(Make sure you watch at least until I get interrupted by the phone call. That’s when you’ll get the exclusive offer for savings.)

Most of my students, clients, and colleagues already know the benefits of advertising on Google.  There are some real industry standards that have been developed that work really well on Google AdWords.

But few do Facebook advertising.  Why?

I think I know why you don’t do it.  It’s probably why I do so little of it.

You know how many people are on Facebook, right?  You know you only pay per click, right?  You also probably know that most new opportunities are cheaper at first, right?

I don’t know how.

Ok, so maybe I know how to get started.  But I don’t know the full ins and outs.  I also don’t know what works best.  So last year, I bought an awesome book called “Killer Facebook Ads” by Marty Weintraub.  It’s awesome.  I highly recommend it.  But I still have not done a whole lot with Facebook Ads.  I feel like I still need to learn more.

So Here’s a Complete Facebook Ads Conference

As most of you know by now, I do some work with Jason Keath at Social Fresh.  I’ve helped him with some of his live conferences and even more with some of the online stuff Social Fresh has created and sold.  Overall, I’ve been proud of the things we’ve accomplished.

But this new “Advanced Facebook Advertising” conference is the best yet.  Social Fresh is pulling together the smartest people in the industry (including Marty).  They are presenting training, case studies, Q&A, and more.  It’s all online.  You can attend live, ask questions, or watch the recordings after.

I’m not kidding about this.  It’s going to be pretty awesome.  I can’t wait.

Hopefully after I’ll dig a lot deeper into Facebook Ads.

After all, I spend a lot of time and money on Google Ads.  I know those work.  I’m ready to make Facebook Advertising work, too.  It’s just another weapon in your arsenal, IMHO.

I may be killing it soon.  Before I do, I’d like your thoughts.

First, here’s the history of the meetup…

The first one was the 2011 Internet Marketing Forecast with Brandon Uttley on January 20, 2011.  Since then, we’ve had some really good ones, including the 2012 forecast, an interview with weatherman Brad Panovich, and most recently, a great report on Google Plus by Mark Traphagan.  I even got the smartest black hat marketer I’ve ever heard of to come speak to us!

As of today, we have 318 members and most of them are from the Charlotte area, especially the Lake Norman area.  Our events typically have between 25 and 75 attending.  Much of that depends on how well I promote each particular event.

Why I’m planning to kill it

From the beginning, I promised myself (and my wife) that I would not keep doing these meet-ups unless it was worth it financially.  No offense.  I appreciate everyone who came and I do really enjoy helping anyone.  But my time is limited and I need to stay focused on things that produce results.

My original plan was to get sponsors.  In fact, I did get a couple early on.  But I also wanted to record and/or live-stream the events to reach a large audience.  For some reason, I have not been able to get my act together well enough to live-stream and/or edit the video to turn it into a podcast.  I have talked to a few “video guys” that offered to help.  But honestly, they never came through.  Because of that, the sponsors either fizzled or I stopped charging them.

I would love to keep doing these events.  I have plenty of friends and connections that would continue to support it.  Plus, I have plenty of topics I could teach.  The ballroom at my office is a great location, holds about 100 and is free for me to use.  I also have a few friends that help with the logistics at a very reasonable price.

What can save us?
(Not baby seals, the meetup – focus!)

At this point, I’m probably going to close it up.  In order to keep it alive, I would need at least one of each of the below…

1. A sponsor or two.  If they spent a little money per event, I would feature them prominently to those that attend and watch the video live or the recording online.

2. A video guy or two.  They would need to assist with the live streaming and editing the recordings.  We could post them.  But we would need some minor edits.  We could offer them a free sponsorship in return.

Got any ideas?

Want to help?  Got any other ideas?  Know anyone else that could help?

Please spread the word and/or leave a comment below.  I’d love to hear your ideas.

What I won’t do

One last thought.  Some have already asked about taking over the meetup from me.  Others have wanted to turn it into something else.

I’m sorry.  But I won’t do that.

No offense, but the members of this group have joined MY meetup.  Many of them know me personally or have gotten to know me personally.  I am not willing to hand them and the ability to email them over to another person, brand, or meetup.  If you have a good idea for a meetup or want to start a new one, I may be willing to let my members know.  But that’s about it.

Sorry.  You need to grown your own community.

What do you think?

Should the HIPPO Meetup die a natural death or do you want to keep it alive somehow?  Your ideas?

Leave a comment (or a eulogy) below, please.

Why?

It’s not just because Google Plus is jumping into the social media game. (Which no doubt bugs them.)  It’s because Facebook’s IPO will demand that they start thinking more and more about money. Search is where money is. Every marketer knows that search referrals convert better than social and therefore, they are willing to pay more money for those clicks.

So let’s follow the money…

According to ComScore, Facebook fielded 336 million search queries in February.  Let’s face it, Facebook search is terrible.  If they made it better (which BusinessWeek recently said said they are currently working on) that number could easily to up to 500 million or even much, much more – very quickly.

Now, just for discussion, let’s say those 500 million ads could have paid ads on them and about 20% of all inquiries clicked on them.  Let’s say they averaged about $1 per click.  That’s an extra $1.2 billion per year revenue.  Obviously, we’re just getting started.  That’s what they could get right now without trying.

Throw in the Microsoft relationship and whatever opportunities that could bring up.  Facebook search as part of Bing?  Bing ads more prominent on Facebook?  Facebook influenced display advertising across the Internet instead of boring AdSense ads?  The list goes on and on.

It’s just a matter of time.  We’ll see this soon.

Marketers and advertisers need to start thinking about this now and how they will use it when it gets turned on overnight someday.

The response has been incredible.  Over 50 people joined in just 24 hours!

Please watch this video and you’ll see how passionate I am about this.

But this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, some new statistics are coming out.  In reviewing them, it’s obvious that Google is not going to miss out on the mobile front.  Their ability to take over market share has been staggering these last few years, especially when you think of Apple’s early start.

For example, this chart shows the dominance of Android…

Source: comScore (2/11) thanks to MarketingLand

Notice that Google has the largest share that anyone has had – EVER!

But it’s not just the actual phone.  The same Marketing Land post noted that Google also controls 75% of all ads served on mobile phones are delivered by Google ad servers and networks.  They also have a 97% share of all searches done on mobile phone browsers – globally according to Search Engine Land.

No matter what you think of how Google is doing with social media, it’s obvious that they did not miss the boat on mobile.  Amazing!  Google controls 47% of smartphones, 75% of mobile advertising, and 97% of searches on them.

If mobile is the future, Google is right where they want to be.

At any rate, when we got there my sister-in-law had bought my wife and I a Kindle Fire as a gift for coming to help the family.  (Very generous of her, don’t you think?)  Being the kind husband I am (if I do say so mself), I let my wife put her Amazon account on it.  But then I took it from her and played with it every day for a week or two.

(That’s what I do with new gadgets.  When I got my first iPad, I took two days off to use it.  I actually got a headache from using it for 6-8 hours straight for those first two days.  I’m a geek, I know.)

So this is my first 7″ tablet.  I’ve owned a smartphone since before they called them that.  I’ve also owned an iPad since the first generation.  But this thing is different.  I knew it would be and mentioned it in my predictions for 2012.

What does this mean for marketers?

If you get any significant traffic, you should check your analytics to see how much of it is coming from these types of devices.  After all, reports say that about 20% of Americans already own a tablet or e-reader.

But perhaps even more importantly, we need to think about the content we produce.  Can it be turned into an online series of videos or online books?

Because that is what these are best at.

The $199 Kindle Fire is a great price.  Google may be making one soon that would be even cheaper.  They will get cheaper and thinner.  So soon most everyone that is tech-savvy will have one by their bed or with them when they travel.  Look around the airport next time you fly.  It’s happening already.

However, they are not typically going to surf the web on it.   A larger tablet is better suited for that.  Instead, they are going to watch videos, catch up on blogs, and read books on them.  Are you ready?  Are you getting ready?  Are you producing content?  Are you re-purposing your content in these other various formats?

That’s the key to surviving the upcoming 7″ tablet growth that is inevitable in the next 2-3 years.

My Top Ten List

Here’s some important reasons why you should start thinking about advertising on Google now.

1. Search advertising brings measurable results.  Period.

2. Search advertising reaches people when they are looking for you.

3. Display advertising with Google gets your message and brand out to your target audience at a very good price.

4. The geographic targeting in Google keeps your costs down.

5. The new retargeting features in Google AdWords allows you to continue to reach anyone that has shown an interest in your business, long after they have left your site.

6. If you do it right, it’s typically very, very cheap.

7. If you do it right, it provides priceless data for other marketing, such as SEO.

8. Your competitors are probably not doing it right.

9. Google AdWords is powerful, yet fairly easy to learn.

10. There is a tremendous amount of work (and jobs) available to those that know and do Google AdWords.

The above points are real and I believe each and every one of them.

However…

1. Most individuals and businesses may tell you otherwise, but it’s only because they have not learned it well.

2. Most marketers will not tell you how awesome Google AdWords is because they don’t want you competing with them.

Do you agree?

If you do Google AdWords and are happy with your results, please post a comment below so that it does not look like I’m just doing cheesy advertising for my upcoming class!

If you want to learn AdWords, we teach a class only a few times per year.

1. Here’s one that starts this Thursday.

2. Here’s the full description.

3. Here’s the full schedule.

4. Here’s an important announcement it.

But over the weekend, this particular class just got better.

See, we have several students registered already.  I recognized some of the names.  One or two are new to AdWords.  No problem.

But several others have been using Google AdWords for a while now.  And I just know that they will have some advanced questions.  For example, they are going to want to learn more and perhaps have some very specific questions on QUALITY SCORE and RETARGETING.

So here’s what I did…

I got a friend of mine that has been doing AdWords a lot lately to come over.  Chris Easler is coming over from Asheville.  I know AdWords pretty well.  But for some of those finer points, it’s going to be great to have an extra brain in the room.

So here’s what we’ll do for this class (and this class only)…

We’ll cover the basics and the beginner stuff just a little bit quicker on day one.  Then, Chris will be here teaching with me on day two.  Between the two of us, I’m confident we’ll be able to answer any of the hard questions a Google Advertiser may have.

We’ll also have time to brainstorm ideas for quality advertising for individual students.  We’ll definitely have enough time to handle both beginner AND advanced level information.

So here’s what you need to know…

If you want to understand Google advertising on Google AdWords better (or even if you are just starting out), you won’t want to miss this event.

It’s short notice, I know.  But this Thursday and Friday is going to be amazing.  Please think about registering now.  Here is the schedule and the agenda.

Here are some of the things I predicted. I have broken them into three categories.

General Technology Predictions

1. The “BIG FOUR” Internet companies have only begun to fight. These four will get real ugly with each other very soon: Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook/Microsoft.

2. MOBILE: The growth requires that marketers pay attention and test their sites for mobile usage. But marketing to people’s phones is challenging due to the personal nature of them. You need to have something they want and ask for.

3. VIDEO: The growth online will obviously continue. But the use of apps and Internet channels on televisions will also present opportunity to content creators.

4. TABLETS: The 7″ tablet market will explode this year. The $199 tag on the Kindle Fire will be the starting point. The price will go down so that almost anyone can and will buy one eventually. It’s a great size for media – books, videos, etc. Marketers need to make sure their site looks good on this platform.

Online Marketing Predictions

1. The greatest opportunity in 2012 is BEHAVIORAL MARKETING. In other words, targetting your audience based on what they do, not what they search on or the content of the page they are looking at. Prices for display advertising will rise as this popularity grows. Get in now by doing Google AdWords Remarketing and start testing.

2. Google and other businesses will continue their trend of providing less data and details to marketers (unless they do paid advertising). Therefore, ONLINE MARKETING WILL GET HARDER. The difference between experienced and tallented Internet marketers and those that aren’t will be more obvious.

3. Given the above, Online marketers will continue to be in HIGHER DEMAND. This is also due to the economy leveling out. We’re seeing this trend already.

NOTE: Several in the audience are hiring. It’s a good time to be an online marketer.

Skill Demand Predictions

1. As marketers, the single most important skill we need to all improve on as an industry is turning time and money into leads. To be more specific, getting qualified emails.

2. The next most important skill that is needed is CREATING PRODUCTS AND OFFERS that our leads want and need. Sell them what they want. But also give them what they need. Marketers need to move past just selling what our clients have and encouraging them to create and offer what their target audience wants.

3. Lastly, we need to get better at turning leads into customers. This is the least important and the easiet when you do the first two well.

PS: I’d love to hear your comments on any of the above. Agree or disagree?