the biggest driver of online searches." Great reasons to commit your ad dollars to online ad campaigns with Google AdWords. Google calls itself, "one of the top 3 global Internet Platforms" (along with YouTube as the 2nd largest search engine in the world after Google, with 2 billion videos viewed per day globally, and Facebook also mentioned as number two, in an apples and oranges comparison--and this is where it can get confusing at time in a blur of so much information to process).
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