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I was attracted by outdoor jobs from a very young age.
So it was either being a farmer or fisherman.
In Belgium we only have 60 kilometres of coastline
so being a fisherman wasn't possible.
So I became a farmer.
Our company, the Pays des Collines Donkey Farm,
is a company based on the production of donkey milk.
We started the company primarily because of our love of donkeys.
We work as a family.
So there's my wife, my son and me.
Three of us.
And I have to say that so far it's going really well.
Donkeys are animals that aren't really seen for their true value.
It's often said they're stupid,
stubborn and not much use for anything.
I feel I can make them more valued by taking their milk,
selling it and proving that this milk is good for human health.
Donkey milk is very rich in vitamins,
minerals and antibodies.
So it's a milk that strengthens the immune system.
On top of that, it's a really, really pleasant milk to drink
and has a really, really good taste.
It's very light.
So it's a real pleasure to drink it.
At one point, we decided we wanted to increase our direct Internet sales to individual customers.
The main challenge was to redirect potential French customers to our site,
as we knew the French were interested in this type of product.
But we also knew they weren't finding our site,
because when we searched for donkey milk,
we didn't appear anywhere on Google France.
So we came across AdWords simply by reading the paper.
There was an advert for AdWords which said roughly this:
while you're reading this,
your customers are looking for you on the Internet and can't find you.
The advert in the paper offered a credit of €50.
So we started on AdWords like that, to see how it worked.
When the site wasn't yet listed on AdWords,
we had around two or three orders from individual customers a day.
They were often Belgians because we had good visibility in Belgium.
With AdWords, we went from three to six, and then from six to ten.
And at the moment, the numbers are still rising a bit and it looks like
they're stabilising at around 12 orders a day.
And remember we started with two or three, so...
AdWords has transformed our company in the sense
that our direct sales to individual customers via the Internet were fairly low.
And now, they're up by as much as six or seven times.
My dream for the company, and it's perhaps not very ambitious,
is that we grow, of course,
but it's not a desire for growth at any cost.
What's important, is to maintain our business at current levels,
and above all to have a really good quality of life.
I intend to continue using AdWords in the future.
And definitely see if there are still changes I can make,
like finding more relevant keywords.
I think it's absolutely essential to recommend AdWords to small companies
that are just starting out because it really allows you to... ,
firstly, to get yourself known,
to get people visiting your site and then also to sell products directly to consumers,
not only in Belgium but all around the world.