Google Ads can help increase your home service business’s revenue, but only if you know how to do it right.
Here’s a hard truth:
Most Google ad campaigns fail.
I’ve talked to dozens of home contractors who have tried Google Ads. And a lot of them are convinced they just threw money down the toilet. That’s understandable. Many of them didn’t make a return on their investment, after all.
But the question is why.
And what I found is this:
Most business owners lack an understanding of how the Google Ads auction process works. The thing is, there is more to Google Ads than just the bidding process. In fact, just bidding more without applying other strategies would only cost the business.
What you have to understand is that Google cares very much about the quality of results it presents to its users.
That’s why in this article, I’ll share with you a simple Google Ads formula that will ensure better results for your pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns every single time.
How to Structure Your PPC Campaign for Maximum Results
1 - Set up conversion tracking – it’s a must
Do not run your PPC ads if you can't clearly state how much you’ve spent, how many leads you’ve generated, and your average cost per lead. This is the first piece of the puzzle.
To really drive in the best results, you also want to be able to track:
- If a lead came through paid search
- What keyword they typed in
- Which text ad they saw
You can track all these by using dynamic number swapping. That’s a call-tracking feature that assigns a unique phone number to each lead source. This way, you could tell exactly how a lead was able to find your home service business.
Make sure that whoever’s running your campaign has this set up so that your conversions could be traced back to the specific ads or keywords that made them happen. Then, you could optimize your campaign around the keywords and text ads that are actually working.
Now, here’s another note: Keep in mind that not everybody will call you to get in touch with you.
So, aside from dynamic number swapping, you also want to have web form tracking for those who fill out a form after clicking your ad. And the same thing goes for those who start a chat with you instead of calling.
You really, really want to track where all these leads are coming from. That’s how you could dial in those keywords and text ads that are bringing your conversions up.
2 - Break down campaigns into smaller ad groups that target your services
I’m talking about breaking down your plumbing services into their component parts, then your HVAC services into their own component parts. This way, you’re grouping the keywords that are specific to whichever service a potential customer is looking for.
With this, someone looking to remodel and someone who needs emergency plumbing services won’t end up on the same homepage.
Why is this important?
Simple.
If your campaigns are broken down into smaller ad groups, it will be easier for you to target the different segments of your customer base. Your ads will target a specific customer, depending on the services that you provide.
In other words, just doing this will make your campaigns more productive… instead of just having one generalized ad campaign for your entire home service business.
3 - Pay attention to negative keywords
Negative keywords work like this:
Let’s say someone types in “auto AC repair” in Google.
Since that’s a service your business offers, you don’t want your website to come up in the search results. That’s a completely different service, after all.
To prevent that from happening, you must include the term “auto AC repair” in your negative keyword list. This way, you can avoid spending resources on unproductive clicks on your ads, such as leads who are looking for a different kind of service.
In our business, our negative keyword list is running at a thousand words at this point. It’s because there are so many little permutations of keyword searches that we don’t want to be part of.
Remember, don’t run ad campaigns without a really extensive negative keywords list.
4 - Write compelling text ads that resonate with your customers
You have to make sure that your text ads resonate with, and only with, your customers.
But this isn’t simply about stacking as many keywords as you can into your ads. Rather, the text on your ads needs to be very compelling for your target customers to click on them. That’s how you can get a high clickthrough rate (CTR) compared to the number of times your ads come up.
Keep in mind that Google is tracking what percentage of people click on your ads.
So, if the text on your ad is more persuasive than your competition, then you can expect a higher quality score for it. Hence, you'll pay less to maintain top positioning for your chosen search terms.
5 - Leverage ad extensions to make your ads stand out
There are little things you can add to your text ad that’ll make it take up more space in the search results. Make sure you stack the deck in your favor by adding as many of those ad extensions as possible. Some of the extensions you can use include:
- Location extensions
- Reviews extensions
- SiteLink (additional landing pages on your site that you want visitors to view)
- Lead form extensions
- Callout extensions (words or phrases below your ad description text that provides additional information about your business)
Google allows the use of up to four ad extensions for any given ad. So, be sure to leverage them in every campaign.
6 - Land visitors on solid, well-thought-out pages that are built to convert
I've tested this in my business.
See, I wanted to know how much impact a good website has on an ad campaign. Now, the difference is that we want a single direction.
That is, we want visitors to click on our page and take action, especially if we paid upwards of $12 for an individual click. We want them to see a linear path from attraction to conversion.
Now, in order to create this linear path to conversion, you need to continuously perform split testing and fine-tuning.
You can’t just set a budget for your ads campaign and leave it be. It’ll take you an ongoing look at the metrics, what actually got clicked at the highest level, and what ads are converting at the highest level for you to get the most out of your ad spend.
Make Google Ads Work for your Plumbing & HVAC Business
Don’t think about spending a penny for Google Ads if you do not follow the formula I’ve outlined above. Otherwise, you are bound to lose a ton of money. If you want to maximize the ROI for your Google ads, be sure to do it the right way.
Now, if this is the first time you’re going to take Google ads seriously, I know it can be quite difficult… Even if I’ve listed the formula above.
So, if you need a hand to get started, Schedule a time to chat with us. Pick a time that works for you now by going to https://go.plumberseo.net/schedule.
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