Top 10 Benefits of Local PPC for Contractors

Do you want to know if you are reaching your target customers? Search for the keywords relevant to your trade and see if your website shows up in the results. If not, your competitors are taking away from your business.

But what are they doing right? More specifically, what are you doing wrong?

The answer lies in local PPC or geo-targeting. PPC or pay-per-click advertising is a form of Internet marketing where you pay every time your ad is clicked. This method of advertising allows you to receive high-quality and ready-to-buy visitors to your website.

There are multiple ways to skin a cat, they say. One way to boost your rankings and drive traffic to your website is through organic means. The other one is through paid ads.

What Is Local PPC and Who Is It For?

Unlike traditional PPC, geo-targeting is designed perfectly for small contractors and businesses that operate on a local scale. A real-world example of this is a plumber who needs leads in a specific geographic region such as Vancouver. So if they could target people searching for plumbing services in Vancouver then they would start receiving highly relevant visitors.

Here are some examples of contractors that are perfectly suited for Local PPC:

• Electricians
• Plumbers
• General Contractors
• Handyman Services
• Pest Control
• HVAC
• Painters
• Roofing
• Landscaping

By investing in PPC for contractors you can easily attract your ideal customers within your community.

Why is Local PPC Advertising so Effective?

• You can integrate local terms and landmarks that only your community is familiar with. It makes it easier to locate your business and also makes you more relatable.
• Since your ad resonates more with your target audience, Google will sit up and take notice. The higher click-through rate will force search engines to boost the quality score of your PPC.

The second point is important since it will influence the cost-per-click (CPC).  The formula is simple: the higher the quality score, the lower is the CPC.

What are the Benefits of Local PPC?

Investing in Local PPC for contractors will yield multiple benefits. Among these are:

1. It is cost-effective — Organic SEO is free in the sense that it drives traffic to your site at no cost. In contrast, you need to pay for your ad every time someone clicks on it. But organic SEO can also be frustrating because it does not guarantee results right away. In a nutshell, you trade time for money because the results are almost immediate with PPC.
2. Targeted audience — Google Ads has available filters that will customize the reach and increase the likelihood of connecting with your target market. You can filter the audience according to their proximity, demographics, and language.
3. Quick optimization — Since the results are almost immediate, you can tweak your ad to maximize its effectiveness. You can make little adjustments as you go along and only stop when you achieve the desired results.
4. Easier to monitor — So many analytics tools are available to track the performance of your local PPC. The tools will show total clicks, impressions, and even conversions.
5. Budget flexibility — If you are a plumber who only just opened your business, you can start small. You can run your local PPC for plumbers by setting a budget limit. In this way, you avoid the risk of overstretching your resources. You can increase the budget later when you begin to see returns on your investment.
6. Quick implementation —  You do not need to be an expert in SEO to launch your local PPC for trades. You can drive traffic to your business outside of the scope of your loyal customers.
7. Target warm leads — One advantage of PPC over organic search is that it drives warm customers to your website. The fact that they clicked on your ad means that they are ready to purchase your service. You do not have to jump through hoops to convince them.
8. Mostly positive ROI — On average, local PPC yield a positive ROI. It is common to earn $3-5 for every dollar you spend on PPC. You can reach out to the bottom-of-the-funnel customers, as well as those who are prepared to buy. For example, Google Ads claims that the advertiser will earn $8 for each dollar spent on PPC.
9. Guaranteed stability — Google adjusts its algorithms multiple times a year, as in the thousands. For example, in 2018, the search engine introduced more than 3,000 tweaks to its algorithms. Compare that to 2009, when there were only 400 improvements. As a result, SEO experts are constantly scrambling to adapt to the changes and make sure their client websites do not suffer. With PPC, however, you do not have the same problem. Paid ads are immune to changes in algorithms, so there is greater stability.
10. Easy to create — Paid ads are quite straightforward to produce. You do not need to hire a web designer or a layout artist to design your ad. It can be intimidating at first, but once you get through the initial nerves, you can run your PPC campaign in no time at all.

How To Launch A Local PPC Campaign for Contractors

The next step is to craft your Local PPC campaign to get the most out of your investment for your business.

1. Be more specific with your location — You can utilize the filters on Google Ads to further hone your local PPC campaign and make it more effective. For instance, you can select the Radius option for proximity targeting. You can choose to exclude areas outside of the community that you do not service.
2. Include specific local terms in your ad — Make sure you understand how residents in your community are searching for service contractors or specialists. You can narrow down the search by adding local landmarks or location-specific terminologies on top of your keywords. The strategy will help you reach out to unqualified traffic.
3. Use local language — Each community knows secret terms and places that visitors are not privy to. You can sprinkle some of these terms on your keywords to avoid confusion about which prospective customers you are speaking to.
4. Location and Call Extensions — You should include directions and call options on your local PPC for plumbers ad. You want to do business right away once they find you. But they can’t do that when they have no way of contacting you or finding your business address.
5. Test your ad — The beauty of local PPC is that you can tweak it until you achieve the desired results. You need to conduct A/B testing on your ad. If you are not hiring an SEO agency to handle your local PPC for contractors, there is a slight learning curve to test your ad. The good news is that PPC is a bit streamlined, which makes it easier to test. You can start with the following things: your headline, the content, links, and the keywords on your ad display or banner.
6. Optimize your ad — Now that you have identified your campaign’s weaknesses, the next step is to fill those gaps for improved results. For instance, based on your analysis, you can pinpoint your best-performing keywords or the relevant keywords organic rankings. You can then use these keywords on your local PPC campaign.
7. Create & Optimize your landing page — Some small businesses overlook their website, particularly their landing page, as they assume that running a PPC campaign will magically bring them the profits they desire. Your landing page refers to the section on your website where prospective customers are directed to when they click your ad. One common mistake is for the website to be too cluttered. For one, you do not need to convince them to get your services because they are already there. What you need to do is to show them the next step in the sales funnel and close the deal.
8. Implement across multiple platforms — The beauty of the PPC ad is its cross-channel capability. In fact, it would be more cost-effective to run the same ad on Google search or other social media pages like Facebook or Twitter. By adhering to this strategy, you can collect more accurate data on your target market, which will help you in the long term.

Lastly, you can use the data on your PPC for your organic search campaign. For example, you can test the effectiveness of your keywords by running a PPC ad. Then you utilize the best-performing keywords for your organic SEO campaign.

The best strategy is to combine the local paid ad data with a local SEO campaign to get the most out of your investment. You can use SEO to optimize your landing page and then run a PPC ad to reach out to your target audience.

Organic search and PPC should not be not mutually exclusive.

How Much is Your Local PPC Budget?

 As already mentioned, the budget is entirely up to you. If you are running your PPC on the Google Ads platform (which you should), expect to spend $2-4 per click.

Again, you do not have to stay within that range. You can increase or decrease the spending cap, depending on your financial capacity. But keep in mind that if you are stingy with your investment, you also cannot expect a high ROI.

But with local PPC, you will benefit from the anticipated lower search volume. Since your audience is targeted, fewer contractors are bidding on the same keywords. As a result, your investment is not that high.

In contrast, if the search volume is high, you can expect more competition for the same keywords. If you are familiar with how auctions work, the more people who bid on the same item, the higher the price will get.

Conclusion

Gone are the days when local contractors operated by word-of-mouth. When communities were smaller, residents readily know who to call when their lights are busted or their pipes burst. But in-migration expanded suburbs into bustling districts. Where old contractors have stopped their trade, more and more specialists have taken their place.

Investing in local PPC for contractors allows you to catch your prospective customer’s attention, orient your brand, and tailor it to their needs.

Keiran Griffiths

Keiran Griffiths is the President & Managing Director at 1st on the List. He works exclusively out of the Abbotsford head office and has extensive experience helping small and big brands grow their business. His background is in restaurant and hospitality management as well as business development (he started his own property management company in 2014). Up for any challenge, Keiran works with clients to assess their budget and investment capabilities and come up with a marketing solution that will earn them the biggest bang for their buck. Learn more about Keiran.

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