Veggie Google power

I know this is not solar but it is green related and I use Google Adwords!

Green Machines
Veggie Wheels uses Google AdWords to reach a national customer base and drive 95% of its business.
Time for an oil change

One moment you’re in a major motion picture, the next you’re running a business at the forefront of the alternative energy revolution. Sound like something out of, well, Hollywood? “I had a role in the movie ‘Because I Said So,’” explains Nate Petre, founder and CEO of Veggie Wheels. “The director had a car that he’d converted to run on vegetable oil. I became fascinated with it. As an alternative to gasoline, vegetable oil is renewable, biodegradable, and reduces nitrogen oxide emissions by 75 percent. So I researched the process and decided to convert my Mercedes.”

Nate was so pleased with the result that he began to think vegetable oil could be the secret ingredient for a successful business. So in August of 2006, he traded in his headshots for headlights and set up shop in Venice, California. “There was just one downside to my new profession,” he says. “Converted cars smell like a deep fryer. People get a whiff of my garage and wonder where the fast food joint is. I cooked my way through acting school, so it doesn’t really get to me, but let’s just say dieters should keep their windows rolled up.”
Elbow grease

Nate knew that even the mouthwatering scent of piping hot french fries wouldn’t be enough to get customers through the garage door. Veggie Wheels needed a marketing plan. “I’d never been a marketer – never even played one on TV,” says Nate. “But I knew we needed to get our message out there. We’re a green company, so wasting paper on flyers was out of the question. Online advertising was a natural fit. When I was researching vegetable oil and biodiesel, I searched the Internet, so it made sense to me that others would do the same.”

Two months after opening Veggie Wheels, Nate signed up with Google AdWords™. He chose to use Starter Edition, a simplified version of AdWords that lets new advertisers create a basic account quickly and easily with a one-page signup form. “I got up and running right away, and inquiries started coming just a few days after I launched the campaign. Now I use Standard Edition, which provides more features at no extra cost.”

AdWords offers a range of options for targeting by location, and Nate chose to show his ads throughout the U.S. “Alternative fuels are big here in California, but there could be interest in other states as well. And sure enough, we started getting emails and calls from Philly, Texas, Washington – you name it. Since we offer delivery, we’re able to serve those customers – and AdWords gave us the chance to reach them.”

Much to Nate’s surprise, AdWords connected him with diesel car owners looking to sell, rather than convert, their vehicles. “That was something we didn’t foresee,” Nate explains. “We’re able to track down and sell hard-to-find models all over the country without lifting a finger: they come to us. So in a way, AdWords ended up changing our business model.”
It’s easy being green

To cast the widest net possible, Nate runs ads for Veggie Wheels alongside the search results on google.com as well as on the Google Content Network, which includes millions of news pages, topic-specific websites, and blogs. Nate’s ads appear on targeted web pages that relate to the keywords he selected, including sites like www.biodiesel.com and www.fillup4free.com and pages about biodiesel and vegetable oil on sites like www.sciencewatch.com, www.ehow.com, and www.howthingswork.com.

“The content network has been just as effective as search in terms of bringing us leads and customers,” says Nate. “Customers tell us they were doing research or reading an article, saw our ad, and clicked over to Veggie Wheels. They weren’t necessarily considering getting a converted car at that point, but they were already interested in the technology. With the content network, we expand our reach while still targeting our very narrow audience.”

“We always ask our customers how they found us,” Nate continues. “About 95 percent of them clicked on an AdWords ad on either the search or the content network. We couldn’t get as much business or traffic any other way – especially for under $100 a month. Once I saw the results from AdWords, there was no question that I would spend the majority of my advertising budget on it.”
Fueling the future

Nate now spends his days converting cars, installing diesel engines into all types of vehicles, and collecting used cooking oil from local restaurants. With a major career change behind him and gallons of vegetable oil in his garage, Nate has no regrets. “Acting is all about you,” he says. “I’m much happier doing something that benefits others – not to mention the environment. Wondering how you can do your part to make our cars greener?” He smiles. “Keep eating those onion rings.”

As Veggie Wheels expands and launches new services, Google AdWords will continue to drive its growth. “AdWords brings together people who want to green their machines with the experts who know how to do it,” Nate explains. “In our business, we definitely provide the oil, but Google provides the grease.”