Canada's Home Services Empire

[perchboy]

@Andy Black
I had it at first running search campaign with enhanced bidding and the ads were doing great but then they slowed down and it started robbing me bidding $30 on clicks that weren’t even converting.

Then I ran them your style. Manual bidding, exact match, 1 keyword per ad.

Stats:
$10/visitor
1/9 Conv rate (some price shoppers)
$220 avg ticket

@savefox do you run google ads? What is your conv rate?

Perhaps my conversion rate is fine and I need to increase customer LTV.

I’ll have it running $10/day for 2 weeks so I can gather some proper data and then adjust. First I need to deal with my AdWords account suspension. Fun!

 

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[Dockid]

@Andy Black
I had it at first running search campaign with enhanced bidding and the ads were doing great but then they slowed down and it started robbing me bidding $30 on clicks that weren’t even converting.

Then I ran them your style. Manual bidding, exact match, 1 keyword per ad.

Stats:
$10/visitor
1/9 Conv rate (some price shoppers)
$220 avg ticket

@savefox do you run google ads? What is your conv rate?

Perhaps my conversion rate is fine and I need to increase customer LTV.

I’ll have it running $10/day for 2 weeks so I can gather some proper data and then adjust. First I need to deal with my AdWords account suspension. Fun!

Is your website optimized? A slow and ugly website with no trust signals with tank any Ad campaign.

 

[perchboy]

Is your website optimized? A slow and ugly website with no trust signals with tank any Ad campaign.

Trust signals?

My website looks way more modern than all the competitors. I have the landing, contact form, a short section about our service and then 2 reviews at the bottom.

 

[Dockid]

Trust signals?

My website looks way more modern than all the competitors. I have the landing, contact form, a short section about our service and then 2 reviews at the bottom.

View attachment 51595

Trust signals would be customer testimonials, before and after photos, your yelp rating, Google rating, FB rating. High quality photos of you and your employees are a lot better than stock photos.

Test your website speed score here - PageSpeed Insights . If your website takes more than 3 seconds to load, the majority of your visitors will abandon the site, costing you money and losing potential customers.

 

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[savefox]

@Andy Black
I had it at first running search campaign with enhanced bidding and the ads were doing great but then they slowed down and it started robbing me bidding $30 on clicks that weren’t even converting.

Then I ran them your style. Manual bidding, exact match, 1 keyword per ad.

Stats:
$10/visitor
1/9 Conv rate (some price shoppers)
$220 avg ticket

@savefox do you run google ads? What is your conv rate?

Perhaps my conversion rate is fine and I need to increase customer LTV.

I’ll have it running $10/day for 2 weeks so I can gather some proper data and then adjust. First I need to deal with my AdWords account suspension. Fun!

How are you going to gather proper data from 1 click a day? My conversion rate from click to inquiry is about 20% and then 50% booking rate. CPC is around $9-12, $100 a day budget and the average ticket from google ads is about $390

 

[perchboy]

September Recap

This was our first official month of business. We started off pretty slow making under $1000 in the first half of September because FB Ads weren't yet dialed in. We finished off the month making $3788 in revenue and $3380 in expenses.

Our expenses were split into 45% payroll and 45% Facebook Ad spend. The rest of the expenses were subscriptions and chemicals.

Why were our margins so damn low?
A lot of our ad spend booked clients for the month of October so this month's margins were misleading

These factors also made margins low:
- Paying current employee $25/hour (min wage here is $16.50)
- Facebook Ads only (low ROI)
- Not many referrals yet since we have an almost non-existent customer base

I'm not focused on expenses right now. For the past month and also the following months my focus will be on growing the company. If I increased margins by 10% this month I would have had an extra $378 in my pocket but if I focus on growing revenue right now and then increase margins by 10% in a few months when I make $30,000 I will have an extra $3000 in my pocket.

Goal For October: $10,000 revenue
F*ck waiting 3 months until December to try hitting 10k. We are gonna hit it next month. We have $2300 scheduled for the first week of October already and that's only from 1 lead generation method. Two $200 jobs per day is all we need. 1 from Facebook and 1 from Google Ads. Thanks @WillHurtDontCare for calling me out

 

[WillHurtDontCare]

@perchboy did you look into the $500 Google ads credit when you spend $500?

Google Ads - Get Customers and Sell More with Online Advertising

Discover how online advertising with Google Ads can help grow your business. Get customers and sell more with our digital advertising platform.

ads.google.com

 

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[perchboy]

We won a commercial bid by bidding at a low price and had a $700 job today that would take all day. We tell him E transfer or card payment but we get there, he says hes paying cheque, the place is much bigger than measured, and he says he doesnt like out method of cleaning. I told my guy to go home before we waste time on someone who doesnt end up paying in the end. We also had a $180 job 2 days ago that the customer hasn't paid us for yet.

Cheap jobs bring low quality customers who complain about the service more than the ones who pay double the price.

Prices are now doubled and we will only be taking on jobs from our ideal customers. No more trying to please the indian lady in the apartment who wants a 2 for 1 discount.

 

[The-J]

Cheap jobs bring low quality customers who complain about the service more than the ones who pay double the price.

Such an important lesson to learn. Keep going!

 

[perchboy]

1 week ago I was super stressed because the $700 job failed and we weren’t on track to hit 10k this month anymore.

I took a step back and I re-evaluated my goals. I started at my big goal far in the future then I worked out the steps I need to take each month to get there.

The goal for October is to have all my marketing dialled in to the point where we are getting $500 revenue every single working day.

After experimenting with Facebook Ads I have gotten to the point where I can book $350-600/day off of $100 adspend.

Now I’m going to keep running our ads since they are working well but I am gonna focus more on the back end. Automations, avoiding cancellations, work safety policies, job quality, etc.

 

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[perchboy]

I expanded my geo for google ads last night and started spending $100/day and today we closed a $290 and $560 job from it. I was dismissing google ads saying “it stopped working” even though there was proof that it can work for me already.

It’s easy to just say that something doesn’t work and go on to the next thing. If you want to succeed, you need to say “it didn’t work because…” and then go tweak it until it does work

 

[Jrjohnny]

I was super stressed because the $700 job failed

How did it fail? Is the reason common? Is there a way you can fix that? What can you learn?

 

[perchboy]

How did it fail? Is the reason common? Is there a way you can fix that? What can you learn?

In post from before

 

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[samuraijack]

1 week ago I started running google ad campaigns to test out which service gets the most searches on google and the competition.

I decided to go with carpet cleaning because:
- there are an average of 230 searches per day in my city for it
- its almost impossible for employees to do a bad job
- i already have a quality (i thought it was quality) hot water extractor

Nice job on taking action!

What kind of google ad campaign did you run to test this? I thought you needed a website for the ad to link to. Did you have a mockup one set up?

 

[perchboy]

Nice job on taking action!

What kind of google ad campaign did you run to test this? I thought you needed a website for the ad to link to. Did you have a mockup one set up?

You’ll need some sort of link to direct them to when they click your ad. Here’s how I’m running the campaign:

- Google search campaign so you only target people searching for your service
- Manual CPC so you’re in full control
- Exact match keywords only that people who are looking for local carpet cleaning would search up
- Headlines that correlate with search terms
- Professional website with CTAs and clear message on landing page that’s easy to navigate made by @Dockid

Read the Google AdWords threads in Andy Black’s signature and you’re set

 

[samuraijack]

You’ll need some sort of link to direct them to when they click your ad. Here’s how I’m running the campaign:

- Google search campaign so you only target people searching for your service
- Manual CPC so you’re in full control
- Exact match keywords only that people who are looking for local carpet cleaning would search up
- Headlines that correlate with search terms
- Professional website with CTAs and clear message on landing page that’s easy to navigate made by @Dockid

Read the Google AdWords threads in Andy Black’s signature and you’re set

I meant before you decided on carpet cleaning, you were testing out which services got the most searches right? You made a website for each of those different services? Or did you mean you just used to keyword planner to see search volume?

 

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[perchboy]

I meant before you decided on carpet cleaning, you were testing out which services got the most searches right? You made a website for each of those different services? Or did you mean you just used to keyword planner to see search volume?

I bought a general domain (namehomeservices.ca) made a landing page and then duplicated and changed headline so I had a landing page for each service connected to 1 domain.

I ran it at like $5/day for a few days and calculated which one had the most searches with the impression share data

To do this you can literally run the ads pointing to any link. You can even send them to a competitor if you’re just trying to gather search data.

Keyword search is just estimates so it isn’t as accurate.

 

[perchboy]

October Recap

Revenue: $5670
Expenses: $5060
Profit: $610

The goal was 10k revenue but we were unable to hit it. With Facebook Ads, we were closing $300-500 worth of sales every day on $100 ad spend which is a 4x ROA. However, we ran into the problem of so many clients cancelling appointments. (around 25% of clients)

- We had easily over $2000 in cancelled appointments this month.
- At 1 point in the month, we were nearly at negative $1000 profit.

Facebook Ads
- Can book out our whole calendar
- 50% are small rug jobs which leaves us with no profit
- 90% of clients are cheap asses who we dont want to work with
- 10% are high quality clients who we could double the price and they would still pay

I turned off the facebook ads for the last third of the month so that we can actually end the month profitable. I dont plan on running the same cheap offer again. I'm going to be experimenting how I can target premium clients only since those are the jobs that bring in the profit.

Google Ads:
- high ticket jobs which gets us a lot of profit
- high quality customers who we want to work with
- cant fill out our calendar since there are limited people searching for carpet cleaning

I have all the ads running smooth but just need to fix a few problems with my website speed and then we'll be good. Our average-ticket from Google Ads is almost 2x our Facebook Ads tickets.

Cross-Selling
@IceCreamKid made me think about doing different high-profit services to keep my employee busy instead of just doing low profit carpet cleaning jobs to keep us busy

With the help of @luminis_ I have created an SMS cross-sell and referral system in hopes to increase customer LTV. I will be running a campaign this weekend offering tile & grout, hardwood, and duct cleaning to previous clients.

If this cross-selling campaign works out then that means we could run ads at break-even and make profit from the cross-sells, referrals, and recurring customers. We will just need to bring high-quality customers into the funnel through paid ads and then deliver good results to them.

 

[IceCreamKid]

I'm going to be experimenting how I can target premium clients only since those are the jobs that bring in the profit.

There's a way to get these premium clients with zero ad spend...a way to get hundreds of people selling for you without having to pay them anything up front. Zero risk to you.

Think outside the box for second bro. What other companies do these premium clients work with? Hit them up and ask them for referrals in exchange for something i.e. affiliate commission, split of revenue, free cleaning, etc. Or instead of referrals ask if you can advertise to their client list. Think think think.

You are leveraging the TRUST that the customers have in them which allows you to charge A LOT more. You're also leveraging their client list which they took years and tons of money to build. You just have to give them what they want so that they'll want to work with you.

Here's my personal favorite: mobile dog grooming companies. Their customer list is PERFECT. Cheap a$$ people don't use this service. Take a pic of every service vehicle roaming around your ideal client's area and pitch them a joint venture. Make it a win for everyone involved.

You have to start training your brain to think in terms of SYSTEMS. Or just take the shortcut and pay somebody who's already good at what you're trying to do and leverage all their knowledge. Sometimes just 1 piece of advice is all you need to completely change the direction of your boat.

• referral systems
• joint venture systems
• client retention systems
• sales systems
• marketing systems
• service delivery systems
• employee SOP systems

 

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[Andy Black]

There's a way to get these premium clients with zero ad spend...a way to get hundreds of people selling for you without having to pay them anything up front. Zero risk to you.

Think outside the box for second bro. What other companies do these premium clients work with? Hit them up and ask them for referrals in exchange for something i.e. affiliate commission, split of revenue, free cleaning, etc. Or instead of referrals ask if you can advertise to their client list. Think think think.

You are leveraging the TRUST that the customers have in them which allows you to charge A LOT more. You're also leveraging their client list which they took years and tons of money to build. You just have to give them what they want so that they'll want to work with you.

Here's my personal favorite: mobile dog grooming companies. Their customer list is PERFECT. Cheap a$$ people don't use this service. Take a pic of every service vehicle roaming around your ideal client's area and pitch them a joint venture. Make it a win for everyone involved.

You have to start training your brain to think in terms of SYSTEMS. Or just take the shortcut and pay somebody who's already good at what you're trying to do and leverage all their knowledge. Sometimes just 1 piece of advice is all you need to completely change the direction of your boat.

• referral systems
• joint venture systems
• client retention systems
• sales systems
• marketing systems
• service delivery systems
• employee SOP systems

^^^ This.

"Who already has your clients?"
(Jay Abraham)

 

[Andy Black]

Google Ads:
- high ticket jobs which gets us a lot of profit
- high quality customers who we want to work with
- cant fill out our calendar since there are limited people searching for carpet cleaning

I have all the ads running smooth but just need to fix a few problems with my website speed and then we'll be good. Our average-ticket from Google Ads is almost 2x our Facebook Ads tickets.

I'm running some Google Ads for carpet cleaners, and also trying to increase the ticket value.

Do you do floor, tile, hardwood cleaning too? Volume is low but ticket value is higher.

What's your conversion rate of visitor to inquiry? Do you know what keywords and ads are driving the higher ticket jobs?

Could you focus budget on more expensive locations?

Have you tried excluding demographics such as age and household income levels? (We're trying this but it's too early to tell if it helps.)

We think "Locally Owner & Operated" appeals to people with larger houses, vs having a cheap a$$ deal in the ad and landing page. We think owner operated may help too so are testing that (only for owner operated businesses of course).

We're working on our landing page designs to appeal to the more affluent. Again, it's early days.

Can people see you offer more than just carpet cleaning when they visit? (Our first question in our leadform has checkboxes where they can select carpets, rug, upholstery, and tiles... this is regardless of what they actually searched for.)

 

[perchboy]

I'm running some Google Ads for carpet cleaners, and also trying to increase the ticket value.

Do you do floor, tile, hardwood cleaning too? Volume is low but ticket value is higher.

What's your conversion rate of visitor to inquiry? Do you know what keywords and ads are driving the higher ticket jobs?

Could you focus budget on more expensive locations?

Have you tried excluding demographics such as age and household income levels? (We're trying this but it's too early to tell if it helps.)

We think "Locally Owner & Operated" appeals to people with larger houses, vs having a cheap a$$ deal in the ad and landing page. We think owner operated may help too so are testing that (only for owner operated businesses of course).

We're working on our landing page designs to appeal to the more affluent. Again, it's early days.

Can people see you offer more than just carpet cleaning when they visit? (Our first question in our leadform has checkboxes where they can select carpets, rug, upholstery, and tiles... this is regardless of what they actually searched for.)

Thanks for this

Do you bid on hardwood and tile keywords as well? Search tools say that they get like 10 searches per month in my city.

 

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[perchboy]

There's a way to get these premium clients with zero ad spend...a way to get hundreds of people selling for you without having to pay them anything up front. Zero risk to you.

Think outside the box for second bro. What other companies do these premium clients work with? Hit them up and ask them for referrals in exchange for something i.e. affiliate commission, split of revenue, free cleaning, etc. Or instead of referrals ask if you can advertise to their client list. Think think think.

You are leveraging the TRUST that the customers have in them which allows you to charge A LOT more. You're also leveraging their client list which they took years and tons of money to build. You just have to give them what they want so that they'll want to work with you.

Here's my personal favorite: mobile dog grooming companies. Their customer list is PERFECT. Cheap a$$ people don't use this service. Take a pic of every service vehicle roaming around your ideal client's area and pitch them a joint venture. Make it a win for everyone involved.

You have to start training your brain to think in terms of SYSTEMS. Or just take the shortcut and pay somebody who's already good at what you're trying to do and leverage all their knowledge. Sometimes just 1 piece of advice is all you need to completely change the direction of your boat.

• referral systems
• joint venture systems
• client retention systems
• sales systems
• marketing systems
• service delivery systems
• employee SOP systems

You’re right, I’m thinking in the box of ad spend only right now.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Andy Black]

Thanks for this

Do you bid on hardwood and tile keywords as well? Search tools say that they get like 10 searches per month in my city.

Yes we bid on them. Volume is low but that means the worst case scenario is no spend.

We're just running search campaigns for keywords such as "<service> near me" for people in each of the targeted areas, "<service> <location>" for a campaign targeting the state, and "<service> <location> <statecode>" for a campaign targeting the country.

We couldn't get Performance Max to work, although that could be because I don't like them. I've yet to test retargeting ads, or Display or Video ads.

We use a dynamic landing page and can change the headline, bullets, and even button copy via parameters in the ad URL.

Our visitor-to-inquiry rate can be upwards of 20%.

I don't do LSA ads but those could be worth looking at too.