PPC for Contractors: Turning Paid Ads Into Booked Jobs

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What's up, Livin' Heads?
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Welcome to another episode of From the Yellow Chair.
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I'm Crystal Williams, the co-founder and lead strategist at Limited Marketing.
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Y'all, we are right smacked up in the middle, coming towards the end of our Alphabet Soup series, where we are talking about all of the funky acronyms that live inside of the marketing world.
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Today's focus is gonna be on PPC, hyperflip, kind of a cuss word, but we are gonna learn a lot about it.
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We have one of the best people in the industry that's been talking about this on the show today.
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So, you know what?
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Let's get situated, let's get going, let's discelinate.
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Perfect.
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Well, today we're talking about PPC for contractors turning paid ads into booked jobs, which is better than just a flipping lead.
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We want some booked jobs, we want some revenue.
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So joining me is Brett Hansen from WebFX.
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Um, we've gotten to really get to know each other pretty good over the last several months.
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And uh, you just got married, so congratulations on that.
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So lots of good things happening.
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So, Brett, I want you to tell everybody listening why should anyone listen to what you have to say?
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Oh man, I don't know if they should or not.
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Just joking.
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Um, I would say, you know, behind me is like a super knowledgeable team that's been in the industry for you know longer than almost three decades.
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So um the founder of WebFX, uh, I mean, before Google was even like working, uh, he was doing uh websites and he was doing marketing.
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And um, you know, over the last 28 years, he's been able to build a brand that's done really well um with our core uh uh capabilities, which would be like SEO websites, those things.
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We actually own STO.com as well, which is a really good website and uh tool that marketers from all over the world use.
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And along that, you know, obviously we've had to learn how to do PPC and and uh those types of bad campaigns as well, because you know, uh they go like hand in hand, right?
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So if you want one or the other to perform at like really good levels, um, especially your PPC, then there has to be some like really good SEO um taking place and that and that one.
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So me specifically, um, why you should listen to me.
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Uh just I've learned so much from the team at WebFX.
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And you know, they they sit behind me and they have a greater knowledge than I do, but man, I've been able to really immerse with that team and learn some really great things over over the last year or so that I've been here.
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Yeah, and I will say this this I think you guys are uh like nice and complex, yet simple enough for contractors to be able to interact.
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So today we're gonna jump deep into the PPC side of things.
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Uh, try to use, we're gonna try to focus on this contractor uh conversation here, right?
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Uh because one thing that digital companies will do, we know we do it.
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I'm not a digital agency, but just a marketer in general.
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You know, we will we will talk our marketing jargon and contractors will look dead me dead in my face and say, What the heck are you even talking about?
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But PPC stands for pay-per-click.
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Y'all all hear about it.
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And, you know, I think there's several examples of pay-per-click.
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GLSA is an example of pay-per-click, uh, you know, different types of PPC ads, retargeting and things like that.
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So it's really a style of ad that you can run.
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But I also think it's a quick way to generate leads, but I'm not gonna lie, don't kill me for this.
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I think it is the most expensive way to build a business.
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It's the most expensive way to build a business if it's done wrong for sure.
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Um, especially when like the way that we look at PPC is it's essentially like an auction, right?
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So every time somebody searches like HVAC repair near me or emergency plumber, Google runs basically like a really fast auction on those to decide like whose ads are gonna show up.
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And you really only pay, you know, someone uh when they like click on the ad, just not for the showing up.
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But most uh common types of contractors will run like the DSLA ads that you're talking about, the PPC social ads and like the retargeting ads.
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But PPC can be expensive if you're not if the campaign's not set up correctly and you have poor sales conversion rates for sure.
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So I love this.
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So let me and I'll give my take here for a second.
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My part is you should be working hard to brand yourself where people are specifically typing in your name.
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But until then, until you have a lot of people, until you have a large top of mind recognition level, it's gonna be hard to just live off brand alone.
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So it is this nice healthy mix.
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But the more you build in brand, the lower that cost per lead becomes because they go low less and less to these paid channels.
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But people are like, I need leads right now.
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It is somewhere probably in this mix here of where you need to be when you need leads right now, but it's expensive uh to do it because it's honestly no pun, no meanness intended.
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It's the easiest thing to do as well is you know, get with your company like WebX WebFX and be like, okay, I got$5,000 a month.
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What can I do?
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They're gonna tell you we need to run some PPC, we need to be doing some things.
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Um, so where do you think most contractors go wrong when they try PPC?
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My guess is underfunding.
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Yeah, so one would be um, yeah, so underfunding the campaigns for sure, not making sure that you're, you know, not doubling down, or let me rephrase that, making sure that you're spending enough ads to see uh the basically the quality of leads that you want to get.
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A lot of times contractors will come in and put in like a really um really basic ad account or a budget account.
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Sorry, let me rephrase that.
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Contractors will come in and put like a bare minimum budget, and then after a couple months, they'll uh they'll abandon it.
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The way we need to look at PPC is it's just like SEO in the way of that Google, I kind of put it into like three buckets, right?
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And I call it loss.
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So it takes about three to four months for Google to understand the algorithm and to learn.
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So the first phase is L for learning, right?
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First month, it's just learning about your business, what type of leads are looking uh you're looking for.
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The second month is optimization.
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That's when your marketing company should come in and be like, hey, based on what we're seeing in the initial campaigns that we set up, we might need to make some changes here.
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We might need to put some more uh marketing budget in this campaign and take some away from this one.
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And then the third and the fourth month is really when it hits like that um that sweet spot.
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So the last part S, right?
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S for the sweet spot.
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And that's really when you start really getting some good traction and ROI.
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The mistake that contractors make is one, they either put too much money up front and they lose a lot, or they don't put enough.
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Um, and then the second piece is a lot of them dip out during that learning, uh, during that learning piece uh before they even get to see what their ROI might look like.
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So we really need some commitment here.
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So it's underfunding and lack of commitment, and then you know, your your acronym there.
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So, you know, I I think contractors are so scared, and so they want this true immediate.
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Listen, if I had to say mark, an immediate marketing tactic to me, one of the very few things that immediately flips a switch is outbound calling or texting.
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Yeah, everything else needs time to marinate and learn and grow and continue to get better.
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Um, and so underfunding, uh, a big one there.
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So, like go in at your best and then let it sit and work.
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That is not easy to do, yeah.
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But and commit to it, yeah.
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You're right, it's not easy to do, and I didn't mean to cut you off there, but to definitely commit to it, commit to it um at least for four or five months to see how it's performing and you know what your possibilities are.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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Um, okay, so that leads me to my next thing.
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It's like, what is success?
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So, you know, like people will tell me, like, I just was not successful.
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So let me get on my soapbox for a second here.
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A lot of times what I see is not a lead generation problem, it's a booking problem.
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So you've got the operational side of the company that can't book the lead.
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So the leads come in, and maybe they're not always perfect, wrapped in a bow, and there's a little hustle that you got to have to it.
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But they, you know, if you only have a 20% booking rate on your PPC leads, the problem is not the PPC, the problem is a CSR problem or whatever you've got going on in the background there.
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So the the call booking, the lead booking rate is important to look at.
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If you look at things holistically, which I preach this all the time, look at everything as a whole package here on okay, I invested correctly with the right ad copy.
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Now I've got leads, and now I need to be able to handle it operationally on the back side of the phone to get this call booked.
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Um, because really what we want to judge, I would judge PPC on is booked jobs and revenue.
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Yep.
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Clicks and impressions do play a part of the puzzle, they're a part of the recipe that do have weight and value, but not as much as booked jobs and revenue.
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Yeah.
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So I'm gonna I'm gonna answer, I'm gonna reply to that in a couple different ways.
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There's one, um, just from some experience that I've had over the last couple of audits that we've done talking about impressions.
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Man, there's uh there's been a few campaigns that I've seen that are set up on impressions and and clicks or views.
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And that's not what we're looking for when it comes to home services.
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We don't really care about impressions and views.
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We care about what you just said, right?
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Book jobs and then row as the return on ad spend.
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So one thing you'll have to say is to always go through and uh babysit or to maybe not babysit's not the right word, but to always validate the campaigns and make sure that they're all set on um search, right?
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So we don't want visibility, we want search campaigns to be set up on conversions, is what we're ultimately looking for in the home services.
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Um, so you hit the nail on the head right there.
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Impressions, we don't care about that.
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We want book rate.
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Always make sure your campaigns are set up to tell Google that we want conversions, not impressions.
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So I kind of I kind of look at this as like this is gonna be a terrible analogy.
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But so my kids play golf, right?
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Yeah, really golf is one at the green, like uh in the short game, right?
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Yeah my kids win and lose tournaments on how well they're putting for the day.
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But what do they love to practice?
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Driving.
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I can drive at 280 yards, 360 yards, right?
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And they always want me to buy them new new uh drivers.
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And so my husband said, We're not buying a new driver until you start putting better, right?
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Or chipping better out of the sand or whatever.
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And so I kind of think about this like you have to decide that you're gonna sit down and play the PPC game.
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And the fun part is when your short game is really good and you're able to book those calls and do it, but you gotta get out there and swing and swing and swing and swing and swing until eventually you are getting to the green and you can put it in.
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And so it is always to me a game of I'm entering into something volatile and fluid.
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And so if you're like, okay, I'm gonna put a check right here, I did it, I'm doing PPC.
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You said$3,000, I'm giving you$3,000.
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Why is it not working?
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You have to know that it's a game of cat and mouse and push and pull.
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You just have to know it.
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And so I'm trying to help contractors prepare themselves mentally for what a full marketing strategy looks like.
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And it is not promises and nice pretty bows.
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It is messy and it is wild, and we are pivoting left and right, and we're enjoying it.
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We have to enjoy it.
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Um, and if that is not your style, I would definitely recommend not jumping on the marketing bandwagon.
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Don't become a marketer if you're scared of change because the only thing consistent is change.
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So, you know, the different the difference between a lead and a book job is a lead made the phone ring, but a book job gave you opportunity, right?
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100% and and there is still opportunity every time that phone rings, your CSR has an opportunity.
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So you need to be monitoring as a contractor how well your CSRs are dealing with that.
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And call handling matters.
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Exactly.
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So and uh so call handling matters.
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Your CSRs need to be trained on like, hey, if these leads are coming in from like any of the any of the the Google campaigns, um, we've got to be on top of those, especially for the lead to speed and like how Google is rewarding contractors.
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Um, if you want your LSAs to rank, but it takes you over five minutes to be able to respond to somebody, um, you know, you're gonna you're gonna fast track lose your ranking in like LSAs.
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Um, same with like PPC.
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So they're tracking like all of that.
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So when you when you start the campaigns, you really gotta be committed to one set them setting them up foundationally, correct?
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And then have the commitment to follow through with training from top to the bottom.
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Um, one thing that I actually heard, uh, I think it was Bill uh Russell from okay, okay you know what I'm talking about?
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I think oh yeah.
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Um geez, I wish he was he used to work with uh anyways, but he was talking about how um one thing that I would suggest, and I and I'd actually tell my contractors to do this too, is one, get your cost per lead and then put it right there by your by your CSRs so they can see like, hey, every time I don't book a job, it costs my company$250 or whatever the the current like cost per lead is, right?
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So there is an actionable number behind the leads that are coming in.
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So it just makes them feel a little bit more committed to to getting that.
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Um, the other piece that I wanted to just run through real quick is just a little bit of like the foundational pieces to make your your PPC and your LSAs run really run a lot better.
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So I'm just gonna talk about more or less like a couple of mistakes, if that's all right.
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Yeah, come on, let's do it.
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So that gives us some really good foundation.
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One is sending traffic to your homepage.
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That's a huge problem that I see on and on.
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So a homeowner, for example, searches like water heater repair to click on your ad, the and lads on the basically the ad lands on a page talking about like company history.
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Or let's say that you know they click on a plumbing ad, but you also do HVAC and electrical, they go to your homepage and they see like Tom's heating in air, they're gonna be confused.
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They're gonna be like, why did I click on the plumbing on the page?
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We're not following their intent.
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Right, exactly.
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So we're not following the intent.
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So the landing page always has to match the service that you're um that you're that you're basically running those ads for.
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Um, one the second thing is is, and I and I get this, and I don't probably get some backlash here, but that's okay.
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It's fine.
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But I'm gonna be controversial versal for a second.
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So I get the idea of like, hey, we want to work with um, you know, contractors, they make their money off of working with uh people there in their local market.
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Um, so a lot of times contractors will be like, hey, there's a local guy that does our paid ads.
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And I'm not saying that they don't do a good job.
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They they probably do.
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But what you really want to look at to get the most out of your out of your uh paid, out of your PPC budget, is a company that can integrate into your CRM because they can get the data that they need on attribution from those leads of exactly what came what campaign they came through, um, what that behavior looks like, and it gets rid of the false positives.
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And kind of what I mean by false positives that's hard to track if you're not in the CRM and understanding that, like Service Titan or House Call Pro, is for example, you might have a campaign that brings in a lot of leads.
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So your marketing company is like, hey, look at all the leads that came in through this campaign.
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Well, that might be a false positive.
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Maybe those leads actually aren't converting and you have a lower revenue for that, but your lead count is super high.
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So you imagine putting more money into that bucket where there is another campaign that maybe has less leads, but the conversion rates are twice as much, right?
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So you're if you're going by impressions and you're not really understanding the lead and like where it goes through all the way, you're kind of like flying blind.
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So one thing I always recommend is you know, if you want more out of that, work with a marketing firm that can actually get the data out of your CRM.
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Okay, so CRM attribution, I will say, um, used to, I'm like, so you I will say to a country, so you are just running this campaign with no true visibility of performance.
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100%.
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It is 1000%.
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Well, I spent all my money and I can't say it got me anything.
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Um, transparency into lead attribution.
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So let me break that down.
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Knowing where the lead came from, okay, is what we're calling attribution.
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We need to know what not only what company, what callers, what customers came from what leads, but then what revenue did that particular job?
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So let's say you're doing this on a$49 tune-up.
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If you look up and you got 10 leads from this and you went out there and each lead was$300, there's a there's a problem, a conversion problem on it.
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Data is so rich in answers and it goes deeper, it goes much deeper than marketing and it goes further into operational issues.
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And there's no reason to be afraid of that stuff.
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Like, wouldn't you love to know when you could really look at things that objectively and say, okay, these 10 people called, these 20 people called, we got 10 of them to book.
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We went out there and we did the maintenance tune-up or whatever.
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We were sucking it up at flipping that over.
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They didn't join our membership club, they didn't have a high ticket repair, they weren't eligible for a re and then we didn't even sell them anything else on another service.
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Like this, so the again, contractors, we want to blame the the marketing tactic.
00:18:53.599 --> 00:18:56.559
Marketing gets all the blame and none of the credit, right?
00:18:56.720 --> 00:19:02.400
So we get all this was a terrible, these leads are these PPC leads are not working for me.
00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:06.319
Well, they're not because you aren't delivering on the inside.
00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:18.799
Now, there is a legitimate concern when you get on here and see where the pay-per-click is not driving anything at all, not even any opportunities to book, no lead, no book jobs, and then certainly no revenue.
00:19:19.039 --> 00:19:22.799
But you've got to be able to have an educated conversation around that attribution.
00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:25.839
And so the CRM side of that is so vital.
00:19:27.279 --> 00:19:37.519
I I run or I have a part, I do not run, I have a part of three service companies alongside Lemon Seed that I look at every single day.
00:19:37.839 --> 00:19:48.720
And I would die, and I did relatively die for like several months with the pest control company because we were struggling to find a CRM that would allow us to integrate to this.
00:19:48.880 --> 00:19:55.599
And I was I was literally telling my sister she runs the pest control company, and I would say, Oh my gosh, I feel like I'm blind.
00:19:56.000 --> 00:20:05.839
I feel like I'm literally blind, like I'm making decisions based off of my gut, which I mean, I'm not afraid of that, but I sure would love some data.
00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:08.000
And so then we started integrating with the call rail.
00:20:08.079 --> 00:20:12.720
And now we're doing we're doing all of these things to get us there, but it is definitely not fun.
00:20:13.039 --> 00:20:13.839
Um, yeah.
00:20:14.079 --> 00:20:21.680
So, you know, what metrics, Brett, do you recommend that people make a part of their measurement of PPC?
00:20:22.880 --> 00:20:29.039
Yeah, so I think the biggest thing that they need to track is your like your click to uh to booking rate.
00:20:29.200 --> 00:20:37.440
So you just want to make sure that your booking rate is as good and just like how much money is it costing out of your marketing budget to get there.
00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:51.279
And then and then the overall telling um of how a campaign is running or how your campaigns are running, and is actually going to give you the insightful actions that you need to do on whether you want to scale or not, is simply your ROAS.
00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:54.960
So at the end of the month, you look at what your return on ad spend is.
00:20:55.200 --> 00:21:06.079
And you know, if you're most companies, I would say you should be looking between like on PPC, a 3x to a 5x return on PPC.
00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:11.440
Um, LSAs, Google LSAs are a little bit higher just because of the guarantee that you get out of those.
00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:15.759
But PPC, you should be around a 3x to a 5x in your row as, right?
00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:17.839
And then you want to take your go ahead.
00:21:18.079 --> 00:21:18.880
No, no, I'm sorry.
00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:20.880
So return on ad spend.
00:21:20.960 --> 00:21:24.160
So I give you five thousand dollars for PPC.
00:21:24.799 --> 00:21:26.720
Let's say I get a five time return.
00:21:27.599 --> 00:21:29.599
We're talking about in revenue generated.
00:21:29.680 --> 00:21:32.480
So this is what some people like to be like, well, my margins.
00:21:32.559 --> 00:21:34.160
No, that's on your PL.
00:21:34.240 --> 00:21:39.359
We're talking about I spent five, I made five times five, which is twenty-five thousand dollars.
00:21:39.759 --> 00:21:49.359
So I spent five thousand to make twenty-five thousand is a reasonable expectation of performance on PPC.
00:21:49.519 --> 00:21:52.319
And then Brett, you just said that it's even higher on LSA.
00:21:52.880 --> 00:21:59.759
Um, and so you could even say, I'm paying a hundred dollars a lead right now, um, and I got five, six, seven times.
00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:05.440
That um that's where that is those are some good return on ad spend numbers.
00:22:06.079 --> 00:22:06.400
Yeah.
00:22:06.559 --> 00:22:10.720
And I and I and I always tell people to layer the LSAs and the PPC, right?
00:22:10.799 --> 00:22:17.440
So if you have like a really minimal budget, I would definitely say like LSA is the place to start just because you do get the guaranteed.
00:22:17.680 --> 00:22:31.039
Um, you know, you do get the guaranteed leads and you do get a refund if if it's not really, you know, your your client that they pick on, like if they if they come in and it's a service that you actually don't provide, you'll get a little bit of that.
00:22:31.279 --> 00:22:35.119
I mean, that's the closest you can get to like a guaranteed lead in the market.
00:22:35.200 --> 00:22:41.119
You know, if there was like somebody that was doing guaranteed deletes all the time, I mean that marketing agency would be, you know, billionaires by now.
00:22:41.279 --> 00:22:43.359
But um, that's the closest you can get.
00:22:43.519 --> 00:22:54.079
But the thing with LSAs is they're extremely limited on what you can actually, you know, do ads for, and that's why you need to layer as you start growing, you need to layer into PPC to get a bigger piece of the market.
00:22:54.240 --> 00:22:59.440
So yeah, it's part of natural progression with your the complexity of your marketing strategy.
00:22:59.680 --> 00:23:04.240
Natural progression would be um LSA to PPC for sure.
00:23:05.359 --> 00:23:14.319
So okay, so if I'm if I'm a contractor and I'm like, okay, all right, Brett, I am spending you know X amount of dollars with my PPC vendor right now.
00:23:14.480 --> 00:23:28.960
I can see it in my service, Titan, and I'm only I'm gonna go look at the you know, rate from booking to uh from lead to booking, and I'm gonna go look to see if I'm somewhere between a three to five times return on ad spend.
00:23:29.119 --> 00:23:31.920
Then let's say that those are underperforming.
00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:39.119
So, what are some of the things that could be happening that I might could pivot with that?
00:23:39.359 --> 00:23:41.920
So, okay, my ROAS is not very high.
00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:45.039
And I think my team is doing a good job in the house.
00:23:45.119 --> 00:23:47.039
I just think the leads are underqualified.
00:23:47.200 --> 00:23:52.720
So, like I'm getting called to a lot of, let's say, like smaller homes or people with lower income.
00:23:52.880 --> 00:23:57.119
You know, what where should a contractor's head go when that's there?
00:23:57.599 --> 00:24:01.759
Yeah, so a couple things is one is like how big of a service area are you hitting?
00:24:01.839 --> 00:24:06.559
Like you brought up a really good example earlier of the$49 tune-up, right?
00:24:06.880 --> 00:24:14.400
Are you running a$49 tune-up 15 miles outside of your service area or 15 miles like outside of where the office is?
00:24:14.640 --> 00:24:21.759
I mean, before your tech even gets in the in the truck, you've already lost money before he even starts the truck up, right?
00:24:21.920 --> 00:24:33.759
So you only you want to run PPC ads on the one on um, you know, the services that are gonna be worth awhile uh for somebody to get in a truck and go out and do that service, right?
00:24:34.079 --> 00:24:40.559
Um, the other thing that we talked about is zero tracking, not tracking um their leads and like where they're coming from.
00:24:40.720 --> 00:24:43.440
So you got to make sure that you're tracking the attribution.
00:24:43.680 --> 00:24:50.960
Use a company like Call Rail or one of those so you can understand the UTMs that are coming in, listen to your recordings.
00:24:51.119 --> 00:24:59.759
Um, I would say, especially that, listen to the phone calls for your CSRs, always stop and what you can control first, control your controllables, as they say.
00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.079
So look inward first, start looking at do I need sales training?
00:25:04.240 --> 00:25:06.559
Are we not responding to these fast enough?
00:25:06.720 --> 00:25:08.640
Um, look at those pieces.
00:25:08.880 --> 00:25:19.119
And usually, you know, a lot of times, um the other thing that I see is uh when basically uh how am I trying to put this?
00:25:19.279 --> 00:25:22.799
So I guess this might be a cut and edit um part right here.
00:25:23.119 --> 00:25:27.599
Oh, your friends when we're building out like a keyword list.
00:25:27.680 --> 00:25:39.519
I can guarantee you that if you go into like your um your keyword, uh your key phrases and your keywords, that there's gonna be things in there that you really don't want to be spending money on.
00:25:39.599 --> 00:25:46.960
So look through all those terms and make sure that, like, hey, all the search terms and all those things are actually jobs that I want to get.
00:25:47.119 --> 00:25:54.319
I guarantee you there's probably 10 to 20 terms in there that if you knew you're running bids on, you'd be like, what is this even about?
00:25:54.480 --> 00:25:55.200
You know what I mean?
00:25:55.440 --> 00:25:57.119
Yeah, so like make sure you do it.
00:25:57.200 --> 00:26:07.599
So we had this contractor get so mad at us one day because we were running some unique, like Facebook stuff with this, and they were like, we don't even do water heaters, and I'm like, ma'am, it's right here on your website.
00:26:07.839 --> 00:26:08.079
Right.
00:26:08.319 --> 00:26:10.480
You got it from your own website, you know.
00:26:10.559 --> 00:26:13.599
So I I love what you're saying there, but you said something that stuck with my head.
00:26:13.759 --> 00:26:18.240
So, you know, I mentioned a$49 um, you know, tune-up ad.
00:26:18.400 --> 00:26:26.640
What types of ad copy campaigns-ish run best on PPC?
00:26:26.880 --> 00:26:28.559
You know, is it replacement?
00:26:29.599 --> 00:26:30.640
Is it service?
00:26:30.799 --> 00:26:32.319
What are what do you see?
00:26:33.519 --> 00:26:38.960
Um it's really like interesting um that you that you bring that up.
00:26:39.119 --> 00:26:47.599
So one would be like, I would say you run, and this is actually something that we've learned from being able to pull that first party data.
00:26:47.839 --> 00:26:52.319
And that is if you're running, for example, we'll break a myth right now.
00:26:52.480 --> 00:26:55.839
Should we should we stop running ads during the shoulder season?
00:26:56.079 --> 00:26:56.880
Absolutely not.
00:26:57.039 --> 00:27:01.920
If anything, you just want to lower that budget by 30 to 50 percent.
00:27:02.079 --> 00:27:07.200
Um, but you never want to completely pause a budget because now you have to go through that loss again, right?
00:27:07.279 --> 00:27:09.599
The learning optimization and the sweet spot.
00:27:09.680 --> 00:27:13.359
You have to go through all that learning again if you pause those, but keep them at a low.
00:27:13.519 --> 00:27:27.920
But one thing we've learned is that actually what happens is those people that reach out to you for service and repairs during the off-season have a higher rate of return during the during the busy season for installs and replacements.
00:27:28.079 --> 00:27:46.480
So you want to keep the ads going, you know, for those repairs all the way through, all the way through all your seasons, because you're gonna get a really good return like during the summer for when they actually need an install or um or a replacement on their on their on their system or on their water heater, whatever it might be.
00:27:46.720 --> 00:27:50.079
Um and uh what was the other part of the question?
00:27:50.160 --> 00:27:51.440
I apologize.
00:27:51.920 --> 00:27:52.960
No, I think that was it.
00:27:53.039 --> 00:27:55.359
Just what are the best types of ads to run?
00:27:55.519 --> 00:27:55.759
Yeah.
00:27:56.000 --> 00:28:06.799
Um, and and and I think that gives good feedback because the other thing I'm gonna ask, so we get our ad copy right, you know, I love what you said about dropping 30 to 50 percent instead of stopping altogether.
00:28:07.039 --> 00:28:15.039
But now, so when we we should push our PPC to a landing page that is designed to convert quickly, right?
00:28:15.440 --> 00:28:17.759
Um and with strong calls to action.
00:28:17.920 --> 00:28:23.920
And so odds are if you have a PPC problem, there is a combination of things going on.
00:28:24.160 --> 00:28:30.000
Like you said, it could be too broad of an area, it could be the wrong ad itself, it could be underfunding.
00:28:30.240 --> 00:28:35.519
There needs to be some true investigation other than just assuming that it's an agency problem.
00:28:35.680 --> 00:28:36.480
I agree with that.
00:28:37.119 --> 00:28:38.160
So okay.
00:28:38.240 --> 00:28:44.400
Uh I know one thing that you have uh mentioned about this is realistically investing.
00:28:44.559 --> 00:28:49.680
So you mentioned earlier maybe starting with LSA before you go over to PPC.
00:28:49.920 --> 00:28:52.640
And I know this is very different across the country.
00:28:52.799 --> 00:28:56.720
So this we're just talking, you know, um, ranges here.
00:28:56.960 --> 00:29:01.440
What do you think you probably need to start with PPC?
00:29:01.519 --> 00:29:07.359
Just the average contractor, how much money investing a month to have a decent run at it?
00:29:07.680 --> 00:29:24.079
Well, I mean, the bare minimum to get like any type of meaningful data that's gonna mean anything to your marketing company to help you like grow is or even for your for your own, if you're doing it on your own, it's probably gonna be between$1,500 to$2,000 a month for most markets.
00:29:24.240 --> 00:29:30.160
Uh competitive metros for like HVAC and plumbing, you're gonna have to start at around$3,000 to$5,000.
00:29:30.480 --> 00:29:32.720
And that's even in the learning phase, too, right?
00:29:32.799 --> 00:29:39.359
So you're gonna like Dallas, Dallas, Texas, is you got to pony up because it's a competitive market.
00:29:39.599 --> 00:29:45.759
Phoenix, all of those, Atlanta, San Antonio, you're you're you're hot and heavy, baby.
00:29:45.839 --> 00:29:47.279
You gotta come to the table.
00:29:47.440 --> 00:29:49.599
So you can throw$1,500 at it.
00:29:49.759 --> 00:29:51.119
It's just not gonna get you very far.
00:29:51.359 --> 00:29:53.279
It's not gonna get you every very far.
00:29:53.680 --> 00:30:00.400
And and with the way that Google works is they need they need to be able to see how many leads you got to be able to learn.
00:30:00.480 --> 00:30:12.640
So you've got to put enough budget in to at least get 50 leads a month for them to be able to really understand the algorithm and the leads that you know that your company is looking for and that's working for you.
00:30:12.799 --> 00:30:19.519
So if you're looking at a budget, small areas, 15 to 2,000, competitive markets, three to five thousand.
00:30:19.680 --> 00:30:24.720
Um, and then you know, be committed that you're probably gonna lose money the first month.
00:30:24.799 --> 00:30:30.960
You're probably gonna break even the second month, and then that third and fourth month is where you're gonna start seeing some good return.
00:30:31.119 --> 00:30:43.440
But just understand that it's, you know, even with all the great technology and AI and all these things that, you know, we're all working on and uh doing and implementing in our marketing agencies to help our clients learn.
00:30:43.519 --> 00:30:48.240
There just there isn't much we can do to speed up that process for Google's algorithms.
00:30:48.319 --> 00:30:52.160
That's something that they own and that's something that they purposely put there.
00:30:52.319 --> 00:30:59.920
Um, to one, make sure that you are committed because they don't want companies just coming in, dropping$10,000, getting a ton of leads, and then leaving.
00:31:00.160 --> 00:31:08.640
They want everybody to be a little committed, but they also at the same time, you know, they get a lot of bad route, but they are committed to you to to give you good leads.
00:31:08.720 --> 00:31:10.480
You just got to learn how to talk to them.
00:31:10.640 --> 00:31:20.000
And a lot of uh companies don't talk to them uh the way that they need to be talked to to understand so they know what leads to send over your way.
00:31:20.240 --> 00:31:22.000
Okay, that that's wonderful.
00:31:22.160 --> 00:31:23.920
Communication is so important.
00:31:24.559 --> 00:31:26.240
Um, okay, so rapid fire.
00:31:26.400 --> 00:31:29.680
I'm gonna ask you two quick questions and then we're gonna wrap this up.
00:31:29.839 --> 00:31:31.519
So yeah, sounds good.
00:31:31.920 --> 00:31:33.200
You already answered this one.
00:31:33.359 --> 00:31:34.000
You tricked me.
00:31:34.079 --> 00:31:35.519
You did already answer the slow one.
00:31:35.680 --> 00:31:38.720
So, does more budget always mean better results?
00:31:38.880 --> 00:31:44.160
So if I'm getting good results and I add more budget, does that always mean I can be successful?
00:31:44.880 --> 00:31:50.160
No, I think like what happens with that is it really just amplifies like what's already there.
00:31:50.319 --> 00:31:54.240
So if things are going good, I mean it's just gonna amplify things that are going good.
00:31:54.319 --> 00:32:02.400
But if you haven't gone through and checked like really the foundations of your campaigns and your strategies, then things are just gonna get worse and you're gonna lose more money.
00:32:02.720 --> 00:32:03.519
So no.
00:32:03.759 --> 00:32:04.079
Okay.
00:32:04.319 --> 00:32:09.599
And then are Google GLSA ads better than PPC?
00:32:11.519 --> 00:32:15.279
Yeah, I would say I don't know if they're like any better, but they're just different.
00:32:15.440 --> 00:32:22.000
I mean, with LSAs and they're um basically your charge per call and like not per click, which is really like contractor friendly.
00:32:22.079 --> 00:32:34.400
But if you have like control over your budget, visibility, and keywords, um, standard Google ads can like give you more targeting powder and create it like more targeting power and like more creative flexibility.
00:32:34.559 --> 00:32:37.920
But the real answer is if you can do both, to do both.
00:32:38.079 --> 00:32:51.599
Um, but I would say if you're a smaller contractor, like starting out, then definitely start with like your LSAs, focus on your speed delete, focus on uh getting reviews, focus on optimizing your Google My Business page.
00:32:51.680 --> 00:32:59.839
And then those LSAs will provide you enough revenue to start investing more into SEO and to PPC and start layering your marketing from there.
00:33:00.079 --> 00:33:00.799
I love it.
00:33:01.039 --> 00:33:02.240
I love it, and I agree.
00:33:02.319 --> 00:33:05.279
I think it's such a step-up process.
00:33:05.759 --> 00:33:06.799
So I love that.
00:33:06.960 --> 00:33:11.920
I know that you are offering a free SEO audit to our listeners today.
00:33:12.079 --> 00:33:13.279
What does that look like?
00:33:13.599 --> 00:33:18.000
Yeah, so um we can do we can do a free PPC or an SEO audit.
00:33:18.079 --> 00:33:28.960
Um, basically, what we'll do is we'll dive into your SEO performance, your PPC performance if you feel like it's not quite up to snuff or that you're not really not to snuff.
00:33:29.039 --> 00:33:38.799
But if it's not really uh operating or giving you the revenue uh return that you that you're hoping it would, um we'll definitely do a deep dive on that and like give you like honest feedback.
00:33:38.960 --> 00:33:43.119
We have done some PPC audits where it's like, hey, things are set up really good.
00:33:43.279 --> 00:33:46.640
Maybe it's time to look at maybe your conversion within the office.
00:33:46.799 --> 00:33:54.960
But there have definitely been um a few, a few audits that have opened my eyes to what's actually going on uh out there in the market.
00:33:55.039 --> 00:34:08.559
And there's some definite um one knowledge that we'd like to get back into the contractor so they can take more of that knowledge into their own hands and be able to know what they're looking at when they get into their Google Eyes accounts.
00:34:08.800 --> 00:34:09.360
I love it.
00:34:09.440 --> 00:34:12.400
And I I would take you, I think anyone should take you up.
00:34:12.480 --> 00:34:15.840
I know you guys have a soft approach to like, y'all just want to help.
00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:18.400
Um, and so I I really appreciate that.
00:34:18.639 --> 00:34:22.400
Well, listen, Brett, thank you so much for joining and talking about PPC.
00:34:22.639 --> 00:34:29.760
And guys, if you are looking for a full service uh digital agency, WebFX is a great partner with Lemon Seed.
00:34:29.840 --> 00:34:31.039
We have great success stories.
00:34:31.119 --> 00:34:33.440
I'd love to hand you off uh to Brett.
00:34:33.519 --> 00:34:37.039
So either reach out to them directly or reach out to us, and we're happy to connect.
00:34:37.199 --> 00:34:40.480
But thank you for listening to another episode in our Alphabet Soup series.
00:34:40.639 --> 00:34:46.400
If you loved what you heard, share this with someone that you think could benefit from hearing this story about PPC.
00:34:46.639 --> 00:34:48.559
And don't forget to keep sipping lemonade.
00:34:48.719 --> 00:34:50.239
We'll see you next time.