Keep digital campaigns on the ball for a big soccer season

In the past, advertising was about big players with deep pockets but that is not the case anymore. With less than eight days to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, online marketers - including small- and medium-sized businesses - need to make sure that they're getting the most out of their 2010 campaigns.

We speak to three tourism and accommodation companies about the opportunities and successes they have had in running Google AdWords campaigns. We also offer specialist tips for creative cost-effective campaigns - with traditional marketing, you have to plan your campaigns far in advance, but the joy of Adwords is that even with a week to go before the world cup, there's still time! You can still quickly develop a campaign to help you market your product.

1. Cape Villas

Cape Villa's Nick Ray Ball.

Cape Villa's Asanda Gxamza.

Cape Villas is a luxury villa rental company in Cape Town with a niche market that has been running since 1999. It's been using Google AdWords for the past eight years, with good results. It started its world cup campaigns back in August 2009, with a website section dedicated to 2010 World Cup rentals. This is what it discovered:

• The World Cup Final Draw only took place in December 2009, so until that point, people did not know where their national teams were playing and therefore where they should be staying.
  
• Cape Villas caters for a very specific extra-wealthy clientele base, which is a tough market to sell.
  
• Match (FIFA's accommodation wing) is first point of contact for most 2010 travellers.

Cape Villas used promotion in its AdTexts highlighting users to quote a line from its ad to get a 20% discount. This allowed it to track the success of its ads while also enticing users to book via a call to action. To date, three world cup bookings have been made, with one of them being very lucrative for the rental company.

2. Big Media/SouthAfrica.info

Big Media's Noko Makgato.

SouthAfrica.info is the official online gateway to South Africa that covers a broad sweep of national information. This includes information on the country's attractions and opportunities, particularly for investors, tourists, and researchers, promoting South Africa in all its aspects. The website is published and managed by Big Media on behalf of the International Marketing Council (IMC) of South Africa and stands out among country portals for the frequency of its fresh content, updates which attract many visitors.

As part of promoting various online special features that is published on SouthAfrica.info, Google AdWords are used. For the 2010 FIFA World Cup, it created an AdWords campaign focusing on the all-important event being hosted by SA. The campaign has been active since mid-2008, the aim being to drive traffic to the website's 2010 subsite,southafrica.info/2010/.

In the early stages of the campaign Big Media faced a hurdle with Google disallowing its ads related to the world cup, because the terms had been trademarked by FIFA. However, these hurdles were overcome through the use of creative AdText and use of non-trademarked soccer terms.

To date, the Google AdWords campaign has generated over 100 million impressions and close to 100 000 clicks via both Search & Content Networks, and been a great boost for traffic to the website.

3. There and Back Tours and Tranfers

There and Back Tours and Tranfers' Ria Milella.

There and Back Tours and Transfers was launched by Ria Milella in May 2009. She saw an opportunity in the highly competitive transport market, traded in her speedy sedan motor car for a 10-seater minibus, launched her website and Google AdWords account, and collected her first customers from OR Tambo International Airport. The rest, as they say, is history.

What distinguishes a good transfer service from the fierce competition, in addition to the obvious factors such as punctuality, reliability and price, is the ease of obtaining a booking effortlessly. In this regard, says Milella, AdWords has been streets ahead of the competition in terms of its user-friendliness and speedy contribution to a prominent web presence for There and Back. AdWords is the only advertising that she uses, and has been critical not only for local trade, but capturing that important overseas market even before they have put foot on African soil.

Milella now spends R2500 a month on AdWords, 500 of which goes to an agency which implements her campaign. Her turnover has gradually increased from R4000 a month to a R21 000 a month. Her customer base now consists of many loyal clients who book regularly, and continues to grow.

The AdWords arm of her business is so important that she immediately knows she has IT issues if her cellphone falls silent for longer than an hour at a time! This tiny business has shown such good performance that a driver will soon be appointed to assist with the workload.

Top five tips for managing for 2010 AdWords campaigns

1. When thinking around world cup-related terms, you can use the Keyword tool to generate keywords you may not have thought of. Bid on any soccer-related terms you feel would fit your product or offering over the soccer period.

2. There are combinations of terms that you can't use in your ad text because of trademark rules, so it's an opportunity to get creative. Ideas for the ad copy could be along the lines of "Don't miss a seat in history, book your accommodation with us for the soccer!", or "Have you booked for 2010? Get great soccer deals with us today." Further information for AdWords editorial policies can be found at:http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/.

3. Get creative with which keywords you decide to bid on. You may be a B&B company, but perhaps you offer airport shuttle transport as well? Create themes around transport, accommodation, 2010 packages, and different soccer terms (eg: football, foot ball), as well as different languages (eg coupe du monde for our French visitors!)

4. Set your campaigns to other locations. By advertising your 2010 services in other countries (on other Google domains, such as www.google.co.uk), you capture a wider audience. In order to assess how people in different countries are searching for world cup related terms, use Insights for Search (www.google.com/insights/search/#).

5. World cup terms can be expensive, due to the competition out there, and you may not have a lot of budget to spend. Identify which terms are working for you (ie giving you traffic and clicks), in comparison to what you think you should be bidding on. (Is the expense of the keyword giving you a return on investment?)