The Difference Your Form of Advertising Makes

“Look, there are most of the churches in our community, but ours is not advertised in there,” she said in a stern voice , implying that it was my responsibility to make sure it was.

As I examined the newspaper, I realized that it was an edition that went out to an area completely populated by retirement communities. In fact, this area (which I will allow to remain nameless) is billed as “America’s premier retirement community.”

“Well, I think we could probably advertise online,” I responded, hoping that she’d give up her crusade. But that’s when she made a very telling statement-”But none of us are online!”

If you advertise in mediums that retirement age people use frequently, guess what kind of people you’ll get? If you advertise in mediums that younger people use…well, you guessed it.

So here’s the principle: how you advertise determines the kind of people you reach.

I know this sounds very obvious, but in that moment, this principle took on new life to me. If I were to advertise in that newspaper, it would be very clear the kind of demographic I would be reaching. We all need the gospel, but churches need to focus on who they can best reach in their own area.

If someone is looking for a church to attend, and happens to be in a younger demographic, Google is generally the first place that will be checked. Ten years ago, the first place someone would check would be the yellow pages or the newspaper. I think the last time I actually opened one of those bulky yellow pages was at least two years ago. So instead of advertising in that newspaper, I decided to jump on the Google Adwords bandwagon and give it a whirl. Here’s a great podcast that describes in detail how to advertise using Google Adwords. The podcast is called “God Bless Google.”

We’ve been using it for two weeks now, so allow me to share with you some of our preliminary findings:

Look: This is what the advertisement ends up looking like. When someone does a search for churches in tampa, they will see our ad on the right side of the page. **If you do a search for our church please don’t click on the ad. Every time you click on the ad it takes money out of our account. I want to reserve those ads for people that are truly making original searches. Thanks!

Cost: How much it costs depends on you. We currently put in $25 a month into the system. The more money you put in, the higher your ad will be on the page, and the more it will be shown throughout the day when someone makes a search.

Result: After two weeks of being on there, it’s been shown 1,912 times. Of those, 27 people actually clicked on our site, costing us a total $9.88. This puts us at .37 cents per click. 

We’ve found Google Adwords to be very relevant, inexpensive, and interactive. What more could you ask for?

Have you tried Google Adwords? What results have you seen? How else are you advertising?