Keyword & Competitor Research for Local Lead Gen

[Andy Black]

Keyword & Competitor Research for Local Lead Gen

I'm creating a course for Local Lead Generation using AdWords paid search.

I'll drop the videos about keyword and competitor research into this thread.

Let me know if you have any queries and if they help.


EDIT: I created a playlist on a new YouTube channel. Clicking here will show all the videos in the playlist, in order, and you can click the "Play all" button to watch them all in order:

• Keyword & Competitor Research - YouTube

 

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[Andy Black]

1) Keyword & Competitor Research for Local Lead Gen - Video 1

View: https://youtu.be/BDZgkpiU3Io

 

[grindmode]

Using the Google Keyword Planner for Local Lead Gen - Video 1

View: https://youtu.be/BDZgkpiU3Io

Hello Andy,

I am completely new to SEO, monetizing leads from traffic, and how payouts/profits are paid from all aspects. Please understand this is not a "can you tell me a step by step guide what to do?" rather do you have any advice on what you feel are the most legitimate sources to use for myself to see legitmate data on online marketing profits? I am running into lots of "examples" from people who are not making money on what they are preaching OR people/sites providing stats on bogus data luring in sheeple thinking they can make a quick buck...

I appreciate it in advance and I am not trying to "dig for gold" rather I have been building shovels but need to make sure my shovels are made to dig in the correct soil.

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

Awesome, great info @Andy Black!

Thanks for sharing.

I was just wondering if you have any thoughts on the following:

• Is there a key-relation you are looking for between the number of inhabitants in the defined area compared to average monthly search volume?
• Obviously the potential bid price range depends on everyone's business model, but is there a range you would advise someone just starting out to look for?

Something to think about:

When I finished the video, another guy's video on the same topic just pulled up on auto-play. I did a little research and supposedly, you can switch off auto-play only for yourself, but not for others visiting your channel. If you have more videos, this won't be such an issue - but maybe keep hosting your videos on Vimeo or alternatives in the back of your head?

 

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[Andy Black]

Hello Andy,

I am completely new to SEO, monetizing leads from traffic, and how payouts/profits are paid from all aspects. Please understand this is not a "can you tell me a step by step guide what to do?" rather do you have any advice on what you feel are the most legitimate sources to use for myself to see legitmate data on online marketing profits? I am running into lots of "examples" from people who are not making money on what they are preaching OR people/sites providing stats on bogus data luring in sheeple thinking they can make a quick buck...

I appreciate it in advance and I am not trying to "dig for gold" rather I have been building shovels but need to make sure my shovels are made to dig in the correct soil.

Thanks for commenting @grindmode

I'm not sure what you're asking or looking for though.

Maybe these threads will help?

• Lead Gen for Local Service Businesses
• Andy's AdWords Posts
• Radio interview 1
• AndyTalks with Forum Members

 

[Andy Black]

Is there a key-relation you are looking for between the number of inhabitants in the defined area compared to average monthly search volume?

I don't really worry about the suggested search volume in the Google Keyword Planner being too low.

I used Chicago as the city in video 1 even though I'm pretending I'm in a smaller city than Chicago. It's just so I can get an idea of what people search for. Then I'll just load campaigns for my small city and see how we get on. If I was an Immigration Lawyer in <SmallCity> then I'd want anyone who searched for "immigration lawyer <smallcity>" to find my site and call me.

Obviously the potential bid price range depends on everyone's business model, but is there a range you would advise someone just starting out to look for?

For a new account I'll set a lowish daily budget (say $10), and bid high (say $10) to force my way into the auctions. I'll wait for a couple of clicks (which could expend the budget for the day), and then find out what average position and CPC I get for a $10 bid price. I'll likely then start dropping the bids and seeing what position we end up in.

For the client (or yourself if you're running a campaign for yourself), you'll obviously have a certain limit to how much you can pay per click. You won't know that till later on though, so you're running on a budget first till you can determine your EPC.

See these threads:

• Online direct response metrics
  
• How to get profitable of fail fast with AdWords

When I finished the video, another guy's video on the same topic just pulled up on auto-play. I did a little research and supposedly, you can switch off auto-play only for yourself, but not for others visiting your channel. If you have more videos, this won't be such an issue - but maybe keep hosting your videos on Vimeo or alternatives in the back of your head?

Yeah, we can prevent suggested videos showing up when we embed a YouTube video in a blog for instance. We just can't do it in a Xenforo forum. For the minute I'll just upload these to YouTube. Maybe later they go on Vimeo and are locked down.

 

[grindmode]

I don't really worry about the suggested search volume in the Google Keyword Planner being too low.

I used Chicago as the city in video 1 even though I'm pretending I'm in a smaller city than Chicago. It's just so I can get an idea of what people search for. Then I'll just load campaigns for my small city and see how we get on. If I was an Immigration Lawyer in <SmallCity> then I'd want anyone who searched for "immigration lawyer <smallcity>" to find my site and call me.


For a new account I'll set a lowish daily budget (say $10), and bid high (say $10) to force my way into the auctions. I'll wait for a couple of clicks (which could expend the budget for the day), and then find out what average position and CPC I get for a $10 bid price. I'll likely then start dropping the bids and seeing what position we end up in.

For the client (or yourself if you're running a campaign for yourself), you'll obviously have a certain limit to how much you can pay per click. You won't know that till later on though, so you're running on a budget first till you can determine your EPC.

See these threads:

• Online direct response metrics
  
• How to get profitable of fail fast with AdWords

Yeah, we can prevent suggested videos showing up when we embed a YouTube video in a blog for instance. We just can't do it in a Xenforo forum. For the minute I'll just upload these to YouTube. Maybe later they go on Vimeo and are locked down.

THANK YOU! Exactly something I was looking for.

 

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[Andy Black]

2) Keyword & Competitor Research for Local Lead Gen - Video 2

View: https://youtu.be/gQrGWCbBH9w

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

I don't really worry about the suggested search volume in the Google Keyword Planner being too low.

I used Chicago as the city in video 1 even though I'm pretending I'm in a smaller city than Chicago. It's just so I can get an idea of what people search for. Then I'll just load campaigns for my small city and see how we get on. If I was an Immigration Lawyer in <SmallCity> then I'd want anyone who searched for "immigration lawyer <smallcity>" to find my site and call me.

Now that I watched your second video, I got why!

There might not be enough relevant data for <SmallCity> to find relevant search terms I might have missed in the beginning - smart trick.

For a new account I'll set a lowish daily budget (say $10), and bid high (say $10) to force my way into the auctions. I'll wait for a couple of clicks (which could expend the budget for the day), and then find out what average position and CPC I get for a $10 bid price. I'll likely then start dropping the bids and seeing what position we end up in.

For the client (or yourself if you're running a campaign for yourself), you'll obviously have a certain limit to how much you can pay per click. You won't know that till later on though, so you're running on a budget first till you can determine your EPC.

Makes sense - thanks for clarifying.

Nothing is for free - pay to find out.

See these threads:

• Online direct response metrics
  
• How to get profitable of fail fast with AdWords

Thanks for the hint!


P.S.: I really like the shortness of these two videos.

 

[Andy Black]

3) Keyword & Competitor Research for Local Lead Gen - Video 3

View: https://youtu.be/apuG1WQuEVs

 

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[SparksCW]

Excellent post and very timely as I'm currently working on some lead generation projects.

So being in the UK everything is a lot less than the USA. I see some decent search volumes for "Service X" in London (1300) but once you bring that down to a UK city it really tails off into very low or non existent search volumes.

Would logic dictate that you'd still search for that term + your city if you wanted that service though? So should I still roll with those keywords or is it a case of if Keyword Tools say there is no search volume then it's not worth targeting?

Hope that made sense.

 

[Andy Black]

Excellent post and very timely as I'm currently working on some lead generation projects.

So being in the UK everything is a lot less than the USA. I see some decent search volumes for "Service X" in London (1300) but once you bring that down to a UK city it really tails off into very low or non existent search volumes.

Would logic dictate that you'd still search for that term + your city if you wanted that service though? So should I still roll with those keywords or is it a case of if Keyword Tools say there is no search volume then it's not worth targeting?

Hope that made sense.

People search the same wherever they are: "<service> <location>" typically. I don't trust the numbers from the Keyword Planner. I want to see the suggestions, then I'll load them.

Use the large locations to get the list of services people search for by location, then load for your location(s).

 

[Andy Black]

4) Keyword & Competitor Research for Local Lead Gen - Video 4

View: https://youtu.be/BA0DoPBcdOY

 

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[Andy Black]

5) Keyword & Competitor Research for Local Lead Gen - Video 5

View: https://youtu.be/TZYhbdGGQzM

 

[Andy Black]

6) Keyword & Competitor Research for Local Lead Gen - Video 6

View: https://youtu.be/-BW1_Osa0U4

 

[DCDeuce]

1) Keyword & Competitor Research for Local Lead Gen - Video 1

View: https://youtu.be/BDZgkpiU3Io

Andy, first of all thank you for starting this thread, I was actually googling and look around for help with local lead generation for my business (i'm a real estate agent in the Washington DC area) and came across the thread even though i'm already on the forums.

I wanted to ask you a rather dumb question and let me know if you've already answered this question as i've only watched the first 5 videos - when searching for keywords I want to look for phrases or keywords with low competition correct?

 

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[Andy Black]

Andy, first of all thank you for starting this thread, I was actually googling and look around for help with local lead generation for my business (i'm a real estate agent in the Washington DC area) and came across the thread even though i'm already on the forums.

I wanted to ask you a rather dumb question and let me know if you've already answered this question as i've only watched the first 5 videos - when searching for keywords I want to look for phrases or keywords with low competition correct?

You're welcome @DCDeuce.


Firstly... Wut? You were Googling and found this thread? Wow, that's amazing. What were you Googling for? I only just created this thread a couple of days ago!


Secondly... On the subject of "are you looking for keywords with low competition?"

Nope. And for a few reasons:

1) The competition usually sucks

Watch the 6th video as well as the 5th and you'll see that just because there is competition doesn't mean they aren't extremely beatable. Paid search is sooo much simpler than people think. Bid tightly on your keywords so that you you have a good idea of their search term, and the. echo back what people were searching for.

Seriously, try it yourself now for something like "condos for sale in <subhurb of New York>". How many of the ads are relevant? Can you write a better ad?


2) Who cares about the competition anyway?

It's all about whether you can get leads and sales for the right price for your business. That's what you're trying to make happen, and it doesn't matter how many are competing - you pay what you can afford to pay per click based on what you can earn per click.

Check out these threads:

• Your goal is to INCREASE CPCs
• Online direct response metrics

3) This isn't real data

The Keyword Planner gives you a clue what people are searching for.

Look at the other metrics by all means, but bear in mind the quickest way to model what your numbers will be is not to create some super spreadsheet and try and predict it. (It will take you ages, and you'll be wrong anyway.)

Instead, launch and learn. Upload campaigns and get the actual data.

Check out these threads:

• Launch and learn
• The need for speed
• How to get profitable or fail fast with AdWords

Ready. Fire. Aim.

 

[TheDillon__]

How do you guys get the landing page part of this to work? Do you go in an make a brand new Wix account/site with every new city+service combination?

Are there any (preferably cheap) services out there that allow you to independently link to a number of different pages - while still keeping them separate from each other?

Aduramus

 

[AdamMaxum]

How do you guys get the landing page part of this to work? Do you go in an make a brand new Wix account/site with every new city+service combination?

Are there any (preferably cheap) services out there that allow you to independently link to a number of different pages - while still keeping them separate from each other?

Aduramus

leadpages, unbounce, instapage, etc.

or you can just create new pages on the existing domain/website and change up the content on each to reflect whatever you're targeting unless it's a completely different niche/topic then the main domain the page is on.

 

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[TheDillon__]

leadpages, unbounce, instapage, etc.

or you can just create new pages on the existing domain/website and change up the content on each to reflect whatever you're targeting unless it's a completely different niche/topic then the main domain the page is on.

Thanks for the feedback!
I'd love to set up something like the second thing you described.

For example, say I already have a "Dallas electrician" page, and I want to target plumbers as well.
I open my site-editor, duplicate my existing page, and simply replace all instances of 'electrician' with the word 'plumber,' and tack that onto an ad campaign.

What are some services I could do this type of thing with - Wordpress?

 

[AdamMaxum]

Thanks for the feedback!
I'd love to set up something like the second thing you described.

For example, say I already have a "Dallas electrician" page, and I want to target plumbers as well.
I open my site-editor, duplicate my existing page, and simply replace all instances of 'electrician' with the word 'plumber,' and tack that onto an ad campaign.

What are some services I could do this type of thing with - Wordpress?

Yeah, that's how I would do it. The only thing that's a little bit complicated is swapping out the form on each page with one you can keep track of so that if any form submissions come in from new page, you know what page it came from. Not too hard if you have wordpress and a contact form plugin. The other part is to swap the number to a unique number on each landing page. Can do that easy with callrail creating new numbers for each page.

Wordpress has bunch of landing page plugins you can try if that's what you're asking. Also the ones I mentioned also connect with Wordpress if you want to do it that way. If you're trying to do it cheap though, just create new page, add in new image/text, swap out form and number and do it that way.

 

[TheDillon__]

Yeah, that's how I would do it. The only thing that's a little bit complicated is swapping out the form on each page with one you can keep track of so that if any form submissions come in from new page, you know what page it came from. Not too hard if you have wordpress and a contact form plugin. The other part is to swap the number to a unique number on each landing page. Can do that easy with callrail creating new numbers for each page.

Wordpress has bunch of landing page plugins you can try if that's what you're asking. Also the ones I mentioned also connect with Wordpress if you want to do it that way. If you're trying to do it cheap though, just create new page, add in new image/text, swap out form and number and do it that way.

Yeah, that's how I would do it. The only thing that's a little bit complicated is swapping out the form on each page with one you can keep track of so that if any form submissions come in from new page, you know what page it came from. Not too hard if you have wordpress and a contact form plugin. The other part is to swap the number to a unique number on each landing page. Can do that easy with callrail creating new numbers for each page.

Wordpress has bunch of landing page plugins you can try if that's what you're asking. Also the ones I mentioned also connect with Wordpress if you want to do it that way. If you're trying to do it cheap though, just create new page, add in new image/text, swap out form and number and do it that way.

While I've got you here - any idea what to do about "Low Search Volume" in local lead gen? I'm targeting a town with a reach of only 9,000 (everywhere else that I've tried so far already either has ST-AD-LP ads, or the front page CPC is way over $1. I guess I could run a test with a $20 spend at $2/click and try to figure out what my CTQ rate is, but I'd rather run clicks at a dollar a piece with no spend cap, and start getting clients.

Any ideas?

(currently targeting +pottsboro +electrician -jobs, limited to Pottsboro, TX)

 

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[AdamMaxum]

While I've got you here - any idea what to do about "Low Search Volume" in local lead gen? I'm targeting a town with a reach of only 9,000 (everywhere else that I've tried so far already either has ST-AD-LP ads, or the front page CPC is way over $1. I guess I could run a test with a $20 spend at $2/click and try to figure out what my CTQ rate is, but I'd rather run clicks at a dollar a piece with no spend cap, and start getting clients.

Any ideas?

(currently targeting +pottsboro +electrician -jobs, limited to Pottsboro, TX)

Andy would prob have more to say but from my experience....if the city isn't large enough, you're just not going to get any clicks. The city has to be like 25k population to get any decent results I'd say. Pottsboro has 2,200 population. You'll be lucky to get a few clicks a week even if you were at the top in Adwords for a lot of general phrases. You limit it down to specific phrases and you cut the clicks even further.

 

[TheDillon__]

Andy would prob have more to say but from my experience....if the city isn't large enough, you're just not going to get any clicks. The city has to be like 25k population to get any decent results I'd say. Pottsboro has 2,200 population. You'll be lucky to get a few clicks a week even if you were at the top in Adwords for a lot of general phrases. You limit it down to specific phrases and you cut the clicks even further.

Thanks for the tip man - I'll definitely start building a list of cities around that size.

 

[Andy Black]

While I've got you here - any idea what to do about "Low Search Volume" in local lead gen? I'm targeting a town with a reach of only 9,000 (everywhere else that I've tried so far already either has ST-AD-LP ads, or the front page CPC is way over $1. I guess I could run a test with a $20 spend at $2/click and try to figure out what my CTQ rate is, but I'd rather run clicks at a dollar a piece with no spend cap, and start getting clients.

Any ideas?

(currently targeting +pottsboro +electrician -jobs, limited to Pottsboro, TX)

Target wider than just Pottsboro. If they're 100 miles away and search for "electricians pottsboro" then you want your ad to show for them right? You could target the whole of the country, except there's likely other Pottsboro in the country (you could check this of course).

When there is a "Low search volume" warning it doesn't matter your bid price. Google is saying there's not enough volume for them to bother showing an ad. Mind you, I have still seen some of these with impressions and clicks. Just assume you're not going to get any volume.

 

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[TheDillon__]

Target wider than just Pottsboro. If they're 100 miles away and search for "electricians pottsboro" then you want your ad to show for them right? You could target the whole of the country, except there's likely other Pottsboro in the country (you could check this of course).

When there is a "Low search volume" warning it doesn't matter your bid price. Google is saying there's not enough volume for them to bother showing an ad. Mind you, I have still seen some of these with impressions and clicks. Just assume you're not going to get any volume.

Okay - I've definitely got something wrong.

So I followed the advice here, and the advice of @AdamMaxum

I dropped Pottsboro as it was too small, picked up Sherman instead. A small town (~35,000 pop.) in Texas that yielded no ads when I searched "sherman electrician." I thought I had the money in the bag!

I go in and make my ad, geo-locked to the US, rotate indefinitely, all features, all that good stuff. I set my bid for $1 at a $10 daily max.

I create my ad and go to the campaign to see that I have a "Below First Page" bid.

The suggested first page bid price?

$14.80!!!

Can this be right? What's going on here?

 

[Azure]

Dillon;

I'm from Canada, so take this with a grain of salt. I grew up in a town of roughly that size(30k). In areas like that, I doubt someone will be googling for a local service, as they likely have a friend, relative or friend of a friend who has been referred. You may have better luck in the 100+ thousand range.

All the power to you, but it's been my experience that people in town sizes like that tend to know one another on a more personal level.

The exception I can think of would be if this small town is a residential hub of commuters for a major metro area.

 

[Andy Black]

Dillon;

I'm from Canada, so take this with a grain of salt. I grew up in a town of roughly that size(30k). In areas like that, I doubt someone will be googling for a local service, as they likely have a friend, relative or friend of a friend who has been referred. You may have better luck in the 100+ thousand range.

All the power to you, but it's been my experience that people in town sizes like that tend to know one another on a more personal level.

The exception I can think of would be if this small town is a residential hub of commuters for a major metro area.

Interesting insight.

I'm in a town of 20k and there's quite a few local geo-modified searches for this town and surrounding villages. It is a commuter town for Dublin. I'm curious... why do you think that makes a difference?

 

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[Azure]

Interesting insight.

I'm in a town of 20k and there's quite a few local geo-modified searches for this town and surrounding villages. It is a commuter town for Dublin. I'm curious... why do you think that makes a difference?

This is largely speculation, however I would imagine that in those commuter "feeder" cities have a degree or two less of local connection than insular communities.

I could be way off base though.

 

[Fid]

Hey @Andy Black, it seems you decided to take this down?

YouTube says the playlist no longer exists. Too bad!