Palm | Kelapa Sawit

HAVING a Web presence can help push your products, and Google has a host of tools to get you started.

All you need to do is launch the browser, go to the Google Search page and search for "AdWords".

With AdWords, you can place banner ads to tell consumers about your products. It doesn't matter if you're a mum selling cupcakes using blogspot, or a business with 50 employees working in three offices.

"Using AdWords, you get to create ads and choose keywords that consumers can quickly relate to your product.

Your ad will appear next to the search result, but you only need to pay if they click on your ad," said Julian Persaud, Google's managing director Southeast Asia.

When using AdWords, business or ad owners need to think like the consumer.

"Online marketing is a way for businesses to communicate directly to consumers," reminded Persaud.

He said Malaysia is an exciting market for Google, especially with the recent announcement of the National Broadband Initiative.

The latest figures from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission show that national Internet penetration stands at 66 per cent, with 17 million Internet users.

But in terms of online advertising, Malaysia is still in the initial stages.

The Nielsen 2010 report shows that last year's online media spending was RM40 million, only about one per cent of total advertising spending.

What's more, there are 600,000 small and medium-sized enterprises in the country, but only 100,000 have websites.

"Many businesses think if you place your ad online, you have to enable purchasing online, but that's not true.

"Many consumers research for products and services and do their purchases offline," said Persaud, pointing out that 83 per cent of digital lifestyle consumers here used the Internet during the purchase process while 75 per cent used search engines to research for their products.

He added: "People want to be able to search for the products and services they want, and businesses can list their business for free on Google."

Last year, together with the International Trade and Industry Ministry, Google held the SME Business Stimulus campaign where businesses received RM200 worth of AdWords credit to launch and maintain their website.

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