THE BASICS OF PAY-PER-CLICK (PPC) MARKETING
PPC stands for pay-per-click. It’s an internet marketing model in which advertisers pay a fee each time their ads are clicked. Essentially, it’s a way of buying visits to your website rather than “earning” those visits organically.
Being one of the most popular forms of PPC, search engine advertising allows advertisers to bid for ad placement among the sponsored links of a search engine whenever a consumer searches on a keyword relevant to their business offering. For instance, if you bid on the keyword “Best HVAC Company in (add location),” your ad might appear first on the Google results page.
Every time your ad is clicked, sending a visitor to your website, you have to pay the search engine a small fee. When the right PPC tactics are applied, the cost is insignificant because the visit is worth more than what you pay for it. Picture this: you pay $2 for a click, but the click helps you close a $400 sale. You’ve made a considerable profit!
A lot goes into building a winning PPC campaign – researching and selecting the right keywords, distributing those keywords into well-organized campaigns and ad groups, and setting up PPC landing pages optimized for conversions, to name a few.
Search engines favor intelligently targeted PPC campaigns. If Google, and those similar to it, recognize your landing pages as valuable and satisfying to users, they charge you less per click, leading to an increase in profits. So before you start siphoning money into PPC campaigns, it’s necessary to learn how to do it right.
WHY PPC FOR HOME SERVICE BUSINESSES?
Pay-per-click or PPC advertising is particularly great for home service companies because customers usually look for an immediate solution when searching for products or services.
If you apply the right PPC strategy, your ad will potentially appear at the top of the search engine results pages (SERP), helping your company become one of the top choices for consumers.
Sounds great, right?! But are your ads powerful enough to get you the leads you’re looking for? There’s no point in being at the top of SERP if your ads don’t convert.
Imagine a situation where an online consumer searches “Carpet Cleaner” and sees your ad, and they decide not to call you but choose to contact one of your competitors. What happened? It could be one, more, or all of the following:
- You are not targeting the people in the right location
- You are not using the right keywords to target customers
- Your ad leads to a landing page with an unclear call-to-action
- You are advertising the right services at the wrong time
Here are three great PPC practices that will help address these concerns and get you more home service leads.
1. Landing Page Optimization
When consumers click on your ad, they’re directed to a web address that’s known as a “landing page.” Your ad is created to entice people to click it, getting people to your landing page, which job is to get you leads.
Ensure your phone number and a clear call-to-action button are among the first things your potential customers see on your page. We recommend putting your number and call-to-action button(s) in an eye-catching color and plain sight (preferably at the top right-hand corner of the page).
2. Keywords “Near Me”
Now that your landing page is all set up to convert, you need ads that will entice people to click through to the landing page. However, before you click “publish” on your new ad, make sure you use keywords consumers are searching for.
Since (most) home service businesses are location-bound, you don’t want someone in Chicago to click your ad and waste your funds if you service West Virginia. You want to use keywords to target specific locations, such as “Roofing West Virginia.”
But how do you get your ads in front of consumers searching “roofing near me” without a specific location?
Well, a PPC campaign allows you to select locations in which you want your ads to appear. Additionally, you can add keywords like “Roofing Near Me” and “Roofers Around Me” to the general Ad Groups in your campaign that simply target people searching for “Roofers.”
Browsers like Google Chrome will recognize the location of people searching your keywords and serve them your ads.
3. Ad Campaign Tune-Ups
Many businesses have a continual offering of home services that aren’t period-specific and benefit from uninterrupted campaigns that place their ads in front of consumers around the clock.
However, there are also businesses with maintenance plans (biannual, seasonal, monthly) which don’t require year-round promotion but only during specific periods.
You can “tune up” your campaigns by pausing ads during periods when you don’t want them to show on search engines. There’s also an option to schedule when you want your ads to start showing again.
As a business in the home services industry, tailoring your ad elements to best fit both Google’s algorithms and your audience’s needs will give your business the best results and the most leads.
However, before you start investing in ads, you should understand the elements that make up a Google AdWords Ad.
What Are Google Adwords Ads?
Google Ads is easily the most popular PPC advertising system in the world. The Google Ads platform enables businesses to build ads that appear on Google’s search engine and additional Google properties.
Google Ads is based on a pay-per-click model, in which users bid on keywords and pay for every click on their ads. Whenever a search is conducted, Google fishes out the best-fitting ads for the initiated search and places them in the valuable ad space on its SERP.
The “winners” are chosen based on a combination of factors, including the quality and relevance of their keywords and ad campaigns and the size of their keyword bids.
While a number of factors determine how successful your PPC advertising campaign will be, you can achieve a lot by focusing on:
- Keyword Relevance – Composing relevant PPC keyword lists, tight keyword groups, and suitable ad text.
- Landing Page Quality – Designing optimized landing pages with compelling, relevant content and an attention-grabbing call-to-action tailored to precise search queries.
- Quality Score – Quality Score is Google’s rating of the quality and relevance of your PPC campaigns compared to other advertisers. The higher your Quality Scores, the more ad clicks you get at lower costs.
- Creative – Engaging and enticing ad copy that can push and persuade people is crucial for conversion.
What Are The Elements Of A Google Ad?
Google ads are great because they are simple in structure, and each of their elements is designed and positioned to ensure your ads are visible, effective, and valuable.
HEADLINE 1 (H1)
H1 is the first thing the searcher will read in your ad, so make sure it is relevant to their search. You can achieve this by adding a keyword or phrase, which is the first indication that your ad markets a product or service the searcher needs.
HEADLINE 2 (H2)
H2 appears right beside H1 and should give further information about what you are advertising. Your first choice should be highlighting your business’s fortes. Are you a great value-for-money option? Do you have distinct qualifications that increase your authority as a contractor? Point it up!
DISPLAY URL
This is a link to your site that appears right below the headings. You want the link to be set up so that it’s clear the searcher will be taken to a landing page relevant to their search. Remember, you can tailor the display URL to better fit what the searcher expects.
DESCRIPTION
Ad description is the text you see beneath the display URL. Use this space to highlight further benefits and add information on your products or services. It’s also smart to sneak a keyword in here and close the description with a clear CTA (Call To Action), motivating the user to take action with your home service company.
AD EXTENSIONS
While creating a Google ad, there’s the option to incorporate only the four elements mentioned above. However, ad extensions allow you to include additional info like location, phone number, other links, or more text for absolutely free.
PPC Marketing Is The Future
Creating a successful pay-per-click campaign will require a combination of creativity, market knowledge, research and a lot of testing all while sticking to best PPC practices.
Home service businesses can see a significant increase in lead generation if their ads are done correctly and fine-tuned to the consumers in the area they service.
Next Steps
Now you know what it takes to run a successful PPC Ad campaign but you might be wondering how to get started. It’s time to put your knowledge to work.
At Services Engine, we specialize in helping businesses just like you to keep growing your business with long term success. Visit our website to learn more.
Want to see how you can run ads in as little as 3 clicks?
Get access to proven Ad Templates for the home service industry.