Adwords Experiment

rbsremodeling

almost forgot I will post the results of the ad campaign I originall posted about. It did very well can't wait till the new year.

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rbsremodeling

Ok Cole Mr Moderator

anything else to add or is this stuff you new what else can i add to help out. I only have 4 days left before vacation

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Ed the Roofer

Rory,

Thank you for all the time spent on this and the education I am getting.

So, was UltimateTouchs' web site in any way related to him not getting customer acquisition?

I don't think so from reading through this thread.

What about the submit an inquiry button and the other information he was discussing with DougChips web guy?

Is any of that really relevant?

I think his site looks very good, but if it does not bring any returns, then what good does it do to be a pig in a dress?

I just needed to post something in this thread to have it marked for me for the future.

Thanks,

Ed

rbsremodeling

I dont think its his website. he mentioned not recieving emails somewhere else so he might have a website problem with that.

BUT its the way he setup adwords. he just needs to make some modifiactions and edit his settings.

adwords is a beast but once you get it under control its your beast. but never take your eyes off of it. it'll bite ya

Adwords is ever evolving and takes alot to get started right. You also have to monitor it. But use correctly grasshopper its powers are mystical.

If I had a preference my button would say click for estimate his says click for quote but I think customers are savy enough to know what to do

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ultimatetouch

Ed although I have not made a buck of the internet yet. The website does more then just give you leads. I may not have gotten some of the work I did with out having a website. I wouldnt even think about doing business with someone who owned a business and didnt have a site. If a company has a site it gives credability and shows they are up to date. If somone says they dont use email...I think thats really strange. Think about it 2008 and you have know website..what kind of kitchen is this guy going to put in, some outdated piece of junk.

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Ultimatetouch
Illinois Remodeling Company, Kitchen Remodeling Chicago, Room Additions Illinois

Patrick

I agree 100% a simple one page site with a nice font company name, info phone, and a couple pics speaks volumes more than someone with just a biz card

Danno6102

This thread has been a great read & has made me start rethinking my keywords. I knew I was wrong in doing it, but I still added about 500 keywords & phrases to my one add. Not smart, but I did it anyway for whatever reason.

Can someone tell me the benefit to having a phrase such as 'indiana deck builder' vs. just having one keyword of 'deck'. No quotes around either phrase or keyword. If someone searches for 'deck', I should pop up. If someone searches for deck builder, indy deck builder, builder of decks indianapolis, german deck maker, I should pop up for all with having only the keyword deck. According to Google, without quotes means my ad will show no matter what the order or form of the word, so I should even pop up if some searches for asljbDECKadk.

Would I get better placement & therfore cheaper clicks if i have the exact phrase 'indiana deck builder' & someone searches for exactly that? I have noticed my one word keywords get a heck of a lot more impressions.

Thanks,
Dan

kevjob

If you have analytics you track the search phrase which got them to your page.

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Kevin
Basement Finishing Highlands Ranch Colorado
Littleton Colorado, Basement Remodeling
Kitchen Remodeling Denver

rbsremodeling

Danno

Its kinda of two part question answer/

When you set up google you can choose to show your ad wordwide, nationwide, statewide, or by cities.

Most contractors are statewide, but my best experience is to choose the cities I work in. I dont want a call from a city I dont service also you can use broader words and terms and not attract impressions and or clicks that are not specific to you or the areas you work in0. If you choose a specific city and state, generalize terms like deck builder, kitchen remodeler, general contractor work to your best advantage. When you ad runs state, nation or world wide you need more specialized terms. Indiana deck builder, Indiana custom deck builder and it attracts everyone who searches in the state.

So basically you need to

1. narrow down you ad to show in your state's cities that you service

2. Use broader words or terms then gradually get more specific or change them as needed.

3. Limit your areas so that you are competing against less people and lower your per cost click.

4. you can still use specific search terms like indiana deck builder if it is searched often. there will always be 4 or 5 hot words that you should bid on what you are willing to pay is up to you. but try not to get into a bidding war on words it will cost you a pretty penny.

This is of course a simplistic overview to help there are still alot more variables to the adwords game

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ultimatetouch

Rory,

DO you put "" around your words or [] around your words. I just left them with nothing around the word. for example: general contractor
also I got my first inquiry today. It was not a good lead but a lead none the less. When you said 10 words per add group. What is the reason for that? It just works better that way?

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Ultimatetouch
Illinois Remodeling Company, Kitchen Remodeling Chicago, Room Additions Illinois

rbsremodeling

Mark

I do not put anything around my words. I don't think that has any effect. I might be wrong but there's nothing I have seen or read that indicates it would.

The 10 word rule is a guide. The are only so many plays on a word or term you can use before it gets redundant in the search. Google is smart so if you have the right words or search terms google will still show your ad if your words are close to a HO search term.

ex: if you search word is contractor. and the HO puts in chicago contractor. If you limited you search to a town or city like i suggested your ad will likely show to that HO.

IF it doesn't show then demand for that term is high. that is when you would have to use maybe something like chicago contractor to your keyword. The more specific your search term has to be usually indicates that there is demand for it and will cost more money. only use specific terms if you have to.

You got to pay attention to when your ads display. Do random searches and see if your ad pops up. also note they rotate ads so you might not come up on the first time you search a term but come up on the second or third try.

Thats why I suggested increasing you search budget. that helps to increase the amount of times your ad is displayed to the searching public

Your ad and your settings are where you need to be very specific on who are what your selling

Try using various search terms in google and see when your ad shows up start with the 10 word rule and gradually increase the words you need to display for the terms words you want.

I had my site optomized once and It paid off handsomely. This was 6 years ago when competion was not as heated as it is now. The guy did an excellent job but I don't think he would have the same effect now that he did then.

He also clued me into adwords before it was popular for contractors and small companies and he gave me the 10 word rule.

He wanted me to take baby steps and pay attention to how good or not good a word was doing. I have added and changed words or the course of 6 years and have never had more that 12 words in a ad. I strongly believe if you choose 10 good words and choose the right google settings that's all you need.

One BIG you should have is getting your ad to place well organically in the search engines. You should think of adwords as training wheels, they help you get listed and generate leads, but you really want to get into the organic listings and place high and alleviate spending the large sums of money with adwords.


Right now I place high organically for the 4-6 most popular search terms in DC for a contractor. 2 years ago I spent an additional $500 per month for those words on my ad campaign. now I don't have to


500 x 12 = 6,000 savings a year

I started out spending 30k on my entire advertising programs across the board in a year. Now I have got it down to around 16K. I just keep chipping away at it and still keep my marketing and advertising effective.

also on the 10 keyword rule the better your terms are and the higher your conversion rate on a term or word the more google will show your ad. you should try to have atleat a 2% conversion rate on your terms 5-10% is real good. I get as high as 50% on some words or terms that are highly specialized. it took years to find those terms

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ultimatetouch

Rory,

I set it up by the town now like you said. There is a radius around the town that I left at 20 miles. Should I have put this at 0 or is it cool like that? Some of the towns I picked are within 10 miles of each other and I left all radiuses at 20.

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Ultimatetouch
Illinois Remodeling Company, Kitchen Remodeling Chicago, Room Additions Illinois

PressurePros

One thing I have not seen mentioned that is crucial for adwords success is the use of a landing page. This should be a page that is not indexed on yahoo (use the robots.txt file on your website server to disclude it). For example on Rory's ad for "Scary Basement?" the landing page (the page where the PPC ad points to) should have a picture of a dark, dank basement and the page content should be about nothing else but basement remodeling. This is the most accurate way to check the success of your campaigns.

Rory, how are you checking your CTR and conversion rate?

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Ken Fenner
Pressure Washing PA
Roof Cleaning Services PA

rbsremodeling

Mark It's up to you

But here is some insight:

I choose very specific cities and radiuses. I have 4-8 jobs going on at a time so I keep my radius small so that they are all in a 30-45 minute loop. I leave my house at 7or 8am make a loop on all jobs and in the office by 10am. I then make another loop at 3pm and i am in my home/office by 5pm unless I have appointments. This works for me.

For me it depends on:

1. The quantity of jobs I have going on
2. Size of jobs
3. Proximity to my current jobs

I change cities and radius based on my work load and where my jobs are I try to keep jobs close so that they are managable and I can keep my schedule. IF there is an emergency or client meetings they are close to home or my office.

Look at the cities you choose are you willing to work 20 miles away from those cities and how far are those cities from you base, plus another 20 miles?

If you have on going work and you can afford to be a little chosey becareful how far away new or potential work is from other work. Depending on the size and scope of the wok you don't want a job to get neglected or end up being a pain in the ass to get too.

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hvacman

I strongly suggest posting adwords ad only on google and not selecting to display ads on their 'content network' partners. I have always found the conversion rates are much better. You can spend less and get more bang for your buck by eliminating the content network ads in AdWords

ultimatetouch

How many leads do you get in a given weak? How many impressions and clicks? I trying to get a feel for about how much its going to cost me per lead and about when I will recieve one. I just made some big changes and I could see the impressions have went up big time.

Today I got:
impressions:1,000
clicks:8
estimate requests:0
phone calls:0
cost:20 bucks

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Ultimatetouch
Illinois Remodeling Company, Kitchen Remodeling Chicago, Room Additions Illinois

rbsremodeling

Usually when I get lots of clicks and no calls. Usually later in the week or maybe even the following month the calls come in. I screen customers and ask los of questions when they initially call. I want to know what advertising or customer led them to me. I have found that people sometimes do lots of reasearch before they call or get sidetracked and will call at a later time. If lets say monday I get 20 clicks and no requests or calls usually by fiday or the following week the phone rings off the hook. I would especially think during the holidays people are doing research and will most likely call after new years when it slows down. I do a lot of estimates mid to early february pre income tax time but get most of my call backs to start in march or april.

I average maybe 20-30 good clicks a week, which lead to calls and about 10 are worth pursuing. I spend about 500 bucks a month with ppc and it has been in my opinion money well spent. I wish there was a magic formula but there isn't. Just Try to lower your expenses and get a greater return on your money spent. My average job in 2007 was 100k and my adversting dollars spent about 16K for the year is about 10% of my gross income. The larger you become the greater your advertising expense becomes in my opinion, so I try to get the best bang for the buck.

I don't know what your gross is but i think 5-10% of that amount is necessary to keep the leads coming in and maintaining your yearly gross. I use ppc, mailers, various cards, networking events, truck and yard signs and magazine ads.

This year will be my first foray into radio and I am going to try to get in house financing. I am also a member of a few remodeling organizations and go to their events and seminars. Which have been really helpful as well.

I will tell you a trend I see that goes against what most think. But the larger companies are actually raising there prices in the slowing market.

You just have to try it all and see what works in your neck of the woods

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hvacman

I am not currently using adwords, so I can't give you any exact stats. I made that suggestion off past experiences. Google's content network places your ads on sites all over the internet, and the people clicking those seem less motivated to take any action as they were not necessarily looking for your services. Placing ads only on Google for targeted keywords ensures the person who clicked your ad was at least actively looking for what you offer.

rbsremodeling

I also forg to to mention most of the clicks dont send estimate requests they usually call. maybe 3 out of 30 use the estimate request form. Thats why i ask how did you find me if they say google or yahoo i can kinda find out from questioning if it was adwords or my organic listing.

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Danno6102

I've heard all this talk about keywords, but what about negative keywords? How many of you use these? I've had idiots in the past email me looking for me to build a deck of yo-gi-oh cards. Come on you moron, at least open one of your blood shot eyes & read one sentence on my website...I have since tried to eliminate douche nozzles like this from even seeing my ads.