Increase conversions, establish online presence, and expand discoverability with Google ads for pool service businesses.
In addition, Google Ads for pool service businesses offer:
Even though Google Ads present a higher upfront cost, they also target leads who are actively seeking a solution.
Whereas, leads pulled from social media aren’t necessarily seeking a solution to the problem your business solves.
As a result, Google Ads tend to be more effective and typically generate faster results with more qualified leads.
While Google Ads tend to be more costly and difficult to navigate the setup process, this article offers a complete crash course into the basics of Google Ads.
By the end of this article, you’ll have everything needed to simplify the setup process, maximize ad spending, and start taking advantage of this powerful tool today!
Since a service business is unlike a typical brick-and-mortar business where clients visit you, service businesses need condensed routes to keep clients within close proximity.
In turn, the closer properties are together, the more profit your business stands to generate.
Which means, your pool service business has set areas needing to be targeted.
However, it’s important to remember that the higher the population, the faster the results happen.
As a result, you can improve the campaign sooner based on what’s working/not working.
Although, the higher population areas tend to have higher competition and higher ad spend costs.
For this reason, the best areas to target are the ones with the most balanced population low competition ratio.
However, you’ll want to avoid targeting low population areas whenever possible. These ads tend to take longer to elicit results due to limited insight.
Prior to becoming more skilled with Google Ads, it’s a good idea to wait until you fully understand how Google Ads work before setting an ads spend budget for lead conversions.
Also, contrary to social media ads where you can run them for as little as $5 a day, Google Ads won’t be as cost effective.
Since you’re targeting leads actively seeking solutions, you’ll have to pay more to access these higher qualified leads.
For these reasons, it’s crucial to find the perfect balance between keeping within the budget and seeing a lucrative ROI (i.e. return on investment).
Bear in mind, some service businesses spend as much as $40-90 per click. Although, this cost fluctuates based on whether or not you’re targeting a long-tail keyword.
“Pool cleaning near me,” for example, is a long-tail keyword that would have a higher CPC (i.e. cost per click), and would target a smaller, more qualified audience.
After all, this long-tail keyword would target higher quality leads than a short-tail keyword, such as, “pool cleaning,” would target a bigger, less qualified audience.
Even though the cost of Google Ads fluctuates, the minimum monthly cost would be between $750-1,000+ per month in order to be worth it.
Prior to implementing Google Ads into your marketing plan, it’s essential to have a lead follow-up process in place.
After all, you don’t want any of the leads you paid for to fall through the cracks – all because you don’t have a proper follow-up process in place.
For example, if you have a CTA (i.e. Call-to-Action) on your website to call for an estimate, then you’d need an office assistant to answer the phone for an estimate.
Also, it’s important to have an automated follow-up email campaign to convert these leads into clients.
Plus, you can easily automate and track email campaigns like this using Service Autopilot’s automations.
Additionally, you can use Service Autopilot’s Smart Maps feature to virtually view and accurately measure objects. This allows for quick phone estimates in five minutes or less.
Here’s a quick crash course on the basic fundamentals of Google Ads:
Keyword match types are the symbols Google located by the search terms that Google uses to determine where ads appear.
Take a look at this brief breakdown of each match type:
Keyword: +pool cleaning +dallas
Broad match modified tells Google to only show your ads when “pool cleaning” and “dallas” appear in the search term.
Which means, your Google Ads will appear whenever these keywords, or something closely related to it, appear somewhere within the search term.
Keyword: pool cleaning dallas
Keywords without a symbol are broad match keywords. In other words, ads will appear when anything related to pool cleaning in Dallas appears within the search term.
Due to the fact that broad match randomly shows ads to anyone even remotely searching for pool cleaning in Dallas, four ads are the most you’ll be able to create.
As a result, I recommend avoiding this match type.
After all, ads tend to become diluted since a broad match quickly takes away from the intended message.
If you choose this match type, you’ll likely see a dip in overall ad performance and CTR’s (i.e. click through rates).
Keyword: “pool cleaning”
Phrase match types are shown when the phrase is searched in order. Although, additional words can be included before and after the phrase.
Even though this match type allows for slight variations, it’s not as rigid as broad match modified.
Keyword: [pool cleaning in dallas]
With exact match types, ads only appear when the exact phrase is searched. Although, Google recently made some changes allowing for minor variations.
For example, if you searched, “pool cleaning Dallas” or “pool cleaning by Dallas,” then your ads would still appear.
By choosing set keywords and customizing ad copy for your target audience, you can maximize your effectiveness with Google Ads.
For the best results, broad match modified, phrase match, and exact match will likely provide the most lucrative outcomes.
Jot down a list of pool services your business offers, and then decide which ones you’d like to promote.
Then, list the subcategories for each of these services. Take a look at this example:
Next, list out the main services your pool service business doesn’t provide. Later on, this helps with defining negative keywords where you don’t want ads to populate.
For instance, if you don’t provide pool installation, then you wouldn’t want ads populating for this service.
In order to choose your main keywords, first search for your services in Google, and explore which related keyword auto-suggestions Google provides in the dropdown menu.
In turn, you can use these suggestions to discover the most and least effective related keywords. Also, this strategy works well with defining negative keywords.
Second, access the free tool, Google Keyword Planner, by creating a Google Ads account. Use this spectacular tool to conduct research and discover a keyword’s:
However, since your ads will populate to a smaller local population, don’t overly prioritize keyword volume.
Keep in mind, you’re primarily looking for categories in which to categorize keywords into groups for group ad creation.
Then, explore which ads are outshining the rest with testing.
Don’t forget to consider service intent when choosing keywords to target. This way, your ads will only appear in searches by those who are actively seeking to hire pool services.
For example, you wouldn’t want ads populating for other pool service business owners looking to hire technicians.
Here’s a look at a few example keywords you’d ideally target:
One of the best ways to optimize and improve ad performance is by organizing your account structure.
First, accomplish this by creating high level categories for your services and then giving each of them their own Google Ads campaign.
Second, split each high level category into separate ad groups.
Plus, you can dive even deeper by further dividing these categories by match types to see which ads are the top performers.
Third, create ads for these keywords and include it within the search term.
By including the search term within your ads, you can increase your relevance to leads. As a result, this increases CTR’s (i.e. click through rates) and lowers CPC’s (i.e. costs per click).
Use radius targeting to split up campaigns by location. Though, bear in mind, not every city needs to be divided like this.
However, campaigns split by granularization aids in building data within your account – allowing you to pinpoint where conversions originate.
Alternatively, you can see where you’re getting large amounts of clicks with lower conversion rates.
Remember, you can’t separately view these two factors when you don’t split up campaigns by location.
In addition, within a year or two of running ads split up by location, you can turn off ads in some areas and increase bids in other to further optimize ad spend.
Plus, did you know you can do this with your ads schedule as well? Divide ads into smaller increments and days, and then optimize where you’re getting the best outcomes.
Prior to launching Google Ads for pool service businesses, you’ll need to decide whether you’ll send campaign traffic to your website or a landing page.
Also, while it’s not ideal, it’s alright to send campaign traffic to your website.
If you don’t have the additional resources needed to create a landing page specifically for Google Ads campaigns, then your website will suffice.
However, make sure your website is professional, mobile and desktop friendly with a clear CTA (i.e. Call-to-Action).
Keep in mind, your CTA doesn’t have to be overly complex and can be as simple as, “Call 123-456-7891” or “Fill out this form for a free estimate.”
While a website design is important, it’s more important to focus on the web page copy and CTA telling leads what to do.
Remember, the main difference between a landing page and homepage is that a landing page doesn’t have a navigation bar. To avoid distractions, a landing page just has a CTA.
In turn, some businesses create a clickable navigation bar to serve as a landing page and homepage hybrid.
As a result, your navigation bar won’t be overly distracting, and you can still drive Google Ads campaign traffic where needed.
A little light research will tell you where the competition is sending their campaign traffic. In knowing this, you can ignite new ideas to create even better ads.
However, don’t click on the competition’s Google Ads.
Like we discussed earlier, these ads are expensive and can run as much as $40-90 per click. Don’t charge the competition for clicks that you wouldn’t want to pay for either.
Avoid charging the competition for your clicks during your research process by simply right-clicking the hyperlink, clicking “copy link address,” and then open it in a new tab.
As tempting as it might be to charge the competition for your clicks, they can do so in return as retaliation.
Plus, since they can blacklist IP addresses, it’s easier to avoid making them pay for your clicks altogether.
Also, don’t forget to look where websites like Thumbtack and HomeAdvisor are sending their Google Ads campaign traffic.
After all, you can use what’s working for them to help get the creative juices flowing.
Just by anticipating your clients’ needs, you can transform yourself into an instant copywriting professional.
This is because knowing what the target audience is thinking, feeling, and looking for when viewing your ads are the most important components in writing effective ads copy.
Including your own reviews, look at reviews from 2-4 stars for other pool service businesses.
Usually 2-4 star reviews tend to be more objective and less emotional. Whereas, 1 and 5-star reviews tend to be less objective and more emotional (and occasionally, fake).
When analyzing reviews, it’s important to dig into the deeper meaning behind what clients are saying.
For instance, clients saying, “I didn’t like XYZ,” really mean, “I really value XYZ.”
Then, look for ways to stand apart from the competition, and improve your business.
For example, a client might say they didn’t like how your competitor didn’t do an estimate follow-up. However, what they’re really saying is they feel undervalued and overlooked.
To combat this, be sure you’re quick to follow up on estimates, and go out of your way to make clients feel valued and noticed.
In addition, you can include this sentiment in your CTA. For instance, “Call XXX-XXX-XXXX for fast, free estimates in less than 5 minutes!”
By the way, Service Autopilot allows you to virtually and accurately measure properties using Smart Maps as well as use instant estimate templates and automated follow-up contact.
Although not many pool service businesses take advantage of negative keywords, it’s a great way to stretch ad spending by only paying for good clicks.
Similar to what we briefly discussed earlier, negative keywords prevent your ads from appearing where you don’t want them to.
For example, you wouldn’t want an ad targeting leads to populate for businesses looking to hire pool technicians.
In addition, if you have a limited Google Ads spend budget, then you’ll want to add the competition to your negative keywords list too.
While deliberately targeting the competition can be a lucrative strategy, you don’t want to risk your ad spend budget on a gamble.
Split testing by changing one variable between Google Ads allows your business to determine which ads are the most effective.
For instance, you can create two identical ads with different headlines as the single differing variable. This way, you can determine which headline is more effective.
However, remember you can only change one variable to conduct a proper split test. Otherwise, you won’t know which variable caused what outcome.
Did you know Google offers better bids when you use multiple Google Ads formats?
This allows your pool service business to be placed higher in the search results and save money per click.
Additionally, multiple ad formats makes the ad bigger, which increases CTR’s (i.e. click through rates).
Take a look at two Google Ad formats you can try:
If it’s being measured, then it needs to be managed. Likewise, if you don’t have conversion tracking set up, then you can’t measure ad performance.
Also, if you can’t measure ad performance, then you shouldn’t be running Google Ads for pool service businesses since you won’t know what is/isn’t working.
Here’s a look inside a few important types of conversion tracking to measure:
Don’t forget to use a call tracking software to record and track calls.
After all, replaying these calls helps to improve sales effectiveness and measure the quality of leads funneling from Google Ads.
Plus, using the #1 pool service software, you can easily save their information (e.g. name, address, phone, and email) for marketing purposes.
Also, you can also tag them with Google AdWords and export Google Ads leads to determine monthly ROI (i.e. return on investment).
Instant invoicing
Better scheduling
Manage your clients and employees all in one system
Even though Google Ads for pool service businesses can generate immediate results, it usually takes several months before you’ll acquire enough data to optimize ad spend.
After all, you’re likely releasing ads only at a local level with a smaller, more limited audience with not as much data to gather for proper analysis.
Generally, the type of data you need to truly make ad improvements might take months to acquire for any significant improvements.
For these reasons, it’s typically a good rule of thumb to run Google Ads for 6 months to gather enough data to pinpoint trends and calculate CPC (i.e. cost per lead).
After the ad has been running for several months, you ideally want to see the CPC decrease while conversions increase or hold steady.
In general, the longer an ad is run, then more data will be pulled for ad optimization.
One of the best ways to make your pool service business the leading authority in pool services is by harnessing the power of Google Ads.
Now, you know how to conquer everyday Google Ads tasks, such as:
Finally, you have everything needed to use Google Ads for pool service businesses to quickly increase conversions and beat the competition now!
Related: Pool Marketing: 13 Effective Expert Strategies
Originally published July 19, 2022 7:00 AM
Tags: Featured Post, Marketing
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