Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is especially great for home service companies because customers are usually looking for an immediate solution when searching for your services. If you play your cards right, your ad will appear at the top of the search engine results page (SERP), making your company one of the top choices for consumers.
That’s great! But can your ads get the leads you’re looking for? What’s the point of being at the top of the page if your ads don’t convert?
Picture this: An online consumer searches “AC Repair” and sees your ad, but they don’t call you. Worse, the prospect chooses one of your competitors. What happened? It could be one or more of these things:
You’re not targeting the people in the right location
You’re not targeting people with the right keywords
The page your ad leads to has an unclear call to action
You’re showing your ads for the right services at the wrong time
Your keywords don’t work for voice search
Read on to learn three of the best PPC strategies that can help address these concerns and get you more home service leads.
1. Landing Page Optimization
When searchers click on one of your ads, they’re directed to a web page that’s known as a “landing page.” Your ad is meant to entice people to click it, getting people to this page. This page’s job is to get you leads, either by phone or by form-fill.
Make sure your phone number is immediately apparent on the page. If someone wants your services, but can’t figure out how to contact you, the point of the page is moot. We recommend putting your number in a stand-out color at the top right-hand corner of the page. Since we read from left to right, having the phone number at the top right-hand corner punctuates your call-to-action.
If you choose to allow people to convert through a call-to-action button (one that leads to a form-fill), we recommend locating the button above the fold and in plain sight. The “fold” of a website or landing page is like the fold in a newspaper: It’s the visible potion of the first page of a newspaper when its folded, and visible part of a webpage when you first land on it.
Everything that happens beneath the fold is additional information that could be helpful to the consumer. But if people need emergency services, they expect details about how to contact you right away.
2. Keywords “Near Me”
Now that you have a landing page that will convert, you need ads that get people to click through to the landing page. Before your ads will show up in front of consumers, however, you need to use the keywords they’re searching.
Because home services are location-specific – you don’t want someone in New York to click your ad and waste your money if you service Central Florida – you’ll want to use keywords to target specific locations, such as “Plumbing Miami.”
But what about people who are in Miami and just search “Plumbers Near Me”? How can you get your ads in front of those consumers?
In your campaign settings, you can select locations in which you want your ads to appear. From there, you can add keywords like “Plumbers Near Me” and “Plumbers Around Me” to your general Ad Groups that simply target people searching for “Plumbers.”
Consumers who are searching for one of these keywords will be able to see your ads if they are searching from their smart phone or a browser that recognizes their location, such as Google Chrome.
Note: Keywords that include “Near Me” and “Around Me” are also great for people using voice search on their cellphones. However, something to keep in mind is that people searching “Plumbers Near Me” from their Google Home device or Alexa might pull up different, organic results. In other words, they would not be exposed to your “Near Me” ads.
What’s more: When users ask Siri to show them “Plumbers Near Me,” the electronic assistant may pull up the Google Maps listing of home service providers, rather than your ad.
For voice search, we recommend fine-tuning your city-specific keywords and the ads with which they’re associated.
3. Ad Campaign Tune-Ups
Our clients, on average, perform maintenance for their customers in the Fall and again in the Spring. Maintenance plans are pretty common among HVAC companies and electric companies.
While you should have ad campaigns that promote your maintenance plan and tune-up services, you probably shouldn’t promote them year-round. What if a customer calls for that service in August? You’re wasting money per click by having your ad live during that month.
“Tune up” your accounts by going in and pausing ads during times when you don’t want them to show on Google or Bing. You can also schedule when you want your ads to show at the beginning of the campaign.
Something to keep in mind is that the seasons are a general frame of reference for when you need to tune-up your ads to offer season-appropriate services. If it’s April, but it’s unusually hot, it’s too late to run a campaign for “AC maintenance.” Beat the heat wave and entice people to sign up for maintenance services before it’s too late.
How ServiceTitan Can Help
Each click adds up quickly. Although you can set a maximum budget in your PPC campaign to keep from overspending, it’s possible that while your ads are paused, your competitors are bidding on your keywords and winning consumers over.
Using ServiceTitan’s field service management software, you’ll be able to keep track of your spending and measure the effectiveness of your campaign, determining whether or not spending in this area is profitable for you over time. Contact ServiceTitan about products and features by calling the number at the top of the page.
How VitalStorm Can Help
Upon attempting to implement these strategies on your own, you might find that the process can be time-consuming and tedious. Whether you’re using Google AdWords, Bing Ads or both, PPC campaign management is a full-time job. That’s why we offer a PPC package specific to home services.
VitalStorm's talented PPC team will implement all of the above strategies to get you more leads. Call VitalStorm today at 1-877-311-5695 to reap the benefits of these strategies and more.
ServiceTitan Software
ServiceTitan is a comprehensive software solution built specifically to help service companies streamline their operations, boost revenue, and substantially elevate the trajectory of their business. Our comprehensive, cloud-based platform is used by thousands of electrical, HVAC, plumbing, garage door, and chimney sweep shops across the country—and has increased their revenue by an average of 25% in just their first year with us.
