Get More Calls To Your Business With Google Ads
If you’re a business owner you may have heard of advertising on Google. These are ads that pop up in search results, at the start of YouTube videos, in shopping results and all across the web.
If an SEO optimized blog post is a slow-burning, long-lasting way for your business to be visible on Google then think of Google Ads as a fast-acting, short-term way to show up on Google searches.
If used properly, Google Ads can be an incredibly powerful tool that brings fantastic rewards to your business. Most of these tools are hidden in ‘Expert Mode’ and are best utilized by an industry professional. But Google Ads also has a simpler, intuitive mode that anyone can use. In this article, we’re going to show beginners how to get more potential customers to call your business using Google Ads.
GOALS
Once you log into your Google Ad account and create a campaign you’ll be asked to define your main goal for the campaign. Ads can be tailored to encourage people to visit your brick and mortar store. This goal should really be considered by any store owner as almost half of all Americans still prefer to shop in-store rather than online. Likewise, ads can be created to increase website visits and sign-ups. For this example, though we’re going to look at a plumber company that wants to increase leads via phone calls. This is a great option for a business like this as plumbers are often needed at short notice in emergency situations.
DESCRIBE YOUR BUSINESS
This section is relatively straightforward. Your business name and website will appear on the ad, so make sure all the info is correct!
WHAT AREAS TO TARGET?
Google Ads allows you to target users in certain areas. Online stores can use general areas like ‘Canada’ or ‘North America’ as they aren’t restricted much by location. That won’t work for our plumbing business though. The business services Whistler, Squamish and Vancouver so we need the ads to only show in those areas. Google gives us the ability to target specific towns, cities and even postcodes. Or if you’d rather set a radius from one particular area, then Google also allows you to do that too.
DEFINE YOUR PRODUCT
Now that we’ve set our goal, defined our business and picked the target locations we need to give Google more information about the product that’s being offered. This helps Google categorize your ad and help people find what they’re looking for. Remember - the searcher is Google’s customer and they want to help them find the best answer for their query. Misrepresent your business and you risk your ad not being seen by the people who want it!
WRITE YOUR AD
This is the main part of your ad. What you write here needs to convince the searcher to click and call. Try to come up with something unique and catchy. For our plumbing business, we can go for a headline like
“Expert Plumbers 24 / 7 / 365 | Whistler, Squamish, Vancouver | Fantastic Value”.
Our description can go into a bit more detail and use keywords. Keywords are words that people will generally search. For an emergency plumber, the keyword “24-hour plumber” is quite popular, so we’ll use this one.
“24-hour plumber swiftly servicing Whistler, Squamish and Vancouver. Nobody will fix your plumbing issue quicker than us.”
Keywords are a vital part of Google Ads and can be researched in much greater detail in ‘Expert Mode’. If you’re unsure of how to use this mode, it’s a great idea to use the services of a professional company.
GET PHONE CALLS
This section is based on the goal that we set earlier in this article. As our aim is to get more phone calls, this section prompts us to enter a contact number. Again, it is vitally important that the correct phone number is entered. We also get to see a preview of how the ad will look on a Google search.
SET BUDGET
The budget is one of the most important things to consider when running an ad campaign. If this is your first campaign it’s a good idea to start small, learn from each campaign and increase the budget as you gain experience and confidence.
In the ‘Basic Mode’ Google will suggest a recommended budget that is broken down into both a daily and monthly spend. You also have the option to enter your own custom budget.
REVIEW
Now we’re getting to the end of the process. Google will prompt you to review all the information that you’ve entered to make sure that it’s correct. It will also give you estimates on how many views and clicks they expect your ad to get. These are just estimates but can give you an idea of how well your ad might perform. If you’re unhappy with the estimates just go back and edit your ad until the estimate is more in line with your expectations.
PAYMENTS
The final step is to enter your payment details and post your ad!
Now you have all the information that you need to drive more phone calls to your business. If you need more detailed ad campaigns or professional help on maximizing your budget then get in touch with us today. We’ve helped lots of businesses of every size with their Google Ads campaigns and we’d love to help you out too.