Google India is eyeing small and medium businesses (SMBs) in Gujarat for its online advertisement programme AdWords by the end of this year, the company's online sales head, Sridhar Seshadri, said.
"Gujarat with over 7,000 SMBs is the hub of entrepreneurship in the country and has tremendous potential of online advertising," Seshadri said while announcing Google India's new service called 'JumpStart' for the state.
Under this service Google will offer free expert support to SMBs to build an online advertising campaign to attract new customers.
"This service was first tried out on a pilot basis in Chandigarh and, based on the results, we are extending this initiative to empower more SMBs," Seshadri said.
Google India wants to reach out to 70-80% of the SMBs in Gujarat in the next one year to get them to advertise online using AdWords, he said.
Seshadri said that for this, Google is planing a number of workshops with the SMBs. "Google's AdWords programme provides a cost-effective platform to SMBs who can start advertising online with low budgets and grow as per their business demands," he said.
SMBs constitute 80% of business enterprises which often face advertising challenges owing to the high costs involved, he said.
He also said that Google AdWords enables SMBs to target precisely, pay only for results, and stay firmly in charge of costs.
According to him, there are about 15,000 enterprises which are currently using AdWords for online advertising, of which about 20% are from Gujarat.
Seshadri said Google's focus would be primarily on export units, those providing financial services, and manufacturing and ancillary units.
About JumpStart, he said it will provide a quick and easy way to SMBs to get their Google advertising campaign off to a successful start.
