Google Adwords

Hey Mike

We have been using Adwords since 2012, all in all it is a great service for the money. I like the flexibility of knowing exactly what it will cost per month and being able to scale back certain ads for certain seasons, for instance I am spending more advertising parking garage cleaning since this is usually when PMs are getting quotes, I will push line painting and outdoor sweeping once the snow disappears. Stuff like graffiti removal or window cleaning I don't bother with since there are way too many competing ads so the cost per click would be too high.

A couple recommendations...
1. I would adjusting the time the ads are shown to be daytime only, say 7am to 7pm this will save a lot of useless clicks
2. Use a smaller geographic area on the isp locator for the ads to be displayed, when I first set it up i was getting calls from places 2 or 3 hours away.
3. Watch all the videos on how to set it up properly, otherwise it is hard to track your conversions once its up and running. I had to start over completely because I set mine up incorrectly.
4. Don't be cheap with it, start out with a higher cost per click to make sure that your ads show up first or second at the top of the page, Set your first months budget higher than you intended to spend, maybe a grand or so. It may seem high but the first month is all about learning what works and what converts to sales. Adjust accordingly after that.

I found that it was very effective at first but now that there is more and more guys using it my cost per clicks are increasing without the conversion rate.
Still a valuable service in my mind and you may get an initial boost in your business.

I'm curious Mike, what are you using now to attract customers?
 
Mike stay away from a company called Dex media for this.
 
Mike,
I've been running adwords campaigns for over a decade both for myself and clients. They can be very effective if you do them right. Read all that you can from Google on it. They actually have some decent training. A few important things they will not tell you though.

1) Don't forget Bing/Yahoo - they still account for about 30% of searches and in fact some of my most profitable campaigns come from there. Reason is that's default on most new computers and a LOT of older people and others never bother going to Google and the ad rates are a lot better. Depending on the demographic you're going after it's a very viable addition.

2) Make sure you always have 2 ads for each keyword. Make sure you click the button when setting up your campaign to show the ads equally. That way when you review regularly you can see which ad is performing the best. Once you get about a few hundred clicks then take the best one, that becomes your base, and then write another. It's amazing that sometimes just changing by reorganizing the same words in an ad can have huge effects.

3) Do NOT believe google when you're setting your budget. They'll often say, the price you're willing to pay will not get you on the first page. For example, you may have set a budget of $1 per click and they'll tell you it's going to take $4 to get shown. It's not true.

4) DO NOT worry about being at the top of a listing. I usually shoot for being like 3-6 position. Web pages have 2 main hotspots, top left and the top 1/2 of right side. Ever wonder why most ads you see are on the right side. A 4th position ad might cost you $.85 whereas being #1 may cost you $5. Most people know the top few are ads and just kind of glance over them. An ad in the top 1/2 of the right column can be just as effective if written correctly

5) Try to get your KW in the ad content - that will bold it

6) Do a lot of KW research - Look for longtail KWs - there are free tools that will help - One of the easiest things to do is start typing in a KW and see what Google suggests as you're typing, use some of those. Good free tool - http://ubersuggest.org/ Long tail KWs will be cheaper too
An example - Roof cleaning - every yahoo in the world will be pushing something from chemical manf. to Home Depot - will cost you a lot to get towards the top - Now say your KW is 'dark stains on roof' Just did a local search here and 'roof cleaning' was loaded with ads. 'Dark Stains on roof' had 1 ad total. You could have bid a dime and been #2.

7) Make sure you group your KWs. if you're just starting out. For example have all your roofing KWs together and all your concrete KWs together. That way you can just run 2 ads for each group, the tighter they are the better. People like me will run 2 separate ads for every single KW. Even a small campaign might have 1000 ads. I would advise setting your longtail kw's together in a separate group so you can bid a lot cheaper for them. Say .50 versus a $1 on the main ones

8) Make sure the ad goes to it's respective landing page. This is the #1 mistake that most people make, they'll have all their ads going to their Home page. Once a prospect hits your site you've got 4 seconds to keep their attention. So have you concrete cleaning ads going to your concrete cleaning page. Google likes this and will reward you with cheaper clicks and better position.

9) Link your adwords campaign to your Google analytics - will give you more detailed info.

!0) Don't do it unless you're willing to spend a couple of hours/month reviewing it. It can easily be very good for you but you have to experiment with it for a few months to start fine tuning it. Pay attention to your bounce rates. If high, then you may need to adjust your ads or your web page it's going to.

11) Start off relatively small. You're going to have pretty serious learning curve and if you're not careful can piss away a lot of money quickly for not a lot of results. I would suggest something like $10/day for your whole campaign until you get the hang of it.

12) Make sure you use Negative KWs too, ie free. machinery, installation. etc. When you look at your reports they will tell you what people were searching for that clicked on your ads, if you see something that's not pertinent, add to your negative kw list.

Hope all this helps
 
Mike,
I've been running adwords campaigns for over a decade both for myself and clients. They can be very effective if you do them right. Read all that you can from Google on it. They actually have some decent training. A few important things they will not tell you though.

1) Don't forget Bing/Yahoo - they still account for about 30% of searches and in fact some of my most profitable campaigns come from there. Reason is that's default on most new computers and a LOT of older people and others never bother going to Google and the ad rates are a lot better. Depending on the demographic you're going after it's a very viable addition.

2) Make sure you always have 2 ads for each keyword. Make sure you click the button when setting up your campaign to show the ads equally. That way when you review regularly you can see which ad is performing the best. Once you get about a few hundred clicks then take the best one, that becomes your base, and then write another. It's amazing that sometimes just changing by reorganizing the same words in an ad can have huge effects.

3) Do NOT believe google when you're setting your budget. They'll often say, the price you're willing to pay will not get you on the first page. For example, you may have set a budget of $1 per click and they'll tell you it's going to take $4 to get shown. It's not true.

4) DO NOT worry about being at the top of a listing. I usually shoot for being like 3-6 position. Web pages have 2 main hotspots, top left and the top 1/2 of right side. Ever wonder why most ads you see are on the right side. A 4th position ad might cost you $.85 whereas being #1 may cost you $5. Most people know the top few are ads and just kind of glance over them. An ad in the top 1/2 of the right column can be just as effective if written correctly

5) Try to get your KW in the ad content - that will bold it

6) Do a lot of KW research - Look for longtail KWs - there are free tools that will help - One of the easiest things to do is start typing in a KW and see what Google suggests as you're typing, use some of those. Good free tool - http://ubersuggest.org/ Long tail KWs will be cheaper too
An example - Roof cleaning - every yahoo in the world will be pushing something from chemical manf. to Home Depot - will cost you a lot to get towards the top - Now say your KW is 'dark stains on roof' Just did a local search here and 'roof cleaning' was loaded with ads. 'Dark Stains on roof' had 1 ad total. You could have bid a dime and been #2.

7) Make sure you group your KWs. if you're just starting out. For example have all your roofing KWs together and all your concrete KWs together. That way you can just run 2 ads for each group, the tighter they are the better. People like me will run 2 separate ads for every single KW. Even a small campaign might have 1000 ads. I would advise setting your longtail kw's together in a separate group so you can bid a lot cheaper for them. Say .50 versus a $1 on the main ones

8) Make sure the ad goes to it's respective landing page. This is the #1 mistake that most people make, they'll have all their ads going to their Home page. Once a prospect hits your site you've got 4 seconds to keep their attention. So have you concrete cleaning ads going to your concrete cleaning page. Google likes this and will reward you with cheaper clicks and better position.

9) Link your adwords campaign to your Google analytics - will give you more detailed info.

!0) Don't do it unless you're willing to spend a couple of hours/month reviewing it. It can easily be very good for you but you have to experiment with it for a few months to start fine tuning it. Pay attention to your bounce rates. If high, then you may need to adjust your ads or your web page it's going to.

11) Start off relatively small. You're going to have pretty serious learning curve and if you're not careful can piss away a lot of money quickly for not a lot of results. I would suggest something like $10/day for your whole campaign until you get the hang of it.

12) Make sure you use Negative KWs too, ie free. machinery, installation. etc. When you look at your reports they will tell you what people were searching for that clicked on your ads, if you see something that's not pertinent, add to your negative kw list.

Hope all this helps
What he said. Especially the part about not believing google. They say you aren't bidding enough to be on the first page, but if yo test it you could be in the number one spot.
 
Learn, learn first. I have been running them since the start of my business and get a good amount of business from it. The information above is a good place to start.
 
The way google is set up now you almost have to use adwords. I noticed now on my phone the only thing you see if ads unless you scroll down. Sometimes on desktop too. I don't advertise low prices...I let the other guys waste their money on that. Promote your quality and get better converting clicks.

Daniel Simmons
Pressure Washing America, LLC
 
Wow- Some GREAT stuff here- Thanks Rick/Ralph/Jason and everyone else

Looking into it-not sure i need it but always want to keep pipe full- leaning towards trying for a few months

We get so many jobs (most) from networking/word of mouth/Other contractors/website

We stay pretty busy year round with other contracting stuff

We are Vendor for a large Cable company who provides a lot of PW work for us

Great info!!!!- will let you know how we do
 
Here are a bunch of examples of what you can expect. There are real ups and downs. Sometimes I get 10 clicks and 0 calls. Or 10 clicks and 8 calls.
 

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