Advertise with Google for Practically Nothing

If someone does a Google search for churches in your city, how would you like to be the first result?

Lots of people these days – especially the under-45 crowd – search online instead of the phone book. Google has created Google AdWords. They offer a starter edition, which will be perfect for us rookies.

How to Do It

Once you clicked the “Sign Up” button they’ll ask about which edition you want (starter), and your business’ (i.e. church’s) country and phone number. Odds are they know you already, but if they don’t you can fill in your information.

The exciting part is you get to write two lines of text up to 35 characters each – roughly a short sentence. You get to give your potential visitor a short message. It’s tough to think of. If they’re looking for a church, they need something. You want to tell your visitor what need your church can fill. You can change it later, so think seasonally. I’m writing this in November, so think Christmas. Maybe your church is family-focused (enticing parents with young children), or maybe it’s a place of healing (for depressed people, who only get worse around the holidays).

After that, you get to pick who sees your ad by selecting keywords. Google suggests a bunch based on popular searches. Go ahead and pick some, but also type in some in the box on the left. You can change it later, so don’t sweat getting it perfect the first time.

What’s it Cost?

Time for the money part! You get to tell Google how much you’re willing to spend per month. You only pay when someone clicks your ad. Once your budget has been reached your ad won’t show up until next month. It’s pretty simple, and gives you a lot of security against wasting money.

And that’s pretty much it. Once you give them your billing information they’ll start running your ad. You can update your ad whenever you want, maybe to promote a big event or season. If you get comfortable with it, you can move to the standard account (instead of the starter) and run multiple ads. It’s really flexible, and Google does everything they can to make you comfortable, especially with money.

Wrapping Up

There are people looking for churches. If you want to be found, you’ve got to make it easy on them. Since Google is the most common search tool around, it makes sense to focus on it.

Of course, you’ll want to have a great website for these visitors to go to. Next time we’ll pick up the Dynamic Church Website series by going over how to design the look and layout of a site. There’s a few basic principles to follow to make it appealing and effective.