Example: Anytime Fitness Health Club Located in Roswell, Georgia

Pay per click advertising is fast becoming the new yellow pages. It is imperative for small business owners, who have traditionally relied upon yellow pages for their business leads, to begin to understand the true power of the Internet. In areas where DSL and Broadband Internet penetration and connectivity rates are high, pay per click has virtually replaced the phone book as the method used by most people to look up phone numbers for businesses. Here is an example of that phenomenom. In February, the yellow pages delivered approximately 30 business calls from current club members, over 100 calls from companies trying to sell our client their products and services, and literally zero calls from new prospective clients seeking a club membership. A total of zero new club members can be attributed to the yellow page advertising program during February. These numbers are accurate and verifiable, given, the club purchased a separate phone line and published the number only in their yellow pages ads. They purchased advertising in both the AT&T Marietta and Roswell yellow page directories. Those books cover a tremendous geographic area, all the way from Marietta to Dawsonville, Georgia (More than 25 square miles of advertising coverage). Our client spends more than $400 dollars per month on this yellow pages program. The client advised us that the program has generated very few members of the past 6 months.

During the same 30 day period, a total of 337 people, within a 7 mile radius of the gym, conducted a Google keyword search for the term “Anytime Fitness”. We know this because the clubs firm name is included in the hundreds of keyword terms we use in Google adwords lead generation efforts for this customer. The owner of the gym added approximately 45 new members during February, and indicates all learned of the club either because they drive by on a regular basis, live near the club or saw the Google ads we placed for the gym.

All that said, I hope the number 337 really burns into your memory. Think about that number for a minute. That number represents the total number of people, within a 7 mile radius of that small gym, who searched precisely for that clubs firm and phone number. The yellow pages simply did not match that result during February. Want to know how many people saw all the Google ads we ran for our client during February? Sit down, this number is really going to make an impression (no pun intended). The total number of people who saw our clients Google ads during February was 28,787. Thats right folks, the Google program drove 28,787 impressions for this client in one months time, all from within a 7 mile radius of the club. That my friends is the true power of the Internet. Needless to say the owner of Anytime Fitness was pleased with the return on his investment from Google.