Free pages for new Google AdWords advertisers

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 12 June 2007 07:21

Business IT - Technology

Google is so keen to sign up more AdWords clients in Australia that it is offering limited hosting to businesses that still don't have their own web sites.

It's hard to sell online ads to companies that don't have pages that can be the targets of click-throughs, so the new AdWords Business Pages allow firms signing up for AdWords to create simple landing pages containing brief details of their businesses.

"Small and medium-sized businesses without websites can use AdWords Business Pages to try online advertising without the cost of putting up their own website. There is no fee for the landing page, and this enables advertisers to quickly and easily get started with AdWords and verify that it works for their business," said Richard Kimber, regional managing director, South Asia.

This does seem to be a case of putting the cart before the horse: what's the point of an SME paying for online ads that link to the most basic form of brochureware? The assumption seems to be that almost all traffic to a business's web site will come via Google advertising rather than so-called organic searches. That might not be a very solid foundation for an online campaign.