Here at Rothman PPC, we manage AdWords campaigns for moving companies all over the country. These are the top 6 questions we recommend every mover thinks about before advertising on Google to maximize your chances for success.
1. What types of services do I NOT want to advertise for?
This question is arguable one of the most critical questions for the success of your AdWords campaign.
The services you don’t offer translate into searches you don’t want your ads to show up on. This is THE #1 blunder we see moving companies make. Think of services you don’t offer like you would spies and traitors in your midst. They aren’t there to help you – they will sabotage your budget, your ROI, and the overall effectiveness of your campaigns. You have to nix them.
Do you offer storage? If not, then every click you receive from searches like “moving and storage near me”, “movers with storage”, etc. is completely wasted.
The same goes for piano moves. If your company doesn’t handle piano moves, then every click you receive from keywords like “movers who move my piano” and “local piano movers” is squandered budget.
How do you avoid showing up on searches for services you don’t offer? Make a list of all the types of moves and services you don’t offer. A good rule of thumb is, if you don’t advertise the move or service on your website, then you shouldn’t target that service (more on that in Question 3).
Then, add the core terms as negative keywords on your campaign(s). If you need guidance on negative keywords, read this article.
2. What services do I want to advertise for?
Once you have determined which services you don’t want to advertise for, make a list of all the services you do offer and want to advertise for. Now, these two things aren’t always the same. For instance, your company may offer small furniture moves, but only want to spend advertising budget on more lucrative moves, such as large home moves or long-distance moves.
3. Do I have landing pages dedicated to each of those services on my website?
You have a list of services. Now it’s time to look at your website. Do you specifically discuss each of those services on your website? Ideally, you want to have a separate landing page for each of those services, i.e. one for residential moves, one for long-distance moves, one for piano moves, one for apartment moves, etc.
What if your company does piano moves, but you don’t talk about it on your website? If it’s not on your website, it doesn’t exist. This is crucial. When someone searches for apartment movers and clicks on your ad, they want to confirm that you are, indeed, an apartment mover. If there’s nothing on your website about apartments, then most people will quickly bounce off your site, after you spent the money to get them to click on your ad.
Optimize your chances of success. If it’s on your website, advertise for it. If it’s not on your website, just don’t. And if you truly must advertise for that service, then update your website.
4. Speaking of websites, is your website easy to use?
Does it load quickly? This is more important than you might think.
Other factors include: Is your font size easy to read? Notice I didn’t say “readable”. Your font size can technically be “readable” without being easy to read. If the gut reaction of your prospective customer when they get to your website is, “Ugh, too much effort”, then they will quickly bounce.
Is your website easy and intuitive to navigate? Does it have a clean layout? All these factors contribute to what I call the “attraction factor.” The purpose of a website is not merely to be functional – it is to attract your customer. Just like in a dating relationship, a guy can’t only be a good guy on the inside. If the best guy in the world takes a girl on a date without putting on deodorant or taking a shower, in his dirtiest clothes, the relationship probably won’t last.
It’s worth it to invest in a good website. That extra effort up front will be worth the hundreds of thousands of dollars you won’t lose from people bouncing off your site.
5. What locations do you want your ads to show?
AdWords allows you to target exactly what locations you want to target, including cities, states, zip codes, a radius around a location, or countries. Optimally, you’ll only want to show your ads to people who can become your customers. So if people only tend to hire you if they live within 20 miles of your office, then advertising 50 miles away might not be effective.
Think about if you want to advertise in surrounding areas. Suppose a mover does moves in Plano, Texas (a suburb of Dallas), so he decides to only target Plano. But, people who live in Plano might work in Dallas and search “plano movers” from their office in Dallas. In this case, he may want to target counties that surround Plano for “plano + movers” keywords.
Location targeting is vital to the health of your campaign, so it’s important to think about this kind of thing before you start running ads.
6. What sets my company apart from the crowd?
Are you family owned and operated? Do you hire veterans? Do you offer special moving services to victims of domestic abuse? Do you donate part of all proceeds to charity? Have you been doing moves in your area for the past 75 years? Emphasize everything that sets your business apart. You’re not generic, so your ads and your website should reflect that.
And there you are – the top 6 questions that moving companies should consider before advertising on Google! If you have any more questions, feel free to get in touch with us. We’d love to give you a hand.
