The word “cheap”. I absolutely hate this word. I hate using it in ads. I hate when clients say it to me. I hate when I hear myself using it to describe a product or service…unless of course, it really is.

Cheap is a word, that means that something doesn’t cost much, but also is a word that carries a negative connotation of the product or service being inferior, defective or shoddy. There is a big difference between the word “cheap” and in the word “inexpensive”. Inexpensive simply means “not much money”, but without all the negativity. So when I hear someone ask if I know of a contractor who is “cheap”….I respond with yes! But I sure wouldn’t recommend them!

Of course, price is subjective anyway. What one person may see as a bargain, someone else might think that same price is a rip-off. But that’s a story for another time.

But one thing I absolutely want to steer clear of for myself and my clients…is customers who use the word cheap. No business owner wants to deal with a customer who is going to nickel and dime you from the start. It’s just a recipe for a problem customer.

So that brings me to the point of this blog. In the course of performing Google Adwords optimizations for our clients, I am able to see the exact keyword string a user has typed into a Google search and that triggered the ad. And frequently you will see someone type in, for example, “cheap electrician in Springfield”. So, let me ask you…if you were an electrician in Springfield….would you want this person calling you? Probably not! Let that one go to one of your competitors and let them deal with them.

And that is where the beauty of Adwords flexibility comes in. By utilizing “negative keywords”, we can NOT show our ads to people who type in keywords that would normally trigger our ads. Sure, you are an “electrician” and you are in “Springfield”….but you’re not cheap. So we won’t show ads to this person, even though they used all those other keywords you like. So you can save yourself the headache and save yourself some ad money by not marketing to this person. Now that is powerful! With Google Adwords, you can target exactly the people you want…by what they are searching for, where they are searching and even what time! It’s probably the most personalized type of marketing out there….and that is powerful!