New Company - Adwords & PPC
Discussion
Hi All
Am going to be starting a business in the near future and need some advice around Adwords. We are a granite & marble supply and installation company.
In the business plan we are projecting the bulk (80%) of our marketing spend going towards Adwords. In your experience, how effective have you found it and would you suggest that for our relatively simple business, it would produce the required results?
Am going to be starting a business in the near future and need some advice around Adwords. We are a granite & marble supply and installation company.
In the business plan we are projecting the bulk (80%) of our marketing spend going towards Adwords. In your experience, how effective have you found it and would you suggest that for our relatively simple business, it would produce the required results?
It should work - it does for most businesses.
AdWords is great for start-ups, as there is no commitment, and great for companies that install things as you can easily limit the geography.
Depending on your spend, try Bing Ads too. Cheaper traffic that often converts better and it's easy to set up as you can port over your AdWords account.
AdWords is great for start-ups, as there is no commitment, and great for companies that install things as you can easily limit the geography.
Depending on your spend, try Bing Ads too. Cheaper traffic that often converts better and it's easy to set up as you can port over your AdWords account.
A lot will depend on what sort of results you are looking for, do you want to drive initial traffic through to your website for customers to browse or are you looking to generate enquiries and sales straight off the bat?
What kind of budget are you thinking of on a monthly basis and what do you need in return to make this viable for you?
You mention it's a new business, do you have a live website at the moment and do you see/are you projecting much in the way of enquiries and sales this way or do you expect a lot of customers will reach you via 'traditional' routes?
Making a few assumptions I would imagine that your product is relatively expensive and that your customers take their time to come to a final decision so I'd work on the basis that you might not see immediate results - that's not to say it won't be worth your while though.
To put this into perspective I run a few campaigns at any one time. Some are based on giving web traffic a boost, others are based around sales. I have campaigns where we're selling a low value item and see lots of sales at a relatively low cost per sale and there are others for high value products where we see a few sales a month and the cost per sale is relatively high. The key is just making sure that you find an amount of money that you're happy to pay in order to achieve a sale through Adwords - this might take a bit of evaluation over time and there'll be some trial and error involved but you'll find what works for you.
As others have said Bing is worth a look as well.
What kind of budget are you thinking of on a monthly basis and what do you need in return to make this viable for you?
You mention it's a new business, do you have a live website at the moment and do you see/are you projecting much in the way of enquiries and sales this way or do you expect a lot of customers will reach you via 'traditional' routes?
Making a few assumptions I would imagine that your product is relatively expensive and that your customers take their time to come to a final decision so I'd work on the basis that you might not see immediate results - that's not to say it won't be worth your while though.
To put this into perspective I run a few campaigns at any one time. Some are based on giving web traffic a boost, others are based around sales. I have campaigns where we're selling a low value item and see lots of sales at a relatively low cost per sale and there are others for high value products where we see a few sales a month and the cost per sale is relatively high. The key is just making sure that you find an amount of money that you're happy to pay in order to achieve a sale through Adwords - this might take a bit of evaluation over time and there'll be some trial and error involved but you'll find what works for you.
As others have said Bing is worth a look as well.
Thank you for the feedback everyone it is greatly appreciated.
With regards to your questions on the reasoning for this, we see this as our primary route to market.
The site won't feature any type of e-commerce activity. It will provide information to help inform a potential purchaser of the different options, i.e. what granite is, how durable it is, why it is more expensive than quartz etc. So it will provide information on the products to a certain extent, but also act as a brochure for us as a company and the services we offer.
The customer is likely to be somebody looking at putting in a new kitchen or bathroom, or updating an existing one. We will then provide the costs for supplying and fitting the granite worktops, marble flooring or general bathroom/kitchen tiling based on a discussion with them over the phone or face to face.
The purpose of the website is to generate enquiries for the above.
As an initial stab we have budgeted for a monthly spend between £300-£500 on Adwords.
We will need approximately 2 installations a month to break even / make a small profit.
With regards to your questions on the reasoning for this, we see this as our primary route to market.
The site won't feature any type of e-commerce activity. It will provide information to help inform a potential purchaser of the different options, i.e. what granite is, how durable it is, why it is more expensive than quartz etc. So it will provide information on the products to a certain extent, but also act as a brochure for us as a company and the services we offer.
The customer is likely to be somebody looking at putting in a new kitchen or bathroom, or updating an existing one. We will then provide the costs for supplying and fitting the granite worktops, marble flooring or general bathroom/kitchen tiling based on a discussion with them over the phone or face to face.
The purpose of the website is to generate enquiries for the above.
As an initial stab we have budgeted for a monthly spend between £300-£500 on Adwords.
We will need approximately 2 installations a month to break even / make a small profit.
Seems like a sensible approach to me, if you're not already thinking about it perhaps have a PDF brochure on the website that customers can download with all of your contact details on as well.
Start off with relatively low budgets and a small(ish) core keyword list and see what sort of response that drives, once you've found a level you're happy with you can start introducing other keywords and playing around with the budgets and take it from there. Geography and some careful keyword selection should help keep costs down. The big unknown is whether the budget will drive the number of installations you need to make it worthwhile. Having worked with someone in a similar field before I don't think it's too far fetched.
If you want to drive calls and face to face visits then don't forget to add call and location extensions to your ads as well just so your phone number and address are visible as well.
Facebook ads are also worth looking at if you haven't already, they're really cost effective and I see good results from the campaigns that I run.
Start off with relatively low budgets and a small(ish) core keyword list and see what sort of response that drives, once you've found a level you're happy with you can start introducing other keywords and playing around with the budgets and take it from there. Geography and some careful keyword selection should help keep costs down. The big unknown is whether the budget will drive the number of installations you need to make it worthwhile. Having worked with someone in a similar field before I don't think it's too far fetched.
If you want to drive calls and face to face visits then don't forget to add call and location extensions to your ads as well just so your phone number and address are visible as well.
Facebook ads are also worth looking at if you haven't already, they're really cost effective and I see good results from the campaigns that I run.
Sounds sensible and should work well for your business.
Start super specific and then branch out what works e.g
If your main call to action is a phone call, make sure to keep your landing page concise and targeted.
Ideally for example, you would have as follows:
Keyword: granite worktops leeds
Your ad would be specific to that query e.g headline "granite worktops leeds" ad copy: "quality granite worktops supplied and fitted in 48hours, any location in Leeds" your URL: granitetops.co.uk/Leeds
Then you landing page would be concise, really nice images of granite worktops, benefits like 10 year guarantee etc etc and of course very very clear call to action (your phone number) / call us back buttons.
Oh and you can set up tracking phone numbers to monitor how many calls are coming in from your ads specifically. Then you can work out how much you are spending to generate x calls, then your average customer sales value and work from there to make numbers work.
If you plan to run the campaigns yourself, highly recommend perry marshals Adwords guide. You'll avoid most big mistakes if you read that first!!
Start super specific and then branch out what works e.g
If your main call to action is a phone call, make sure to keep your landing page concise and targeted.
Ideally for example, you would have as follows:
Keyword: granite worktops leeds
Your ad would be specific to that query e.g headline "granite worktops leeds" ad copy: "quality granite worktops supplied and fitted in 48hours, any location in Leeds" your URL: granitetops.co.uk/Leeds
Then you landing page would be concise, really nice images of granite worktops, benefits like 10 year guarantee etc etc and of course very very clear call to action (your phone number) / call us back buttons.
Oh and you can set up tracking phone numbers to monitor how many calls are coming in from your ads specifically. Then you can work out how much you are spending to generate x calls, then your average customer sales value and work from there to make numbers work.
If you plan to run the campaigns yourself, highly recommend perry marshals Adwords guide. You'll avoid most big mistakes if you read that first!!
leemanning said:
The site will provide information to help inform a potential purchaser of the different options, i.e. what granite is, how durable it is, why it is more expensive than quartz etc. So it will provide information on the products to a certain extent, but also act as a brochure for us as a company and the services we offer.
P.s be carfeful with the above thinking. Rather than telling people what granite is etc, target the "buyers" not people looking for info / early in the buying cycle. Your ideal customer probably is someone who already has decided that they are looking for a granite worktop for example and are now browsing seriously for a company to supply and install.
If you think about targeting those prospects, rather than more general info, then serve them a coincise page that gives them what they are looking for (good trusted company who operates in their area etc) with clear call to action you should do well. If you pay for traffic without getting very specific then it can become expensive quickly!
Only the national brands can afford a generalised site spending millions on ads as a brand building exercise etc.
As above make sure you focus on limiting to the locations you serve and also include ad extensions for phone number etc etc
FWIW, I do my own CPC with some help from a local company who I know through a friend of a friend.
We found its better to target specific areas using key words. People tend to search using their location.
I.e [plumber leeds] or [joiner yorkshire].
We also have had good results in targeting campaigns using times - 7pm and 10am being the core times.
Create some landing pages too - get them to land on the page they want.
So if you sell 3 products have the 3 keywords with 3 specific "home" landing pages but more set up to their search keyword.
Googles geographic map tool thing is pants. Don't bother. IME.
The more specific you can get your keywords the better your results. Having 1000 clicks but no conversions is just a waste of money. But getting 10 clicks and 5 conversions... quality over quantity.
Avoid companies that will set up a CPC campaign - they tend to farm out the work - wont understand your business and will charge £££ day rates. You will probably be able to get just the same result yourself.
It can be trail and error but you will know your business better than anyone.
Of course it goes without saying you want analytics code in your website.
We found its better to target specific areas using key words. People tend to search using their location.
I.e [plumber leeds] or [joiner yorkshire].
We also have had good results in targeting campaigns using times - 7pm and 10am being the core times.
Create some landing pages too - get them to land on the page they want.
So if you sell 3 products have the 3 keywords with 3 specific "home" landing pages but more set up to their search keyword.
Googles geographic map tool thing is pants. Don't bother. IME.
The more specific you can get your keywords the better your results. Having 1000 clicks but no conversions is just a waste of money. But getting 10 clicks and 5 conversions... quality over quantity.
Avoid companies that will set up a CPC campaign - they tend to farm out the work - wont understand your business and will charge £££ day rates. You will probably be able to get just the same result yourself.
It can be trail and error but you will know your business better than anyone.
Of course it goes without saying you want analytics code in your website.
All
Thank you so much for your comments and advice, it is very much appreciated and it has all been taken into consideration.
We're going to crack on with building the site and forming the company and once we're ready I'll be taking forwards all your advice on how to implement a hopefully successful PPC campaign.
Thank you so much for your comments and advice, it is very much appreciated and it has all been taken into consideration.
We're going to crack on with building the site and forming the company and once we're ready I'll be taking forwards all your advice on how to implement a hopefully successful PPC campaign.
Google will allocate an Adwords specialist to optimise your campaign for you free of charge. Personally I think it's worth taking them up on this unless you are employing an agency to manage the account for you.
I'm not 100% sure if they offer this service at your budget level, but If you want a contact at Google to speak to, drop me an email through my profile link and I'll send you their details.
I'm not 100% sure if they offer this service at your budget level, but If you want a contact at Google to speak to, drop me an email through my profile link and I'll send you their details.
trowelhead said:
Your ad would be specific to that query e.g headline "granite worktops leeds" ad copy: "quality granite worktops supplied and fitted in 48hours, any location in Leeds" your URL: granitetops.co.uk/Leeds
When I tried to set up adwords it wouldn't let me have ad copy anything like that length.Gassing Station | Business | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff