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Lead Gen for Local Service Businesses

GoodluckChuck

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If there’s enough volume I run geo-modified keywords (keywords with locations in them), and if there’s not then we have to go for campaigns IP-Targeted to the city and add more negatives.

This is exactly what we do. Maybe because I learned from Andy.. haha
 
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Andy Black

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This is exactly what we do. Maybe because I learned from Andy.. haha
Hopefully it's because it makes sense.

Oh, add +near-me to modified broad keywords to get them closer to a geo-mod search.
 

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@Andy Black a quick question about daily budgets, which is lately getting a bit annoying, as Google likes to overspend, and there's not much we can do about it...

I know they say that eventhough they can sometimes spend DOUBLE your daily budget on certain days of the month, when the search volumes are higher, but they promise not to exceed your average daily budget at the end of the month.

This is all well and good, if you're advertising 7 days a week, but I was wondering what happens when you launch campaigns in the middle of the month and you advertise during weekdays only, for example?

I'm running some trial campaigns for a few clients and I've got a feeling that Google is going to overspend my budget, and the ad payments I've received from clients won't be enough to cover the expenses.

I'm still a few weeks away from reaching a point where it will become clear whether their stupid budgeting system works or not, but things are not looking too pretty at the moment.

Just for the sake of an example, if you were to advertise (Monday to Friday) for a client for the next 4 weeks starting from Monday next week (17/08/2020) and stop on 11/09/20, with a budget of £20/day, what would the final ad spend look like?

I would usually take an advanced payment of £400 to cover the ad spend for the whole period, but looking at how Google exceeds my daily budget quite often, I'm not too confident the numbers will work out well in the end...

Let me know what you think and your experience with Google's budgeting system.
 

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Thank you for the share Andy, I've read a lot of your content here. It's awesome.

Do you see the value for offline marketing as much as you do for online? Bandit signs, fliers, etc (funny enough I'm working on building a machine which can shoot folded fliers with a clip on them, so you can get a few thousand out in a day driving by people's houses. While LQ, it works.) I've kind of always been obsessed with stuff like this but I know there is a lot of cons. What's your opinion?
 
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Andy Black

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@Andy Black a quick question about daily budgets, which is lately getting a bit annoying, as Google likes to overspend, and there's not much we can do about it...

I know they say that eventhough they can sometimes spend DOUBLE your daily budget on certain days of the month, when the search volumes are higher, but they promise not to exceed your average daily budget at the end of the month.

This is all well and good, if you're advertising 7 days a week, but I was wondering what happens when you launch campaigns in the middle of the month and you advertise during weekdays only, for example?

I'm running some trial campaigns for a few clients and I've got a feeling that Google is going to overspend my budget, and the ad payments I've received from clients won't be enough to cover the expenses.

I'm still a few weeks away from reaching a point where it will become clear whether their stupid budgeting system works or not, but things are not looking too pretty at the moment.

Just for the sake of an example, if you were to advertise (Monday to Friday) for a client for the next 4 weeks starting from Monday next week (17/08/2020) and stop on 11/09/20, with a budget of £20/day, what would the final ad spend look like?

I would usually take an advanced payment of £400 to cover the ad spend for the whole period, but looking at how Google exceeds my daily budget quite often, I'm not too confident the numbers will work out well in the end...

Let me know what you think and your experience with Google's budgeting system.
I can't stand their budgeting system. I might want to run a test for a week at $10/day, but I've got to start at $5/day because Google will likely take 2x the initial daily budget. And I've seen it going over the 2x too.

It's something we have to work around. I set budgets lower than what I want to spend so that I don't overspend. So that's the result of Google trying to be "helpful" with budgets ... I now underspend to make sure we don't overspend.
 

Andy Black

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Thank you for the share Andy, I've read a lot of your content here. It's awesome.

Do you see the value for offline marketing as much as you do for online? Bandit signs, fliers, etc (funny enough I'm working on building a machine which can shoot folded fliers with a clip on them, so you can get a few thousand out in a day driving by people's houses. While LQ, it works.) I've kind of always been obsessed with stuff like this but I know there is a lot of cons. What's your opinion?
I'm sure anything can work, especially if the herd is going the other way.

I provide online marketing as a service to businesses, but I don't run ads for myself. I get my business by good old fashioned relationship building.

@Kak chatted with me about relationship building here:
Funny how Kyle wanted to talk about relationship building rather than "Google Ads" right?
 

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@Andy Black is going to like these latest news from Google....

"Starting September 2020, the search terms report only includes terms that a significant number of users searched for, even if a term received a click. You may now see fewer terms in your report."

Absolutely ridiculous....so now I won't be able to see what term exactly triggered my ad, but I'll still have to pay for it? Google thinks their advertisers are complete idiots.
 
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Andy Black

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@Andy Black is going to like these latest news from Google....

"Starting September 2020, the search terms report only includes terms that a significant number of users searched for, even if a term received a click. You may now see fewer terms in your report."

Absolutely ridiculous....so now I won't be able to see what term exactly triggered my ad, but I'll still have to pay for it? Google thinks their advertisers are complete idiots.
Good grief. They’re eroding our control constantly. There’s no way that helps advertisers.
 

Blackman

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Good grief. They’re eroding our control constantly. There’s no way that helps advertisers.

Some stats from a new campaign I launched a few days ago - 28 clicks in total and only 13 search terms are being shown. They are hiding more than 50% of the terms, which is ridiculous...

I think this new change is clearly worse for campaigns with limited search volume, whereas it probably won't affect much campaigns with keywords that get hundreds/thousands of impressions per day.

In any case, there's nothing good about this, but unfortunately Google can do what they want and I doubt they are going to reverse this decision.

There's a petition going on at the moment, not sure if it's going to make any difference to Google's decision >> Sign the Petition
 

Andy Black

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Some stats from a new campaign I launched a few days ago - 28 clicks in total and only 13 search terms are being shown. They are hiding more than 50% of the terms, which is ridiculous...

I think this new change is clearly worse for campaigns with limited search volume, whereas it probably won't affect much campaigns with keywords that get hundreds/thousands of impressions per day.

In any case, there's nothing good about this, but unfortunately Google can do what they want and I doubt they are going to reverse this decision.

There's a petition going on at the moment, not sure if it's going to make any difference to Google's decision >> Sign the Petition
I just posted this in another thread.

I think this is why they're hiding search terms. So we can't see how poor their matching is.

34988
 
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Blackman

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I kept looking into ways of how to see the hidden search terms in Google Ads and came across a blog post, where someone recommended to use Google Analytics to identify those terms. Can't seem to find the link now, but it's pretty simple.

Basically, you connect Google Analytics from your site that's being advertised with Google Ads, then use the "Acquisition" tab in Google Analytics and go into "Google Ads", then "Search Queries" to see all the terms.

I'm not sure if it's 100% accurate, but you definitely get more data there, compared to Google Ads, so you could use it to neg irrelevant terms that would otherwise cost you money without you being aware of them.
 

Blackman

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Looks like it didn't take Google too long to close the loophole of finding Google Ads search terms in Google Analytics, unless I haven't managed to figure out how to use Google Analytics 4?

As far as I understand, they got rid of the older Universal Analytics setup, which had the option to go into Acquisition > Google Ads > Search Queries, and there you would see all the search terms triggered, even those hidden in Google Ads.

Now with Google Analytics 4, you go into Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition and there's nothing there, apart from the source of traffic? It's a total joke. The Analytics and Google Ads are both linked, so that's not the issue.

@Andy Black , anyone? Am I doing it right?
 

Andy Black

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Looks like it didn't take Google too long to close the loophole of finding Google Ads search terms in Google Analytics, unless I haven't managed to figure out how to use Google Analytics 4?

As far as I understand, they got rid of the older Universal Analytics setup, which had the option to go into Acquisition > Google Ads > Search Queries, and there you would see all the search terms triggered, even those hidden in Google Ads.

Now with Google Analytics 4, you go into Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition and there's nothing there, apart from the source of traffic? It's a total joke. The Analytics and Google Ads are both linked, so that's not the issue.

@Andy Black , anyone? Am I doing it right?
I’ve not really looked tbh. We normally have very targeted keywords to start with. We’re still seeing enough data in the search terms to determine what new campaigns to build rather than what negatives to add. Our strategies are normally more about creating lots of targeted keywords than using lots of negatives.
 
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Blackman

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I’ve not really looked tbh. We normally have very targeted keywords to start with. We’re still seeing enough data in the search terms to determine what new campaigns to build rather than what negatives to add. Our strategies are normally more about creating lots of targeted keywords than using lots of negatives.

With local lead gen campaigns, I usually use broad-match modified keywords, and despite including a location in the keyword, you can still catch some silly stuff, which is not relevant and needs to be negg'ed to avoid wasting the budget.

We're not talking about thousands here, but I hate the fact that I can't see what I'm paying for, and knowing Google, they make every effort to trigger your ad for "closely related terms", when oftentimes it's useless crap.
 

Andy Black

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With local lead gen campaigns, I usually use broad-match modified keywords, and despite including a location in the keyword, you can still catch some silly stuff, which is not relevant and needs to be negg'ed to avoid wasting the budget.

We're not talking about thousands here, but I hate the fact that I can't see what I'm paying for, and knowing Google, they make every effort to trigger your ad for "closely related terms", when oftentimes it's useless crap.
Yeah. Agreed. Their matching gets fuzzier as they hide the search terms.
 

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How important is it to set up google my business? Do you even use it for local lead gen? I just set up google my business for a client and I start to collect the first reviews on it. Furthermore there are these little ads you can place between this listing. Are they worth it? Or should I stay just to the "old" search ads?

Thank you in advance!
 
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Andy Black

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How important is it to set up google my business? Do you even use it for local lead gen? I just set up google my business for a client and I start to collect the first reviews on it. Furthermore there are these little ads you can place between this listing. Are they worth it? Or should I stay just to the "old" search ads?

Thank you in advance!
Do it!
 

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Andy Black

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Local lead gen campaign structure for Google/Bing.

———————————

1) Campaign targets the whole of the US.

Keywords:
+service +location +statecode
e.g.
+assisted-living +charlotte +nc

For large cities or unique location names you can do just:
+service +location
e.g.
+assisted-living +chicago
+home-care +texas

———————————

2) Campaign targets the state (assumes unique location names in the state).

Keywords:
+service +location
e.g.
+home-care +charlotte

———————————

3) Campaign targets your catchment area.

Keywords:
+service
+service +near-me
Etc.

———————————

Your ads should match your keywords.

Get ninja points if your landing page(s) match your ads.
 

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Looks like I've got excited a bit too early about finding Google Ads search terms in your analytics account, because I can't seem to find them any no longer in Google Analytics 4?

Am I doing something wrong? Is there an option in Google Analytics to look up search queries at all, whether it's organic or through Google Ads?

I would assume that it's under "Acquisition" and then "Traffic Acquisition", but you can only see the source of the traffic there and nothing else?

Anyone using Google Analytics 4 and has figured out how to see search terms?
 

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Andy and everyone else who's doing Google Ads, you may want to read this, if you still haven't heard of the latest changes coming to the broad-match modified keyword match type...


I'm sort of 50/50 on this change, because in a way it's going to make search terms more relevant, but at the same time it's going to limit your outreach, as matching won't be on a word level, if you know what I mean?

So if you're currently bidding on +adidas +trainers (BMM keyword), then your ads will get triggered on every single search term that contains those words, meaning you're getting maximum traffic, but need to make sure you filter it properly and neg all the irrelevant stuff.

However, with the updated phrase match, which is going to replace BMM match, your ad will be triggered for "adidas trainers", "adidas sneakers", "where to buy adidas black trainers", but NOT for "trainers adidas".

So basically, the updated phrase match won't work in the reverse order, meaning it will trigger your ad for search terms that contain your specified words, but they will have to be in the same order and have the same/similar meaning. You may also get new words that will appear between your specified words, but again, only if the order that you originally specified is the same.

I think this is a limitation, and to be honest, they should've removed the phrase match and kept the BMM instead, because frankly phrase match is useless, if you can use BMM properly with added negatives to filter the search terms being triggered.

Anyway, most advertisers won't give a monkey and will swallow this the same way they did the search terms report update.

I'll get my coat.
 
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Andy Black

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Andy and everyone else who's doing Google Ads, you may want to read this, if you still haven't heard of the latest changes coming to the broad-match modified keyword match type...


I'm sort of 50/50 on this change, because in a way it's going to make search terms more relevant, but at the same time it's going to limit your outreach, as matching won't be on a word level, if you know what I mean?

So if you're currently bidding on +adidas +trainers (BMM keyword), then your ads will get triggered on every single search term that contains those words, meaning you're getting maximum traffic, but need to make sure you filter it properly and neg all the irrelevant stuff.

However, with the updated phrase match, which is going to replace BMM match, your ad will be triggered for "adidas trainers", "adidas sneakers", "where to buy adidas black trainers", but NOT for "trainers adidas".

So basically, the updated phrase match won't work in the reverse order, meaning it will trigger your ad for search terms that contain your specified words, but they will have to be in the same order and have the same/similar meaning. You may also get new words that will appear between your specified words, but again, only if the order that you originally specified is the same.

I think this is a limitation, and to be honest, they should've removed the phrase match and kept the BMM instead, because frankly phrase match is useless, if you can use BMM properly with added negatives to filter the search terms being triggered.

Anyway, most advertisers won't give a monkey and will swallow this the same way they did the search terms report update.

I'll get my coat.
I agree. They should have kept broad match modified and got rid of phrase match. We’ll see how it pans out. I was going to do a video on this tonight.
 

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New to FLF, @Andy Black just signed up for your Bootcamp, trying to help a friend get more clients while learning basic copy/ads/website/campaign stuff. Am going through all your Adwords posts from over the years, maaaan you have provided so much. Thank you.
 

Andy Black

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New to FLF, @Andy Black just signed up for your Bootcamp, trying to help a friend get more clients while learning basic copy/ads/website/campaign stuff. Am going through all your Adwords posts from over the years, maaaan you have provided so much. Thank you.
Oh cool! Glad to have you onboard. I had to create the course because people spent so long going through all my Google Ads threads!
 
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Hey @Andy Black, first of all thank you very much for the provided value. I am starting my first Lead Gen Website right now and just activated my first campaign a minute ago.

I spent hours reading though all your posts regarding Google Paid Search and they helped me a lot at building the confidence to start. Launch and Learn :hilarious:

So I would like to ask you a question: My Campaign is set to 'Search Campaigns' only. When I just checked if my ads are live for the keywords I provided, all I would see is that Google put an ugly ad in the map section of the Result page. No Copy whatsoever. I appended a screenshot of the Results Page (see the first maps entry labeled with 'Anzeige').

Do you have any idea why that is the case? Can I disable this somewhere? Should I disable this? I am worried that I don't have the control over this particular issue.

Thank you very much for any help! And thanks again for all the help already provided!

Felix
Screenshot 2021-05-24 at 22.58.11.png
 

Andy Black

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My Campaign is set to 'Search Campaigns' only.
Just an aside. Check it's not got Search Partners or Display enabled.

When we select "Search Only" Google ignores us and has Display enabled by default.

When I just checked if my ads are live for the keywords I provided, all I would see is that Google put an ugly ad in the map section of the Result page. No Copy whatsoever. I appended a screenshot of the Results Page (see the first maps entry labeled with 'Anzeige').

Which is your listing?

I don't see results like that in Ireland or the UK.
 

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@Andy Black, well I did figure out why my Ad wasn't showing as expected... I had my adblocker activated. :eyes:

I still haven't figured out why Google would show an Ad for the Google Maps entries though...
 

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Are you looking at Google My Business listings? Those aren’t ads.
 

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