Google Ads for Tradesmen | Adwords for Tradies

Are you a local tradesman wanting to grow your business? The Google Ads platform is a powerful tool that can help you tap into your target customer base. Your prospects are using Google to find out about electricians, builders, carpenters, etc., near them. If your ad appears on top of the search engine result pages on Google, there’s a high chance of your potential customers clicking on it.

Google Ads can thus help you drive more opportunities by reaching your customers quickly. Keep reading to learn how to use the ads platform effectively for your business.

What is Google Ads?

We live in a hyper-digitized age. Traditional ways of marketing are quickly losing their effectiveness. This is why businesses in most industries are embracing digital marketing methods. Google Ads has become one of the most popular ways for businesses to market themselves online and achieve greater visibility.

It’s a pay-per-click advertising platform that lets you place ads for your services in Google’s search engine results and other websites and apps in its network. These ads appear at the top of the search engine result pages, and you are charged a specific amount every time someone clicks on them. This is also called the pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. The searcher is taken to your website, where they can learn about your services and contact you.

Google Ads uses an auction system. It means that as an advertiser, you bid on how much you can pay for an ad click on a specific keyword. Then, the ads’ algorithm determines your ad ranking. This is done by taking several factors, like your keyword’s relevancy and bid, into account.

Why Should Tradesmen Use Google Ads?

Google Ads helps tradesmen grow their business in a short time. Here are all the reasons why it can help you.

More Visibility

Imagine a person needing an electrician. The first thing they will do is pull out their phone and type something like ‘electrician near me’ on Google. If you are an electrician offering your services in this area and have been running an ads campaign, your ad will appear at the top of the search results. There’s a high possibility that instead of going further down the page, the person will simply click on your ad and contact you. Thus, Google Ads immensely increase your online visibility.

Helps You Target the Right Audience

An incredible benefit of Google Ads is that they show your ads only to those actively searching for your services. These are not passive customers. They are high-quality leads with a huge potential to convert to paying customers. Google Ads allows you to adjust everything, from the time of the ads to the words your customers use to search for your services, their location, and more. You can adjust the minutest detail to ensure that your ads are shown to high-quality prospects at the right time.

Affordable Marketing Platform

Google Ads is also a cost-effective marketing medium. This is because you pay only when someone clicks on your ad. So, your dollars aren’t wasted on people who aren’t interested in your services. While it’s true that not everyone who clicks on your ad becomes a paying customer, ads still help you increase brand awareness.

Tangible Results

Google Ads gives you detailed information about your campaign’s performance. You get reports about which keyword is performing well and which isn’t, how much revenue you generated, and what’s working in your favor. Through these insights, you can make the necessary changes and optimize your campaign. Thus, it helps you get quantifiable results.

Target Local Customers

The local population makes up a huge chunk of tradesmen’s customers. Geo-targeting in Google Ads allows you to show your ads only to people within a specific mile radius. It increases your chances of getting more leads as your marketing efforts aren’t wasted in showing your ads to those residing far off who would prefer someone closer home.

Increases Your Business’s Credibility

Showing up on top of the search engine result pages isn’t a minor feat. On the contrary, it’s an incredible achievement. Google reserves this place only for those websites and businesses that can showcase the value they provide to their customers and audiences. When your ad and website are at the top of the search result pages, your credibility rises in the eyes of your prospects.

Full Control Over Advertising

Google Ads lets you control your advertising to the minimum level. You can change the type of ads, their timing, services, method of inquiry, and more. Let’s say you offer landscaping services during the summer. During the colder months, when there’s not much demand for this service, you can shift your ad’s focus to other services, such as removing leaves and debris.

Access to a Large Customer Base

Google is an established search giant. It also has an enormous customer base. Advertising your business here helps you tap into a huge population eagerly seeking your services. Every day, an increasing number of people use Google to get answers to their questions. Marketing your business on this highly credible and established platform gives you the spotlight you deserve.

Rapid Results

Google Ads offers results more quickly than any other marketing method. As soon as you set up your campaign, the ads begin showing up in the relevant places to relevant people. Thus, you can start getting results in a matter of just a few days!

Stay Ahead of Your Competitors

Numerous tradesmen rely on outdated marketing techniques to get more customers. In such a scenario, utilizing Google Ads will let you get ahead of them. Not only will you acquire more customers, but you will significantly enhance your brand awareness and reputation.

How Does Google Ads Work for Tradie Businesses?

As mentioned above, Google Ads works on an auction model. As a tradesman, you bid on specific keywords relevant to your services. These keywords are the search queries that your target customers are entering on Google to look for tradesman services. You bid on these keywords and create your ads around them. While bidding, you enter the amount you can afford to pay for a click on your ad. Then, when your target customers type out these words and phrases on Google, your ad appears.

For example, if you are a handyman in Texas, you’ll use keywords like ‘handyman services Texas.’ All the words and phrases that your target audience uses to search for your services get recorded in Google’s database, along with their search frequency.

If your target keyword is used frequently, its cost will go up. Similarly, if it’s not used regularly, the cost will go down. When you submit your bid (or the amount you can pay for an ad click), Google’s algorithm reviews the relevancy of your keyword, the results, and your bid amount. Then, it ranks your ad accordingly.

How to Setup Google Ads Account for Tradesmen?

By now, you have a good idea of the Google Ads platform and how it can help you. Here’s a step-by-step process for setting up an ad account for your tradie business.

Create a Google Ads Account

Visit the Google Ads page. Here, sign in using your business email address. After that, input the URL of your business website that contains information about your services. Now you are ready to structure your Ads account for the PPC campaign.

Organize Your Ads Account

Organizing your ads means structuring your keywords and ads optimally. Both of these things significantly influence the success of your campaign. The more relevant your keywords, the greater the chances of your ads appearing when your target audience looks for your services.

Google Ads allows you to make multiple ad groups. It means that you can create numerous campaigns targeting every major keyword. Writing ad copies focusing on these keywords increases your chances of appearing on top of the search result pages and getting more clicks.

Create a List of Keywords

It’s important to build a list of keywords that are most relevant to your services. Aim to fill up every ad group with as many relevant keywords as possible. Don’t hesitate to add keywords with wrong spellings, punctuation, or grammar. Google Ads gives you access to the Keyword Planner, a free tool that helps you build a list of keywords for your ads.

Test and Optimize the Ad Copy

Testing is necessary to determine whether your ads are appealing to your target customers. It gives you all the data you need to optimize the ads so they fetch you the desired results. Testing enables you to find out the version of the ad copy that’s attracting the most website traffic.

We recommend creating specific landing pages for every keyword that you target. This ensures that the searcher is sent to a page where they can find useful and relevant information related to their query.

Adjust Campaign Settings

As mentioned above, Google Ads gives you full control over your campaign. You can adjust every single setting to ensure how, where, when, and in front of whom your ads appear.

However, it’s worth noting that by default, the settings of the Ads platform are set in a specific way. You need to modify them to suit your particular tradesmen’s business. In general, we recommend checking out the settings below. This applies to all tradesmen.

• The campaign type should be set to Search Network. This will help you get warm leads from Google.
• Turn off search partners.
• Mobile bid adjustments should be set as 100%.
• Change the ad rotation setting to rotate indefinitely.
• Set language targeting to your local or target language.
• Set location or geo-targeting to your local location or wherever you offer your services.

Conversion Tracking

Setting up conversion tracking is critical to determine the direction in which your campaign is heading. Before running the ads, ensure that you have set it up to track leads and sales. This information will help you monitor all your results. These include the number of impressions, conversions, clicks, and more that your ads get. When conversion tracking is set up, all of the data about your ads appears in your campaign’s dashboard.

How to Optimize Your Tradie Google Ads Campaign?

Setting up and running an ads campaign is one thing; optimizing it is another. You can run innumerable campaigns. However, unless they are optimized, your chances of getting the desired results will remain low. Here are some of the most effective tips to optimize your tradie Google Ads campaign.

1. Testing Your Ad Copies

The first thing that your target audience notices is your ad copy. If it is engaging enough to capture their attention, they are likely to take further action. If not, they will just scroll past your ad.

We recommend testing different ads and retaining the parts that perform well. When you have that sorted out, shift your focus to testing out other smaller parts of your ads.

2. Target Local Customers

The geo-targeting feature in Google Ads lets you target customers within a few miles of your service location. That is a great thing that you can use to target local customers. Those living closer to your location are more likely to reach out to you. You can target the local population through radius targeting, postcodes, or suburbs. Choose one according to your trade’s distinct needs.

3. Use Google’s Ads Call Tracking

Phone calls are important data to track for many tradesmen. We recommend configuring Google Ads call tracking. It lets you track calls made by prospects due to your ad. If you rely on phone calls from leads and customers, this helps you get insights into which ads, keywords, and campaigns are driving calls.

There are a few options for call tracking. You can add call extensions to your ads. These display your business phone number with your ad. Alternatively, you can create call-only ads that are designed to encourage searchers to call the business. You can also use Google Forwarding Numbers. In this, Google automatically puts a unique forwarding number instead of your actual phone number. This number routes customer’s calls to your actual number. At the same time, it lets Google track the details of the call.

4. Include Negative Keywords to Improve Targeting

Including negative keywords will minimize the chances of your ad appearing for irrelevant searches. Use these keywords to exclude your ad from showing up in certain search results. Thus, negative keywords can be used to filter out unwanted clicks. It helps you to not waste your ad spending while attracting high-quality traffic to your website.

5. Create Separate Pages for Your Ads

Building a dedicated landing page for your ads increases your campaign’s conversion rate. This is because such a page aligns fully with the searcher’s query, giving them a chance to take action. The entire content of the page is focused on the searcher’s query. It includes CTAs at strategic places along with key business information. In other words, the page is created in a way that beckons the visitor to interact with your business.

A dedicated landing page for your ad contains engaging yet informative headlines and copy. It also has your unique selling points and social proof in the form of client testimonials. Thus, it urges the viewer to contact you.

6. Focus on Long-tail Keywords

It can be easy to set up and run your ads around the first few keywords that show up on the keyword research tool or the search engine. However, doing so will not get you the conversion you desire. This is because these keywords are highly competitive. Several tradesmen in your industry are already ranking on them. The cost of these keywords is also higher.

To get past this challenge and drive more clicks and conversions, focus on long-tail keywords specific to your industry. These are three or four-word long keywords that aren’t so competitive. For example, ‘electrician’ is a highly competitive keyword. Even ‘electrician in Kaysville’ is highly competitive. A good long-tail keyword that will help you drive more conversions is ‘residential electrician Kaysville.’

7. Emphasize the Fact That You Are a Local Business

No one would want to go to a far-off place to get their plumbing job done. People search for local businesses. So, emphasize this fact in your ad copies and landing pages. Include the names of cities, postcodes, and suburbs where you offer your services. This increases the likelihood of visitor interaction with your services.

8. Use Ad Extensions

Ad extensions encourage the searcher to take action. Those like sitelink and callout extensions positively impact your quality score. Sitelink extension links all the relevant pages of your website in your ad so the viewer can directly click on any of them and gain relevant information. Callout extensions let you highlight product features, discounts, or other such information. Thus, they make your ad more appealing.

Final Words

Google Ads can help you get more leads and conversions. A well-set up and executed campaign can skyrocket small tradies to growth, getting their phones ringing with inquiries and bookings. Website Pandas has helped numerous tradesmen tap into a huge local customer base and increase their revenue. Contact us today to learn how we can help you acquire more visibility and customers.