Online Marketing and Google Adwords for Tradies : Complete Guide.

Why Online Marketing for Tradies?

The market has changed dramatically, no-one anticipated that in 2007 when Apple released the iPhone that the majority of people now would own a smart phone, there was never a market "need" to have everything at our fingertips - yet, it happened, rapidly.

In just over a decade, consumer behaviour has completely transformed - we used to go to rely on friends and family to find out more on a subject, and now we can do it just as easily, with even more information, by hitting Google on our smart phones.

The reality is that 98% of Australians use the internet to search for a product or service, every single day, and this is ever increasing trend - fewer and fewer people even have a copy of the Yellow Pages to hand in their homes. The market has matured, it has switched, and as a marketer (or tradie business owner), you need to be where your customers are - They're online.

Most tradies don't have the time to learn how to win the internet, to learn how to code a website, to learn how to work with complex technology platforms to make online marketing work for them, to figure out SEO to the point that you're doing it daily - and it's understandable, it's a tough world out there now compared to 10 years ago, but the top 5% of your industry are doing just that - and they're taking all of the business for themselves.

The reality is consumers are just like you - they turn to the internet to discover what to do, where to go, who sells a particular product, which trades people are in the area. Shopping online isn't the only reason people go online, they go online to find trusted businesses to help them achieve their goals.

The statistics are astounding: One in four people make at least one online purchase a week, 70% of Facebook users interact with Facebook daily and the average Smartphone user picking up their phone around 1,500 times a week, there are countless reasons that being online is not just important - but rather a necessity when it comes to connecting with your customers.

Google Adwords for Tradies

When I speak to tradies and other business owners in Australia, I consistently get asked "why google adwords?" 

It's a viable question to ask when there are so many options - and it comes down to one thing, marketing for tradies 101, you need to be where your customers are actively searching for your service, in your area!

If you haven't heard of Google Adwords (now known as Google Ads), it's the results that show up in the top results on Google when you make a search - it's a paid service, which relies on a complex technology based bidding platform: made up of keywords, phrases, demographical, geographical targetting data and more.

There are literally hundreds and thousands of data points that Google uses to deliver this, but I'll contextualise it.

Let look at those quick searches that happen on Google, much like;

"plumber in sydney"

"my toilet is blocked what do I do"

These searches show high intent of needing a service, right now; consequently, the same people searching for those results are highly likely to book a service provider based on impulse, and necessity.

Google Adwords is the most effective way of advertising for trades people and small businesses, because when done right, it captures the high intent of consumers - it's where your customers are, it gets quicker results than any other form of advertising and shows your business to customers who are already in the market for a service that you offer, right now.

5 Reasons your Business Should Use Adwords

Facebook Advertising for Tradies

We don't recommend Facebook Advertising for Tradies, here's why:

Consumers don't go onto Facebook to search for products and services, it's a social network, where people like to share their lives with their connections, comment on articles and share pictures of cats.

Facebook is great if you have a bigger business that needs the branding (e.g. Jims Mowing), but it's not directly relevant for you in order to get new leads and gain new customers right now - it can also be very costly to setup and run a successful campaign on Facebook, with no direct links to growth for your business.

At the end of the day, your customers are going to go to Google, and they're going to search for whichever problem they need to fix, on Google.

You need to have your services available, at the top of the search results, on Google.

Allocating your Online Marketing Budget Correctly

Google has a complex bidding platform which prices individual clicks dependant on a whole range of reasons: the demand of that particular keyword or phrase, competitor bids, intent of click, quality of ad, click through rates, quality score, demographic or geographics, and so on.

Generally for most tradies, you will be looking at investing between $1000-$1500 AUD a month minimum.

This is because clicks can get costly, especially if you don't actively optimise your Adwords Campaigns and monitor them on a daily basis.

The results speak for themselves when you do it correctly, most days my clients see 20-40+ new customers hit their website or their phone number with high intent, which will guarantee that they have a steady stream of business to keep them going. All without them having to touch it or worry about it.

Demographic and Location Targeting

Google Adwords is really powerful in this respect, it gives you the power to dial in and hone in on a market audience that will have a higher intent to convert into paying customers for your business.

There are thousands of data points Google collects about its users, which means you can target based on: age, sex, children, age of children, household income, what other products and services that they have shown an interest in, and much more.

You can also focus on consumers that are based within a particular city/town or within particular suburbs – this becomes really useful, particularly if you are a trades business which only targets particular suburbs:

let’s say you’re a painter in Newtown, Sydney and only service the Inner West region of Sydney;

or multiple-locations (if you provided scaffolding services to Sydney and the Central Coast);

or if you provided services within a 40km “circle” of your suburb.

By doing the above, you can really focus in onto your target market and make sure that your online advertising spend is working for you – you’re not wasting it on people outside of your target market, which means that there is a higher intent to purchase, and better focused ads that convert into more business for you.

It takes a bit of time and research, and you need to run A/B tests on a daily basis, by doing this you’re consistently optimising results and creating a market opportunity for yourself that your competition simply cannot because they are lacking the time and resources.

This is how you will win.

Get Customers Phoning You

Another powerful feature in Google is adding something called “Call Extensions” onto your ads, this shows as a number that can be dialled directly within Google from a users phone when searches are conducted on a mobile phone.

It means you can run Google Adwords without a customer coming to your website, we find that this feature is really effective especially with tradies that consumers need right now on demand (locksmiths, plumbers, electricians etc).

It’s an awesome feature, and it reduces a lot of friction for your customers - meaning that you are more likely to get more calls coming in from Google.
 

Beat Your Competition

When is the last time you conducted research on your competition to find out which keywords and phrases that they were using?

How much more business are they getting than you? What do they offer that you cannot?

By doing the above, you can start targeting the same market that they are also targeting – and start taking away business from your competition.

The other key action area for you is to focus on what makes you different and be able to clearly articulate it to your market.

Do you provide a better service? Is it the quality of your service? Do you use products that are superior? Are you accredited?

What risks are your customers taking by going with a cheaper provider? Will it cost them more money in the long term?

Will it fail in the short-term? Is it dangerous for their health and well being?

Could it cause harm to their families? Could it land them in legal trouble by not doing it correctly?

When you focus on the value and the outcome of your product or service, you are no longer a commodity, you are no longer selling on lower prices, you are selling on the value and outcome that your customer will gain by hiring you for the job!

Negative Keywords

Back to Google Adwords, most tradies that are running ads themselves are not actively optimising their campaigns – a key part of this is to look at negative keywords.

Negative keywords allow you to state the keywords or phrases that you do not want to be shown for.

For example, if you are a Painter in Brisbane – you don't want wasted clicks for customers that are searching for art or paintings.

It’s a daily process to do this effectively, as time goes by, it gets even better in performance because you start to stop unnecessary clicks which aren’t going to result in new business for you.
 

It's an Investment in Your Business and Your Future

You’re reading this because clearly - you want to get more leads, gain more customers and build your business right? 

You can’t do that without investing into your business, Google Adwords is the most effective way to advertise for tradie related businesses, because it’s where your customers are – and we can capture intent to convert into paying customers for you. It’s a no brainer!

I want you to do something, go onto Google and search for your trade in your area:

I.e. Plumber in Melbourne or Plumber in Brighton

What comes up at the top? Who are you seeing?

These are the guys that are literally taking in all of the business at the moment, because they’ve got themselves positioned correctly.

If you are not achieving this for your own business, you should be very concerned – the rate of Google usage is not slowing down, and if you’re too late to the game – it’s going to cost you more in the long term, other guys would have had years on you to optimise, and time is not on your side.

You need to invest, you need to think about the pipeline of business you need to create in order to support you for the next few years - and understand that not only are you getting results now – you will be getting better results into the future, and you're safeguarding your business that you’ve worked so hard to build.

Maximise your Advertising Dollars in 2019
 

Building Pipeline

You can’t just rely on small and quick jobs to get you to the revenue that you need to be successful, by not taking minimal efforts to secure your future – you’re not putting your best foot forward to generate the bigger jobs your business needs. 

You know the jobs where you have to bring in subcontractors and can easily not work for a few months thereafter?

We call it building pipeline, it’s a gradual process where someone will enquire about your capability to deliver a bigger project – you’re going to work with them for months before they agree to work with you and make that final commitment - you need as many of these as possible in your “pipeline” at any one point so that you can maximise your market opportunity.

Some will inevitably drop out, but some will come into fruition and you’ll be glad the day that they do. This is where you start thinking about growing your business into a larger business, what could you do if you had a team of 20? What would those jobs look like for your business?

Challenges with Doing Google Ads Yourself

The biggest challenge for Tradies is doing Google Adwords by themselves, to run effective online marketing campaigns that will beat your competition and actively grow your business - it's a full time job. 

It’s a complex platform to learn, you have to go into it on a daily basis, you have to A/B test and consistently optimise, you have to set limits on bids, you have to research the market and test it, and much more - it takes a lot of time and effort to get great results – which if you’re busy taking on new jobs or building pipeline, is taking you away from core activities that are the outcome of your trade.

If you’re an accredited electrician, you wouldn’t expect someone with no electrical experience to wire a house – conversely, working with an accredited Google Adwords specialist is going to save you time, it’s going to get you better results, and it’s going to reduce your risk of messing up.

I see so many tradies that try to do it solo and then start to see their advertising spend blow out of control, wasted clicks, lower results and a negative impact on their business.

Working with Marketix

By working with Marketix, you know that you’re working with an Australian business that has multiple heads that it can apply to the solution, people that have been living the Google Adwords platform for many years, that know how to solve problems for you and can dedicate time to optimising and managing your Google Adwords Campaigns.

Working with Marketix allows you to get more leads, gain more customers and build your business whilst reducing your cost, saving you time, and taking away the pain out of doing it all by yourself.

You don't have to do it alone.

In Summary :

Google processes over 40,000 individual searches, every single second, in Australia.

The top 5% of businesses in your industry are already using Google to be at the top of the page.

The challenge for a small tradie business is that it's complicated to do by yourself and it consumes a lot of time, it’s a complex bidding platform, to make ads to show at the top of Google results;

You have to learn how to use the platform, you have to know the tricks and secrets, you have to learn how to compete and market yourself, you have to know what is effective, and how to control spend without it blowing out of control.

We fix that problem for our extremely happy customers, we provide a fully managed service that makes it super easy for our clients to achieve great results for a fixed monthly cost.

Our clients don’t need to worry about Google, we set it up for you, we run it for you, and we continuously optimise and manage it for you.

We are getting awesome results for our existing customers, and the proof is that we generate hundreds of leads for our clients, every single day.

Ready to learn more? We’re offering a free consultation for your business, this week only!

Learn more, it's free!