Plumber PPC: Tips + Best Practices to Get Customers
Plumbing is a highly competitive field. When designing your company website, your goal is to rank high on search engine result pages (SERPs) so that local customers find you first when they search for relevant keywords. However, if other companies rank higher than you on these pages, you’re losing business.
That’s why the top plumbing websites invest in PPC, or pay-per-click advertising. As you build a brand, you will need as much visibility as you can get to bring in new customers. While excellent SEO and web design are a strong foundation for digital marketing, PPC ads get results fast. They can even help you determine which advertising strategies work best for your unique customer base.
Find out why plumbers should use PPC, and learn how to create the best advertising strategy for your business. It’s essential to use the best practices for successful pay-per-click campaigns so that you can reach new clients without breaking the bank.
What is PPC?
Pay-per-click advertising is a digital marketing tool that positions your business on search engines and other websites. Google hosts your ad, and you only pay when it gets a click. These ads target users who are likely to become customers, and their click directs them to a custom landing page on your plumbing website.
There are several places on the web that plumbing businesses strategically place pay-per-click ads. These are the most popular forms of PPC campaigns that increase the visibility of your brand:
- Search ads are the most common form of PPC strategy. Companies bid on specific keywords to promote their ranking on SERP for those queries.
- Display ads can appear on various websites as a banner that pops up over the content. Businesses can strategically host display ads on sites whose users are likely to be interested in their products.
- Social media ads blend into feeds like an organic post. Most social media platforms collect data to personalize user experience and will help you target plumbing PPC based on demographics and online activity.
Why Should Plumbers Use PPC Advertising?
PPC strategy is popular with plumbing companies because a high volume of users who click these ads end up purchasing the service. Beyond merely generating new leads, the ads target qualified leads who are already interested in the service. PPC campaigns attract more of these leads to businesses because they are optimized to find potential customers and show them an ad that is likely to engage them.
Pay-per-click campaigns have an excellent conversion rate and ROI (return on investment.) They can save money while maximizing digital marketing power.
Some of the benefits of PPC include:
- Audience targeting: ads can appear to users based on demographics like age, location, and gender, as well as data from their typical internet activity. Targeting these data points can be especially helpful for your plumbing company to find local customers. You can target users who have clicked your ad in the past, users who have recently searched for plumbing services, or who browse plumbing-related websites.
- Fast results: If you need new leads quickly, pay-per-click will generate traffic to your website right away. While the benefits of SEO take some time to appear, a plumbing PPC campaign will begin reaching its target audience from the moment it’s launched. Quick feedback from a pay-per-click ad also makes it easy to evaluate the effectiveness of a new campaign.
- Cost-effectiveness: Pay-per-click campaigns work by bidding on specific keywords. Plumbing companies with effective PPC marketing strategies set a maximum bid on each term, so they never overspend what they’ve decided to invest. The average ROI for PPC ads is $2 for every $1 spent, meaning it’s a low-risk strategy for reaching new customers.
- Results tracking: plumbing websites that use a PPC ad can view analytics on how their ad performs with different audiences. Because the ads are visible immediately, you have the opportunity to test various ad campaigns and optimize the best strategy for your target audience.
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Tips for a Successful PPC Campaign
Your plumbing business is unique, and it needs a personalized strategy to draw in your customers and meet your goals.
Keyword research and competitor research are critical steps to an effective pay-per-click campaign. Tools like the Google Ads Keyword Planner can help you investigate keywords that relate to your service. You should select keywords with your competitors in mind, factoring in which terms other companies are likely to bid on and the ways their services differ from yours.
A keyword with high search volume, like “plumber,” is relevant to the content of your page and may have a low bid price. However, it may not be the right place for you to invest. If you notice several of your competitors investing in the same high-volume keywords, they will probably outbid you for a Google ranking.
More niche keywords, for example “[your city] water heater not working”, will have a lower monthly search volume. It may also be a pricier bid. Even if it gets just a handful of clicks each month, if your business is the top-ranking result, your ad will likely have a high click-through rate. The danger in marketing only to niche keywords is that you’re less likely to be seen by a variety of online users.
When launching your first PPC campaign, begin by choosing how much you’re willing to invest, then select keywords with both high and low search volume. You may invest in relevant keywords that have a low-cost bid in comparison to their search volume.
Another effective strategy is to split the cost between high and low-density keywords, making sure your brand presence gains both widespread reach and qualified leads.
An optimized website will continue the personalized experience for users by presenting a custom landing page. The page shows customers’ information relevant to their search and helps them quickly access details like your phone number and service area.
Is PPC Worth it?
Exploring plumping PPC as an option for your business takes an initial investment. Spending only a small bid on the search term “plumbers near me” guarantees that your ad will not reach internet users, because other companies invest more in this high volume keyword.
To determine the success of a PPC campaign, you will need to put time and money into designing an engaging advertisement for your target audience.
Even after you’ve invested in specific keywords, Google will not necessarily rank your ad at the top of those result pages. Search engines use a “Quality Score” to determine whether your ad is relevant to its users. Your score depends on your site’s SEO, the past success of your ad campaigns, and the amount you currently budget.
PPC ads are only as effective as your company’s web design and SEO. Fast loading times, working links, and relevant keywords within your site content will impact your ranking among other companies’ ads.
Your Quality Score even affects the price Google will charge your PPC ad. Launching a PPC campaign that does not point back to an optimized website will not produce the best results for growing your customer base.
Final Thoughts on PPC for Plumbers
As competition for new customers shifts to the digital realm, plumbers need to invest in the most effective strategies for making their brand visible. PPC is a more expensive alternative to waiting for users to discover your site through its SEO. However, in a market saturated with options, any tool that quickly gets your plumbing website in front of users is a chance for success.
If you begin a PPC campaign with these tips and best practices in mind, you will find your plumbing business reaching new customers in no time. Of course, it never hurts to enlist the help of an expert to ensure your PPC campaign is flawless (and enjoys a high return on investment).
Most Plumbers Struggle with Generating New Clients...We Fix That!
Since 2009, we have helped many plumbers grow strategically. Let us do it for you!