Google Ads is a topic that is important for many painting companies. They are always in search of ways to increase their number of clients. With Google Ads, a pay-per-click type of advertising, painters will see an impactful outcome in reaching customers. Understanding Google Ads is important for any business.
Google Ads is a great advertising tool because it produces immediate results. When there is an immediate need to drive business, you can run Google Ads and turn them on and off as needed. Google Ads is the best option in regard to intention. It allows a business to run ads targeted for very specific buying behaviors.
Google Ads for Painters Download
A business can complement its organic search ranking with Google Ads. Running Google Ads can offer insight into what keywords are being used to fire the ads that are getting results. Once you know what keywords to use, you can incorporate those into your organic research search engine optimization strategy (SEO).
Incorporating Google Ads into an overall marketing strategy is a relatively inexpensive way to test a company’s messaging. Based on the ad copy and ad headlines, you can see what messaging is working and driving the best results. Google Ads gives you the ability to round out dominance on the search results page.
When a Google ad is run, it can appear at the top of the page. Your business will also show up on the Google map results as well as your organic listings. However, if your business is not appearing on Google map results, where the organic listing allows to rank phrases, your business will not appear organically.
4 Core Concepts
There are four main concepts to understand before implementing Google Ads in your marketing and advertising strategy.
1. Customer Control
One of the main points to understand is that people who are doing the searches now have control over their buying process. Studies show that customers are 75% of the way through their purchase before they reach out to a brand or company. Consumers are choosing companies that they might want to engage with through online research, social media, or various other means. The fact remains that they are not engaging with a company until the last quarter of the buying process.
2. Convenience
When customers have an urgent need for results, Google Ads are important. Convenience is another factor to consider when running an ad. With access to the internet anytime, day or night, consumers can perform searches that are convenient for them. Running an ad overnight may be the reason a potential customer decides to learn about your painting services, and eventually, contact you for more information.
3. Timeframe/Urgency
The need for a painter is not always urgent; however, there are a few situations that require immediate attention. Those include relatives coming in town, hosting a party, or selling/buying a home. The timeframe must be factored in when you want your business to be found online, whether it’s paid or organic search.
4. Micro Moments
There are episodes that happen in life that trigger other thoughts, also known as micro-moments. If a potential customer decides it’s time to remodel a room in their home, they perform a Google search for home services. During the search, some customers ponder if they can afford it, if they need help remodeling, or how much will this project cost. These are important micro-moments that Google has identified for the home services industry.
Google Ads Messaging Strategy
It is important to think about a messaging strategy when using Google Ads. To create an advertising campaign or strategy, painters must know pertinent information about their customers and messaging options within Google Ads. To produce a quality Google ad there are several factors and tools to consider.
Who Is Your Ideal Customer?
Knowing who your ideal customer is at the beginning of the process is a major factor when you create an advertising campaign. The type of device being used in performing searches may dictate the type and timing of the ad that should run in Google Ads. If your audience tends to be younger, then most likely they are using their phones to perform searches. Using a tool like Google Analytics assists in identifying trends and who your ideal customer may be.
Message Extensions
Once you know who your ideal customer is you can then determine how you ask them to engage with your company. There will be many missed opportunities if this factor is not considered. When a customer wants more information about your painting services, they may want to text you from their phone. Studies show that 75% of millennials prefer texting over calling.
Your goal is to have customers take the calls to action. If you’re sending out coupons or advertising a promotion you should consider increasing your bid spend. Those ads are going to drive people to do a Google search and check out your business. Even if you have a seasonal business, there are strategies for delivering your ads. Having multiple ads running and optimizing those will improve both your clicks and conversions.
Expanded Text/Ad Extensions
Expanded text increases the number of clicks and conversions. Besides, ad extensions will increase your click-through rate. Setting up a Google ad is easy, but using other tools can dramatically improve your company’s ad performance.
Display Ads
Google owns YouTube. YouTube ads, also known as display ads, are great for the top of the funnel. If you know your ideal customer watches YouTube, then choosing to run a display ad on YouTube would benefit your business. Running a how-to video can be a great way for customers to become aware of your painting services and maybe even drive some traffic to your business.
Remarketing
In the painting world, customers are going to research to find out about the reputation of the company. Once they look at your website you want to take advantage of remarketing. Remarketing is running ads to potential customers who’ve already been to your website while they browse the internet. They did not make an immediate purchase or inquiry.
Key Components to a Google Ad
Building out a Google ad involves crucial elements to make potential customers want to click on it. If you want your ad and business name at the top of a search, implementing
the following components will ensure it happens.
Campaign Level
The campaign level involves setting your bids and target location. For example, you can run a different ad at night than what you run during the day. You would use different campaigns to target different areas at different times of the year.
Ad Group Level
Within a campaign, you can have ad groups. Ad groups are tightly focused and relate to a set of keywords. You do not want every word in your ad group; otherwise, you’re going to get poor performance with your ads.
Creating and defining ad groups is important in Google’s keyword planning tool. Google gives suggested ad groups, but you do not have to adhere to those. When you create an ad group, the keywords used should trigger the ad, ad headline, and the ad copy.
Pay-per-click campaigns fail because a business will create only one ad group. They will list all their services and make it as broad as possible. That waters down the performance of the ad. If you offer painting services as well as drywall and wallpaper installation, make sure these services are not in the same ad group.
Keyword Match
Keywords are set in an ad group level. If you do commercial painting and residential painting, those would be two different groups. They are completely different services within Google Adwords; therefore, your keywords should reflect that.
Your keywords should be closely related to each other. When someone clicks on your ad and ends on a landing page, it is relevant to why they clicked on your ad in the first place. Driving people to a landing page on your website should also be focused around the keyword concept.
There should be some consistency between the headline, the display URL and the ad copy. Google expanded the number of characters for the description to 300. That does not mean you have to use all 300 characters. The most important aspect is the quality of the ad copy you write. Sometimes short and succinct descriptions perform better.
Landing Pages
Driving people to a landing page on your website should also be focused around the keyword concept. Text for the ads and landing pages need to be meaningful. You also want to make sure the text is clear and not confusing.
It should be obvious what you want a customer to do once they are on the page. If a customer is looking for information on residential interior painting, take them to a page that is only about that subject.
There also needs to be a strong call to action that asks a customer to do something. Examples include “schedule a free estimate” or to call the company from that landing page. Sometimes filling out a form may be the call to action. If so, don’t ask for too much information; otherwise, potential customers will abandon that page. We live in a world where people do not want to provide a lot of information due to privacy concerns. Get the bare minimum information you need to follow up and contact them promptly.
Quality Score
The quality score is based on click-through rates. The quality score has a significant impact on both the position of where your ads are displayed and the actual cost per click. Google looks at the total number of times your ads are displayed and how many times people click on that ad. When a person clicks through and arrives at the landing page, Google can understand what the quality of the experience was while they were on the landing page.
A tracking and conversion code can be put on a landing page. This will reveal if someone has filled out a form or not. That is included in your quality score. If someone clicks on your ad and the ad doesn’t relate to why they were doing that search, that translates to a negative experience. This will be reflected in your quality score.
Quality scores range from 0 to 10. Ideally, you want your quality score at six or higher.
An important thing to note is that if you have a quality score of six through ten, with ten being the highest, you will probably pay less per click than your competitors. Your ad will likely end up in a preferred display position.
Bounce rates are not a great metric because it’s easy to get around it. People can go to a landing page, browse a while, write down your phone number and then leave the page. From Google’s perspective, that person was not on your landing page very long; however, it does not mean that action wasn’t taken.
Using Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are a way of telling Google what you don’t want your ad to show. If a person types in painting jobs, you don’t want your ad to show unless you are hiring. Adding “jobs” as a negative keyword will prevent your ad from being triggered because that person is not looking to buy anything. Otherwise, it will cost you money if they click on it. Even if a person doesn’t click on your ad, it still affects your click-through rate, which in turn affects your quality score.
It is recommended to not spend any money on ads until you have the conversion tracking in place. It is also helpful to add a call tracking number and web form tracking tied to your campaigns to measure performance.
The Ad Spend Budget
How much money should a painting company spend on Google Ads? Google operates on a daily budget. There is a simple formula that works for most local service area businesses. This can be modified if you’re in a larger or competitive market.
First, you need to make sure you have enough average cost per click of the keyword phrase to run at least 4 ads per day. Multiply that by the number of days you want to run your ads. If you want to run ads on your business days, around 30 days a month, then it would be a monthly budget of $120.
Managing Your Ad Campaign
It is important to actively manage your Google ad campaigns because the cost per click changes in real time. You can’t set it and forget it and expect to get the same results. Set up conversion tracking. Make sure you separate into appropriate ad groups based on similar keyword phrases so the text of the ad matches what a person typed in the search bar.
To reach people who are ready to make a purchasing decision, you want to make sure you run multiple variations of the ads created. This will aid in testing the headlines and ad copy. You can also send them to different landing pages and compare which page converts better.
Google is trying to provide the highest quality, most relevant search results, from either a paid or organic search page that they present back to the user. When Google sees that you’re actively managing your ad campaign, you will be rewarded with a lower cost per click and higher quality scores.
Future Services from Google
Google local service ads is a pay-per-read strategy similar to Angie’s List. It’s a new service that has already begun, specifically in a couple of markets in California. There is a Google guarantee program where companies will have to go through a vetting process. Proof of insurance, background checks of employees, and other insurance requirements are needed to prove that local service companies are legit.
Google Partners
At Changescape Web, we offer a total online presence audit. This includes performing a Google ad review. We look at the SEO of your website, social media platforms, local competitors, and conduct a competitive analysis. If there are any questions or help needed, you can schedule a free consultation with us.