Advertising online in Arabic gets easier

AdWords Business Pages is a free feature of the AdWords Starter Edition advertising platform aimed at small and medium-sized businesses that want to try online marketing.

They enable AdWords advertisers to create a simple, basic landing page containing a description of their business, phone number, address, operating hours, location and accepted payment methods. The pages can even be customised with the logo and photos of the business.

Yasmina Brihi (pictured above), marketing manager for Google Middle East and Africa, said: “One of Google’s top priorities is to make online marketing available to all businesses. Too many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) do not have a website and cannot advertise on the internet.

They can use AdWords Business Pages to try online advertising without the cost of putting up their own website. AdWords Business Pages offer them a solution to broaden their customer base and increase revenue through an online presence.”

Defining the extent of the business potential in the region, Brihi said: “Our recent research reveals the value of SMBs was $20 million (Dh73.4m) until the end of 2007 and they are expected to grow 600 per cent by 2011.

This is directly proportionate to the growth of the internet in the region, but considering the potential it has for growth in the future, it’s the need of the hour to invest in Arabic platform.”

She said: “Emerging markets always show a faster pace of growth, but that does not necessarily mean they have more business potential. However, it’s best to tap the market when it is at a growing stage and on the brink of maturity.”

Supporting small and medium-sized establishments may benefit the country’s economy as more and more people are supported by SMEs.

In low-income countries, SMEs account for more than 70 per cent of total employment; in middle-income countries they represent 95 per cent of total employment. Even within economically developed countries, SMEs comprise the majority of firms and account for 65 per cent of total employment.

Brihi said small business owners will find business pages easy to operate. “They are easy to create, without the need to know HTML or any other web-design programming.

The pages can be up and running in less than 10 minutes and advertisers receive a special URL they can use to promote their business. They can, in fact, edit the information on their page any time through their AdWords account and add pictures and logos to look more savvy and business friendly.”

All of the English features of the pages will now be available in Arabic for the Middle East audience and AdWords has already lined up working partners in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Dubai.

Highlighting the financial feasibility of this Google tool, Brihi said the financial commitment required from users is as little as $1 as advertisers have to pay only per click and not for uploading pages or for their AdWord advertisements.

AdWords – Helping Companies Succeed

Peter Seifert, Director and owner of Revierwings, Germany, said: “After we started to use Google AdWords, our small company increased its revenue by 80 per cent and we were able to get 100 new customers from a bigger catchment area.

Thanks to Google AdWords we would like to hire another flight instructor. With Google AdWords, we can estimate our campaigns’ profitability in real time. For each euro invested in the company, we know what it is bringing in.”

Pascal Dupenloup, marketing manager, Manutan, France, said: “After a year of trying other ways to generate leads, we decided to use Google AdWords. Last year, we grew by 30 per cent to 40 per cent. It seems like the whole of the Netherlands found us at the same time. Over the course of time, we have continued to add more keywords.”