Looking to broaden your business’ reach and drive more job opportunities? While word-of-mouth and referrals are still key methods of tradie marketing, making use of digital marketing can help take your business to the next level.
Google ads is the premier platform for search engine advertising, using a pay-per-click (PPC) model that allows businesses to pay for ads to appear when people search online. With most people looking online when they need a service done, if your trade business isn’t appearing, you’re missing out on some golden opportunities.
The benefits of Google ads
There are always people in need of a service, whether it’s plumbing, electrical, pest control, or something else. Unlike some other advertising options, Google ads gives you much tighter control over how much you spend, with the PPC model ensuring you only pay when your ads are receiving traffic.
Advertising on Google gives you a better chance of being seen. Instead of appearing somewhere in the middle of search results, Google ads sit at the top of the results page, making it easier for users to find your brand right when they need you. Driving traffic to your website boosts the number of enquiries and job opportunities you receive, helping you grow your business without wasting your hard-earned money.
Getting set up
Any service business owner can benefit from a Google ads campaign. Getting in front of users when they need a professional service is important for building credibility and gaining momentum. Here’s how to get started with tradie ads.
Opening an account
To create an account, visit the Google ads homepage and use your business email to sign up. When you sign up, you’ll be prompted to identify your goals with advertising. For tradies and service business owners, these are usually getting more calls, driving website traffic and increasing the number of job bookings. Defining these goals upfront helps you make decisions going forward, and will help Google suggest the right advertising options.
Decide on a budget
When you’re setting up, you have two budget options:
- Average daily budget: An average amount that you’re willing to spend per day over the life of the campaign.
- Shared budget: A total amount set aside for multiple campaigns, which gets split out between them.
While your daily spend may fluctuate based on search demand, your overall spend will never surpass any limits you have set, giving you complete control over your expenses. You can also set a maximum CPC bid, which is the most you’re willing to spend for an individual click. This helps you avoid overspending on competitive categories.
For tradies, a budget of less than $1000 per month is typically considered ‘low budget’. This isn’t bad necessarily, but it does mean you will receive fewer clicks before reaching your daily limit. Try and identify a budget you can comfortably set aside for Google ads.
Strategy
Once your budget’s set, you can start putting together your strategy. We recommend setting your campaigns to use the Search network only, which is where your ads will make the most sense for users. You can have as many ad groups and campaigns as you like, organising your ads based on the specific services you want to advertise for. For example, a plumbing business could have one campaign overall, with multiple ad groups for each of their services like burst pipes, dishwasher installation, blocked drains, and any others.
Using multiple campaigns can also be a good way to advertise any deals and discounts you might want to promote, or if you offer seasonal services. This helps you allocate budget accordingly at different times. Keeping your ad groups organised will help you better track performance
Choose the right keywords
Your campaign is built around keywords, which determine when your ads appear. Try to avoid being overly generic with your keywords, like ‘electrician’ or ‘pest control service’ — these may get a lot of clicks, but they aren’t always effective at leading to conversions. Be a bit more specific and target the keywords people are using when they are ready to book you in. Think ‘solar panel repair melbourne’ or ‘emergency toilet leak repair’. Customers facing an immediate issue are more likely to convert.
It’s also important to use negative keywords, which are search terms and phrases that you do NOT want your ads to appear for. Building a large negative keyword list will ensure you preserve your budget and only reach a highly targeted audience.
Set your service area
Google ads can be targeted to very specific locations and service areas, which ensures you don’t waste money receiving clicks and conversions from users you can’t actually help. When setting up each tradie ad, you can put in specific suburbs and postcodes you service, or use radius targeting to draw a circle that encompasses your service area.
Be patient
It takes time to achieve results. Google needs processing time to collect data on your business so it can serve your ads to the best possible audience. Similarly, Google will also test to identify which headlines and ad copy are the most effective at drawing clicks and conversions, optimising towards them. It usually takes around 90 days for campaigns to reach their full effectiveness. Conversions will not happen overnight.
How to measure performance
Tracking the performance of your ads is crucial to make sure you’re building leads and not just wasting your money. One of the great benefits of digital marketing is the ease with which you can track your ads, with four main measurements to consider:
- Click-through rate: The number of clicks your ad gets divided by the number of times it shows up in search results. This gives an indication of how compelling your ad copy is, and whether it is enticing enough for users.
- Cost-per-click: The total cost of clicks in your campaign divided by the number of clicks you receive. This indicates the effectiveness of your budget, and which keywords are providing good value for money.
- Conversion rate: The number of conversions you receive divided by the number of overall visitors. A conversion is a step further and occurs when they click on your ad and then take action on your website with a sign up, enquiry, form fill or call. Unfortunately, not every click will lead to a conversion.
- Cost-per-action: The total cost spent divided by the number of actions received. This is the key metric that shows whether your campaign is an effective use of money or not.
It’s important to regularly monitor performance across these metrics. This will show you which campaigns and ad sets are performing the best and which might need some fixing. Continually tweaking your approach based on performance data is the best way to keep things humming.
Extra tips on digital marketing for tradies
Google ads are great at growing your business, but if you really want to accelerate things, there are a number of other avenues to consider.
- Local SEO: Complement your ads by optimising your website for local searches, and ensure you have a Google Business profile with all of your key contact information. If your website appears in organic and paid results, it gives more credibility to your business.
- Optimise your landing pages: Create dedicated pages for each of your ads, giving relevant information about the service and an easy pathway to conversion. If it is too difficult for users to find what they’re looking for, they’ll have a look somewhere else.
- Invest in other marketing strategies: Augment your advertising by building your business everywhere you can! Marketing for tradies can include posting on social media, sending out regular emails to a mailing list, or posting on your blog. The more ways users can connect with your brand, the more likely they are to trust you.
Outside of these, the best way to supercharge your growth is to sign up to Mira! Our business management app takes all the hassle out of your admin, helping you manage all of those new jobs coming your way, and giving you more time to build the perfect marketing strategy.
A massive boost for your business
If you’re ready to develop a tradie advertising campaign that reaches the right audience, generates leads, and drives more business to your website, Google ads could be the next step!
To give your business the best chance of growth and success, check out Mira to reduce your admin and earn important time back in your day. Start with a no-obligation free trial and feel the difference for yourself, and get some more tips on advertising for tradies on our blog.