Google, Rush...What Happened Last Tuesday?

I've received emails and phone calls and it seems the question that keeps coming up is: what the heck was that?

That is, in reference to my post on Rush Limbaugh, Google Adwords, and Goldman Sachs. And if you haven't had the pleasure, click that link!

The Setup

A friend of mine called me and said "Turn on Rush. He's talking smack about Google or something." And low and behold - as explained in my post - he was. The unfortunate thing about mixing politics and technology is when one is relatively well-versed in one, they are generally deficient in the other. Case in point: Rush's implication was that links and placement were being purchased and there might even be an outright collaboration between Google and the White House.

The truth was simple enough: White House PR was buying Adwords phrases. Just like anyone else can do.


The Plan

Shameless promotion and exploitation. Something Rush said stuck with me: "If you type 'goldman sachs sec' into Google...'"

Rush Limbaugh has millions of listeners across the country and his show is syndicated and paced through every time zone so I can pretty much guarantee those words are going to be spoken every hour between 1pm EST and 3am PST.

A quick search (as Rush told me to do) displayed 2 ads: The White House ad and one more saying "Not just the Obama's Ad." In other words: Open field.


The Moderation

Step 1: Provide something that is both intelligible and educational. That was easy. A basic tutorial on what are paid ads and what are not with reference to the ease of creating an ad campaign is exactly what I was aiming for.

Step 2: Do not turn it political. That was a little more difficult. I have no problem staying away from the Goldman Sachs topic in the posting, but I have a solid peeve spot for people with very large audiences opening their mouths about things they know little or nothing about and making things up that support their end of an argument. And I knew if I directly attacked Rush Limbaugh for doing so, I'd be shifting from business to politics. I believe I succeeded.


The Numbers

I ran the ad nationwide from Tuesday at about 2 to 10pm. Then switched the geographical focus to Ohio only and Wednesday morning knocked it down to Greater Cincinnati.

As of this posting, in a little over 48 hours, I have over 7,500 impressions with over 760 clicks, pulling a CTR of a little more than 10%. Average CPC was $0.41, landing me at a little over $300 for this experiment.


Was it worth it?

Short answer is: if one of the 4 leads I now have pans out, then yes. If not, I've hopefully educated some people who may not have known how Adwords work, and for me the education of someone that prevents a later misunderstanding is worth every penny. Ounce of prevention and all that.