Lead Gen for Local Service Businesses

[fmpgetnrich]

No I am talking about the pink rectangle in the Screenshot in my previous post. The first entry in the list is prefixed by 'Anzeige', which is German for 'Advertisement'. Im pretty positive that this is an ad. But I can not recall ever setting anything like this, which is why I am surprised.

 

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[MattR82]

If you have location extension which is attached to a verified GMB account I think it may sometimes show in maps as an ad as well, depending on the keyword.

 

[David Fitz]

If you have location extension which is attached to a verified GMB account I think it may sometimes show in maps as an ad as well, depending on the keyword.

I just noticed this on one of my ads yesterday and was wondering how to take it off. Doesn't seem like you can.

 

[Feuertaufe]

Lead Gen for Local Service Businesses
(Originally posted here.)

So you're trying to increase inbound calls or email enquiries for a local service business?


Start by watching this 4 min video:

• The Online Buying Lifecycle

When someone searches for "window repairs", they could be looking for a local service, or they could be looking for articles showing how to do it themselves. We can't tell from their search term.

They could have a cup of coffee and notepad next to them when they search (browsing/researching), or they could have their phone and credit card next to them when they search (shopping/buying).

When someone searches for "window repairs dublin", we know they are looking for a local service - in Dublin. I picture them searching with their phone to hand so they can ring the local service business.

So when someone searches with a geo-modified search term (a search term with a location in it), they are MORE likely to convert.

If you can't sell to these searchers, then don't try and tackle the non geo-modified search terms (window repairs, blacksmiths, shepherds, etc).

So start with geo-modified searches.


...


Next, get your head round the fact that:

Your landing page does NOT convert!​

Read this fella:

• Your Landing Pages Don't Convert

When you say your Dublin Plumber landing page converts at 20%, you really mean that 20% of people who visit your page searching for a plumber in Dublin convert into an enquiry.

If I send people looking for Car Insurance to your Dublin Plumber landing page, then they ain't converting into enquiries at 20%.

TIP: Always specify what conversion rate you're talking about. In this case I might call it my click-to-enquiry-rate.


...


If you're going to use AdWords paid search to generate leads for a local service business (and I suggest you start there and at least rule it out) , then you need to know the difference between search terms and keywords. You're going to be bled to death if you don't.

Read these three posts here:

• The Single Biggest Reason People Lose Money With AdWords
• Don't Let Google Control Where Your Traffic Goes
• Hidden Dangers Of Wide Funnels

...


Sales happen when you get the right person to the right offer at the right time.

This is why I love AdWords paid search.

The right person is the person searching for your offer.

The right time is the moment they are searching.

All we have to do is get them to the offer that matches what they were searching for.

Get people searching for a service with a location in their search term, to a page that shows that service and location right in front of them.

Here's a quick exercise: Google for "tax attorney chicago" and see how many of the ads mention "Tax Attorney" and "Chicago" in their ad. If you're not based in the US, then do a search for something similarly expensive and for a large city.

Even for something this expensive (Google estimates €33 CPC for top ad positions for search term "tax attorney chicago"), less than half of the ads manage to echo back what you were searching.

Don't click on the ads because you're costing those advertisers a fortune, but I can guarantee that a lot of the landing pages you get sent to won't make it obvious that they are Tax Attorneys, or that they cover Chicago.

Maaan, the competition for local lead gen is soooo poor. I love it.

I can throw up the simplest ugly ugly landing page, and get a 10% click-to-enquiry-rate because I'm just echoing back what they were searching for in my landing page.

When a graphic designer gets involved and beautifies my crappy page, the click-to-enquiry-rate can be 20%-40% for a local service business.


...


My page might be a two column layout.

In the left column:

1. Top left is the company-name and/or service-location (e.g. Dublin Blacksmith Services).
2. Below the company-name and/or service-location I might have a relevant tagline (Domestic & Commercial Blacksmith Services throughout Dublin).
3. Then I might have a heading such as "Looking for a Blacksmith in Dublin?". Something where they go: "Yes! That's exactly what I'm looking for!".
4. Then I might have 3-5 bullet point benefits.

In the right column:

1. Top right I typically have the phone number on the page (big and bold and where people expect to see it).
2. Then I have a call to action heading above a form. The heading is "Request a Callback", since we want people to fill in the form who want a callback. Often these enquiries aren't as strong as a phone call, but this caters for people who're doing a quick search at work and can't make a personal phone call, and who don't want or can't send an email from their work PC.
3. Then I ask for "Your name", "Your phone number", "Your email address", "Your message".
4. The call to action on the button isn't "Submit"... it's "Request a Callback >".

...


Most businesses want the phone call, or people who want to talk on the phone. Hence "Request a Callback" rather than a "Contact Us".

Maybe half the calls will be new enquiries. The rest might be returning customers who Googled for the phone number, or people ringing back about an enquiry that's in progress.

Obviously more of the form fills are new enquiries.

I've been using Callrail and other solutions to track inbound calls. This is good if the Blacksmith company has a few offices in the country, and we're using a different tracked number for each office. Sometimes we can see that one office is missing 20%+ of their calls (and typically screaming the loudest that they're not getting leads... go figure).

The keyword can be captured in Callrail reports, and I think can be passed back to AdWords. I typically just download both the AdWords and call tracking data and join it up. I'm working on a better solution at the moment though.

So not all calls and form fills are new enquiries, and not all new enquiries will be logged as a new lead.

Not all leads will convert into sales.

So these intermediate steps of Calls/Form-fills -> Enquiries -> Leads are actually just INDICATORS of performance. We really need to see the number of sales that are made each week/month/quarter to really see wtf is going on.

This might mean hooking up to their CRM (downloading their data and joining it up). Or (often), trying to pull teeth to get them to log leads and report on sales.


...


You should also read these two posts:

• The Holy Trinity Of Paid Search
• The AdWords Jumpstart

And read posts you might have missed in here:

• AdWords Posts

That´s really great. Thank you!

 

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[Blackman]

@Andy Black , I've recently noticed a strange difference between my average CPC and benchmark max CPC - see screenshot attached.

How is it possible that I'm paying so much for my clicks, when according to Google the benchmark max CPC for similar products/keywords is almost x5 lower than what I'm bidding?

I've only just noticed this and decided to lower my max CPC significantly to see what kind of an effect it's going to have on my positions/impressions/CTR...

My max CPC was set at £2-3 for a long time and since my average CPC was around the £0.90-1 mark, I thought everything made sense, but now looking at the benchmark max CPC of other advertisers, I'm a bit confused?

If the highest they're bidding is £0.19, then why my average is £0.91, when something like £0.20-0.25 should've been more than enough to be in top positions?

What's your take on this?

P.S. This is for Google Shopping Ads, if it makes any difference

 

[Andy Black]

@Andy Black , I've recently noticed a strange difference between my average CPC and benchmark max CPC - see screenshot attached.

How is it possible that I'm paying so much for my clicks, when according to Google the benchmark max CPC for similar products/keywords is almost x5 lower than what I'm bidding?

I've only just noticed this and decided to lower my max CPC significantly to see what kind of an effect it's going to have on my positions/impressions/CTR...

My max CPC was set at £2-3 for a long time and since my average CPC was around the £0.90-1 mark, I thought everything made sense, but now looking at the benchmark max CPC of other advertisers, I'm a bit confused?

If the highest they're bidding is £0.19, then why my average is £0.91, when something like £0.20-0.25 should've been more than enough to be in top positions?

What's your take on this?

P.S. This is for Google Shopping Ads, if it makes any difference

I’ve not looked at the benchmark CPC metric before. I don’t do Google Shopping Ads though.

 

[Blackman]

I’ve not looked at the benchmark CPC metric before. I don’t do Google Shopping Ads though.

You've got benchmark CTR as well and I don't think these metrics are specific to shopping ads, I believe they apply to search as well.

Out of interest, try looking up this metric (under "Competitive Metrics" in columns) for one of your campaigns and compare your average CPC with the benchmark max CPC to see what the results are like?

I'm going to test this out to see how the performance of the campaign is affected by bidding closer to what is supposedly "the max CPC" among other advertisers, as this is quite interesting...

 

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[Andy Black]

You've got benchmark CTR as well and I don't think these metrics are specific to shopping ads, I believe they apply to search as well.

Out of interest, try looking up this metric (under "Competitive Metrics" in columns) for one of your campaigns and compare your average CPC with the benchmark max CPC to see what the results are like?

I'm going to test this out to see how the performance of the campaign is affected by bidding closer to what is supposedly "the max CPC" among other advertisers, as this is quite interesting...

I must admit I don’t look at those kind of metrics.

 

[Andy Black]

Dayum. Google Ads are getting big on mobile!

 

[Albert KOUADJA]

.Really thank you very much @Andy Black you do great work .

 

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[Blackman]

@Andy Black

Andy, I'm not sure if you use the "Search Queries" function for Google Ads in Google Analytics, but I recently noticed that I can no longer look up the terms that triggered my ads and resulted in a click.

We know that Google has dramatically reduced the data that they display in search terms reports in Google Ads, but since they've done that, I was actually using Universal Analytics to get this data from GA.

They are planning to disable Universal Analytics in July 2023, so I'm not sure why it stopped working now?

Any issues on your side, assuming you're making use of this? Or anyone else who's using Google Ads?

Thanks

 

[Andy Black]

@Andy Black

Andy, I'm not sure if you use the "Search Queries" function for Google Ads in Google Analytics, but I recently noticed that I can no longer look up the terms that triggered my ads and resulted in a click.

We know that Google has dramatically reduced the data that they display in search terms reports in Google Ads, but since they've done that, I was actually using Universal Analytics to get this data from GA.

They are planning to disable Universal Analytics in July 2023, so I'm not sure why it stopped working now?

Any issues on your side, assuming you're making use of this? Or anyone else who's using Google Ads?

Thanks

You can see search terms if it's a search campaign. You can't for other types of campaigns, including Performance Max campaigns.

Are you using a Smart Campaign? I think they call them search queries so I'm just wondering.

 

[Blackman]

You can see search terms if it's a search campaign. You can't for other types of campaigns, including Performance Max campaigns.

Are you using a Smart Campaign? I think they call them search queries so I'm just wondering.

No, not using a Smart Campaign, just a regular campaign with full control. I'm running Shopping Ads and I can see the search terms that have triggered my ads, same as I would with a search campaign, but as you probably know, the displayed results are limited and only show search terms with "significant volume".

If you remember, this is due to the update Google implemented back in 2020? Here > Google Reduces Visibility in Search Terms Report: What You Need to Know

This is the reason why I switched to checking my data using Google Analytics, where you can access the "Search Queries" reports from Google Ads section, and get all of your search terms shown there, instead of just those with "significant volume", if you're just looking at your campaign in the Google Ads account.

 

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[Andy Black]

No, not using a Smart Campaign, just a regular campaign with full control. I'm running Shopping Ads and I can see the search terms that have triggered my ads, same as I would with a search campaign, but as you probably know, the displayed results are limited and only show search terms with "significant volume".

If you remember, this is due to the update Google implemented back in 2020? Here > Google Reduces Visibility in Search Terms Report: What You Need to Know

This is the reason why I switched to checking my data using Google Analytics, where you can access the "Search Queries" reports from Google Ads section, and get all of your search terms shown there, instead of just those with "significant volume", if you're just looking at your campaign in the Google Ads account.

I think there's more data than before.

Keywords >> Search terms

 

[Blackman]

I think there's more data than before.

Keywords >> Search terms

Andy, I wish you were right, but nothing's changed since then - see screenshot below from the last 10 days of my shopping ads campaign.

Out of 404 clicks only 189 search terms are actually displayed, so the remaining 215, which is more than half of the total is considered as insignificant due to low volume...Talk about transparency.