Hope everyone has been staying safe!
I’m thinking of expanding to google ads and was wondering what is everyone’s experience? Do you hire someone to do it or do you do it yourself?
I tried once before doing it myself and to be honest felt like my money went down the toilet. Got clicks (for 10$ a piece) but no work.
I found someone willing to set up the campaign and manage it for about 200/month plus whatever my budget is (I’m thinking 300? Too little?)
Any input is much appreciated
The best value in online advertising, in my experience, is from facebook, and I am not a facebook guy at all.
What I do is regularly post my work to instagram which is linked to my business facebook page. When I get a really good before and after, for example, I will boost the post on facebook targeting the neighborhoods that I want to get more work in. Don’t just blanket an entire city, do your demographic research, or simply pick areas that have nice houses.
I have tried google ads, and I don’t think I got much work from it. Besides, if your seo is on point you should be on the first page of google and maps in your area anyway. And that’s free.
Thanks Dan!
I heard that Facebook has been really profitable as well. I didn’t know that you could tailor it to neighbourhoods! That would definitely be a huge help.
What do you spend on average for a campaign? If you don’t mind me asking.
Payed over $100, didn’t get a single job from it. You pay per call, and it seems other people like to call the number to rack up your $ spent.
On the other hand, having a regular google page that shows your rating has been our #1 source of business generation. Just need to keep a perfect / near perfect rating. And that’s free…for now.
Lol ‘for now’.
I’m really glad to hear that it’s not all in my head
I love google ads, I spend around $500/month and if I book 1 job from it the monthly expense is paid for.
I currently spend $70 per week on Facebook ads. $10 a day goes really far when you target neighborhoods. Oh and I only target women.
Smart man
Google Ads can be really great but you need to take some time to learn what to do and what to avoid. For example targeting certain areas, age groups, etc.
For my business, Google has a 4x ROI and sometimes 5X on good months. Usually each month I’ll spend around $500 and this will bring in 2000-2500. Keep in mind this will be recurring work for the years to come as long as it’s done well which I’m sure we all do.
One of the things I love about Google Ads is how passive it is. Simply turn it on when the upcoming weeks look a little slow. Turn it off when things are filled up and save some of that advertising budget for later in the year.
The other serious plus is that it brings in the demographic that usually doesnt mind spending a little more. If you advertise coupons on flyers it will bring in that penny pinching demographic, while I find google ads does the opposite… although that’s a generalization of course.
Hope that helps! Give it a try and delve into the free knowledge online before setting things up and I think you’ll be quite happy with it.
That’s what I figure… Small amounts of money don’t go anywhere. I don’t see any other option other than give google 500-1000$ and then feel confident that I’ll get some work my way.
What do you guys think about hiring someone to manage the ad for you? Again, I’ve tried doing it (although it was for a small amount of money) and had no success so now I’m a little chicken of doing it myself.
Well, it all depends on who you hire to be in charge of your Google Adwords campaign. Not all are equal. Buddy of mine puts about 1-3k a month into them, built his business off Google Adwords. I said that sounds like a lot, he said well what’s 1-3k a month if you are getting 10k a month from it. I said “good point”.
My other friend does no advertising, but built up 800+ residential window cleaning accounts through word of mouth (which he added pressure washing, roof cleaning, and brick paver sealers since you are at 800+ months 6+ times a year)— no right or wrong way
I am going the hybrid route-- a mix of google and word of mouth. WORD travels fast, trust me.
I think they are worth doing & worth learning how to do. If you learn about them and set them up properly you can get a lot of work from them.
Commit a month over the winter to just studying exactly how they work.
I like Google PPC because the “intent” is already there. A prospective customer knows they are looking for what you offer.
I like FB ads because you can spur the “intent”. Karen doesn’t know she wants her window cleaned until she sees your FB ad.
The trick is learning how to do them the right way as you can easily burn up your budget FAST.
This post tells you everything you need to know
Yeah that was really well summarized.
We’re in the process of getting our website professionally done and optimized. I feel that might be a good start before pouring money into google ads. Once we have that set up 100% will do google ads in March. The company that’s doing our website also strongly recommended having at least one social platform set up and contributed to regularly.
