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While organic search should still be an important part of your Internet marketing efforts, pay-per-click is not to be discounted. Some plumbing & HVAC companies disregard pay-per-click advertising as a tacky and ineffective form of digital marketing, because they have either not heard good things about it or tried it in the past only to watch it fail. However, the truth is that if done correctly pay-per-click marketing can provide an excellent return on investment.
One of the greatest perks of pay-per-click marketing is immediate results. After implementing a strong SEO strategy top page placement for organic search can take several months to acquire. So, in the meantime you could be losing a lot of business due to poor website traffic. For those that offer certain services in the summertime or winter like AC installation or furnace repair this can be even more detrimental. But after orchestrating an effective pay-per-click campaign you could be at the top of the search engines in a matter of days. Pay-per-click placement is also extremely visible — companies are placed at the very top as well as the side of page one on several different search engines, which precedes organic results and map listings.
Plus, if you are settled nicely between spots one to four you will have even better visibility.
Additionally, instead of a geo-modifier where the city must be included as part of the keyword of a service for organic searches like “Boston plumber” it is not required for pay-per-click in order for your company to pop up in a particular area. You can actually preset a radius, so when someone is looking for a plumber that is all they will need to type in for your business to appear. Also, don’t forget to include your phone number and physical address under the block of text explaining the service and link it to your Google Places listing.
The basic process behind a pay-per-click campaign is just like it sounds, every time someone ventures to your website through this particular listing you will pay a fee. Come up with a budget for each month and how much you believe a click is worth. Google AdWords and Bing Ads are the two most popular mediums for reaching a large audience on sites like Google, Facebook, The New York Times, USA Today, Yahoo, NBC and more. Using the two together is never a bad idea, but just know that Google is a far more dominant channel.
Pick out your keywords, which should include some general plumbing or HVAC phrases, along with emergency and commercial services (i.e. emergency plumbing or commercial heating and cooling), each additional service should be included as well like drain cleaning or heater installation. Then create ad groups based around these specific keywords and several derivations thereof.
While some may believe that the number one spot goes to the highest bidder this is not the only determinant as to where you will end up. Your text ads, which explain what you can expect from a particular service before someone selects your website must be engaging and relevant, the same goes for the page your viewers are directed to.
If someone selects water heater replacement they should be sent to the water heater page on your site and not the home page. Useful, engaging and coherent content should be provided in conjunction with a special offer or coupon, as well as a strong call to action that gets your prospects to desire your water heater services above the competition. Also, I suggest creating separate ad groups for tankless and solar powered water heaters, because these are very particular systems that potential clients have singled out as to what they want for their home or commercial property.
For a service like bathroom remodeling you may want to offer some type of free style guide, this is not only helpful to customers, but it shows that you have a nice aesthetic knowledge of what you are doing. Also, it is a great way to get information on new leads, as people will have to enter their name and email address before downloading it.
Remember, Google and other major search engines are trying to create the best user experience so if relevancy is lacking it doesn’t matter how much your bid amounted to. A quality score is based on relevance, click-through-rate, and the quality of your landing page. When these three things are all in check it will cost you less per click for top positions.
A good way to keep improving your click through rate is by generating a number of text ads that speak about the same service, if one drives a lot more traffic then another drop the less enticing ad and write a new one. Doing this on a consistent basis can truly increase the success of your plumbing or HVAC business.
Mobile search is a pay-per-click goldmine! Including this in your campaign is one very smart move.
You will want to block negative keywords as well; by this I mean terms that are similar to those people would use to search for your services but carry an entire different meaning. Unless you are hiring new employees a phrase like “plumbing jobs” won’t do you much good.
Lastly, mobile search is a pay-per-click goldmine! Including this in your campaign is one very smart move. If prospective customers are in need of a plumber or HVAC specialist right away you can play off their urgency. If you have done your due diligence and are one of the top listings all they have to do is hit the click-to-call button and they are connect straight to your office. The likelihood is they will not even bother going to your website, so essentially you have advanced from pay-per-click to pay-per-call. Bet you can just taste that sale?
The next time someone tells you that pay-per-click is a waste of time, you can do one of two things; if it’s your competitor humbly nod your head and say, “Yeah your probably right…” or if that seems a bit too sneaky you can show them how to correctly utilize this great strategy to its fullest potential. If a self-proclaimed SEO “expert” utters the same defeatist statement, kindly walk the other way and don’t look back.
On this video Josh Nelson spells out exactly how to maximize the effectiveness of pay-per-click marketing efforts:
Josh Nelson | Marketing Strategist
Josh Nelson is the author of the groundbreaking book Internet Marketing for Plumbing & HVAC Contractors – How to Triple Your Sales By Getting Your Internet Marketing Right. He is also the CEO of Plumber & HVAC SEO, which specializes in helping contractors across the United States increase their sales and revenue via effective online marketing.