Google Ads For Plumbing Companies

There’s likely not a plumbing company in the world at this point whose owner hasn’t heard or quoted the old business phrase, “You have to spend money to make money!” While this is certainly just as true today as it’s ever been, there are now a number of smart ways to use your advertising budget that offer easier access to more leads near you without laying out more cash than necessary. One of the biggest and best-known, and among the easiest to implement, is pay-per-click advertising, or PPC.

If you’ve searched something on Google or seen an ad on Facebook for anything from pencils to pizza to plumbing companies, you’ve seen PPC ads in action!

The reason many businesses use PPC ads, such as Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) and Facebook Ads is simple: they work! PPC advertising is designed specifically to reach a specific target potential audience more effectively. Rather than flushing money down the drain with traditional advertising methods that leave audiences “ad-blind,” PPC advertising methods are designed to display only for prospective customers in certain categories, demographics, or a specific geographic radius.

How do Google Ads for plumbers work?

The idea behind PPC digital advertising is very simple: you set up an ad on a certain website or social media outlet, like a Google Ads account, with the positive and negative keywords with the most relevance to your customer base. You add these words and phrases via the specific interface for the ads product you’re using and then tell the interface which potential customer groups to show the ad to and when, using words and phrases ranging from generic and random (“customers over 65 “or “Generation X”) to precise, focused geo-targeting for a given location, an exact time of day, or even segregated out by different e-commerce browsing and interest profiles. A couple of examples of this include targeting “real estate agent in the Bay Area” or “business owner over 65 in Beverly Hills CA.”

Once you’ve completed your plumber advertising set up, you must then decide how much you’re willing to “bid” or the set maximum amount you’re willing to pay per click. Minimum bidding rates may start at $0.01 and soar to over $50, depending on the relative quality and value of the keywords you’re targeting. Insurance companies pay an average of $54.91 for bids on the word “insurance,” just in HOPES of a customer clicking on ads that contain this high-competition keyword! This makes the decisions you make concerning which words you want to emphasize or ignore when you’re creating your Facebook and Google Ads all the more important.

But what if your plumbing business doesn’t have the time to DIY plumbing ads that provide the performance and return on investment required in order to keep your plumbing service viable and deliver the product and relevant solutions you’re promising your customers?

Many smaller plumbing companies might be inclined to skip PPC altogether so that they can commit the resources they have to spend on marketing they understand rather than using a Google ad and/or other types of PPC outlets. Unfortunately for these companies, they’re almost universally signing themselves up for a huge waste of money and time by refusing even to consider the larger value and higher visibility this type of marketing can attract. Their own disbelief and distrust in the impact of PPC service ads for plumbers work against them, leaving them with fewer visits from potential customers and thus less chance of reaching the top of search engine results. But is there a way to fix this and make it easier to start using the services Google offers, such as services ads for plumbers that give small plumbing businesses a solid starting point for the acceleration of their conversion rate and increase control of and access to their available customer base?

The good news is Google advertising, and broad-spectrum PPC marketing doesn’t have to be a headache for your plumbing company!

Digital Marketing for Plumbers by Online Advantages helps plumbing contractors create an effective PPC campaign, including Google Ads for advertising plumbing services you provide, that make it easier for you to catch real attention from real customers in your city!

It’s not enough anymore to have an advertising agency run off an idea for a basic ad that might get the attention of “someone, somewhere” anymore. Plumbing ads that appeal to diverse audiences with different tastes, needs, and priorities when they most need your plumbing company’s services aren’t something you can simply do on autopilot if you want to appear in people’s search results. Google’s Ad Groups functionality gives you access to additional keywords, allowing you to adjust for different audiences by adding and subtracting keywords that will trigger algorithms to automatically display your ads when certain keywords are entered. But what’s the best way to approach your Facebook or Google Ads account and beat out the competition while also maintaining maximum control over your cost per click?

Digital Marketing for Plumbers by Online Advantages was designed explicitly around the needs, interests, and concerns of professionals in the plumbing and HVAC industries, from “one-man bands” to bigger and even nationwide plumbing businesses.

By catering to the unique needs of plumbing and HVAC companies, we are able to deliver the superior service you deserve and should expect. Whether you’re trying to capture more emergency plumbing calls after hours or just trying to set up a default ad group that improves your lead generation and gets more eyes on your website’s landing pages, we can help!

Founded by Matt Maglodi, a plumber himself, Digital Marketing for Plumbers by Online Advantages has an unparalleled knowledge base and skill set that sets the standard for marketing plumbing Google and other search engines can’t ignore.

For more information on how we can help you target and attract the customer base your company needs to stay relevant in our changing economy, or for an evaluation of your current internet marketing campaign, click here to contact us today. And to learn more about PPC ads, how they work, and advice and info on how you can maximize your ROI and conversion rates with them, keep reading for our answers to FAQs from plumbing contractors just like you!

Frequently Asked Questions About Google Ads for Plumbers

Digital marketing isn’t necessarily difficult, but it can be confusing. Digital Marketing for Plumbers by Online Advantages works hard to demystify it with straight talk and real info you can put into practice right away!

Question: How does Google Ads work? –Michael, Downer’s Grove, IL

Answer: Much like a search query, Google Ads is designed around the science of keywords. It works by reading what a user enters into a search string, determining what they have in mind when they type it based on multiple data points about the user and using that information to filter the information it provides in a way that’s tailored to the user’s specific interests, location, and time of day. By using Google and Facebook Ads, and similar outlets on other social media, you can take away a lot of the guesswork involved in attracting customers because you can select and tailor who sees your ads, when, and what keywords they use to find you!

Question: I want to select a couple of high-competition keywords, but the cost per click is crazy! How can I reduce that price per click? –Jason, Lake Norman, NC

Answer: To Google, keywords are commodities. Each keyword is assigned a score that determines its value. For example, “insurance” is the most expensive keyword on the English-speaking Internet because so many people are shopping for term, home, life, and auto insurance! This means there’s not much you can do to reduce the cost of keywords directly. However, your Google Ads account receives what’s known as a “Quality Score,” which ranks and evaluates the keywords you select and works to track how your ads perform “in the wild.” The higher the quality score, the more relevant your ads are going to be. Accounts with high Quality Scores may see reduced default cost-per-click rates over time on certain keywords.

However, the engineers at Google know that, just as search engine algorithms could be vulnerable to “gaming” or artificial inflation, people are always going to explore ways to make their ads perform better than their content could warrant in an effort to achieve a quick burst of results rather than the results they deserve.

This poses a quality problem for searchers and Google alike. Because of this, Google’s algorithms are always tracking and reporting back required information to Google on how ads and landing page article contents are performing to see if there’s a sudden, unexplained jump. This means the key to getting ideal ad performance is to focus on going the extra mile to determine what your ideal customer base has in common, the kind of problem they’re looking for info or help to deal with, and then giving it to them. Google doesn’t penalize great content, and that’s just as true for your ads as anything else!

Question: What happens when I post a Google Ad, and how do I calculate how much it’s costing me for each person who clicks on it? –Therese, Toronto, ON, Canada

Answer: Once you activate an ad, it starts to display immediately or on whatever schedule you specified (i.e., midnight three days from now, lunchtime on Saturday, etc.) and keeps going until your budget is depleted, the campaign’s end date hits, or you manually turn it off. Appearances of ads for plumbers on a given site or search engine are called “impressions.” This simply means that a person has seen your ad as a headline in their feed or search results. When someone interacts with your ad by clicking to view the whole text, this is called “engagement.” If you want a quick and dirty way to run the numbers for cost-tracking purposes, then this formula can help you:

Divide your total cost by the number of clicks as reported in your Google Ads account dashboard. If your cost is $10 and you got 100 clicks, your cost per click is $.10.
To find the cost per 1000 impressions, multiply the result in #1 by 1000. For our example, you’d end up with $100.
To determine your campaign’s overall ROI, you would subtract the cost of the campaign from the revenue generated by the campaign, divide by the campaign cost and multiply by 100 to give you a percentage. If your campaign cost $500, but you got 700 clicks that led you to $6,000 in revenue, your ROI would be an eyewatering 1100%! (Note: these numbers are decidedly not typical, although they can occasionally occur. These figures are only an example!)

Digital Marketing for Plumbers by Online Advantages offers periodical digital workshop sessions with tips and tactics you can use to structure your PPC ad campaign and decide if you’re getting the results and revenue you’re expecting.

Get in touch with us by clicking here to find out more!

Question: What is A/B testing in Google Ads for plumbers, and when should I use it? –Marley, Cleveland, OH

Answer: In A/B testing, there are two, three, or more variations of the same ad created and run simultaneously. By tracking how these ads perform side by side, you can experiment with a couple of different versions of the same ad that have a different feel or tone or possibly even different keywords and search terms. This allows you to determine which ads in your ad group are more appealing to your target demographics and which ones are just throwing money down the pipes.

It’s important to run A/B testing and look at how each ad is performing at the starting point of your campaign. This can help you address performance issues early and channel and structure your winners down into a superior ad or ad group without wasting unnecessary time, effort, and money. However, if you haven’t done A/B testing previously, the best time to do it is now!

But if you don’t have the time to figure out what is and isn’t working with your ad campaign, the complete menu of services from Digital Marketing for Plumbers by Online Advantages can help!

We go deep to deliver all the information and insights you need to come away with Google Ads for plumbers that produce one-of-a-kind results, boost your sales revenue, and increase your online marketing ROI with durable results you can trust. Plus, we break down the information we give you in simple, easy-to-understand language that makes even the most complicated processes sound like attaching two sections of pipe together!

To find out more about how we can help you take your PPC or Google Ad for plumbers campaign to the next level with results you can see in real-time, click here to contact Digital Marketing for Plumbers by Online Advantages today!

Digital Marketing For Plumbers

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