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Google Advertising Plumbing

DEMYSTIFIED: A New Way Of Getting More Qualified Plumbing Leads From Google Advertising

Generate Leads, Drive Sales And Improve Your Brand Awareness With Google Ads For Plumbers

Are you a plumber constantly looking for more clients or leads?

Are you tired of being that statistic of a never-ending narrative of one busy week, then mute the next?

It doesn’t have to be that way when you can have Google PPC Ads campaigns executed and set up specifically for your plumbing services, then later managed for continual growth or improvement.

increasing bar graph

This will free up your time to do what you know best to serve your clients and run your plumbing business.

Currently, the inclusion of Google Ads for plumbing contractors and other home service businesses like roofing or HVAC has become increasingly practical and crucial. 

That said, running and creating Google PPC Ads for your plumbing company can be daunting. This is because plumbing AdWords isn’t just what you specialize in!

It is common for plumbing contractors like you to entirely neglect their business and marketing needs. Typically, plumbing projects are your butter and bread, but you have to concentrate on growing your plumbing company. Leave your Google Ads to a reputable plumbing Ad agency.

Let us dive into our step-by-step guide to help your plumbing company achieve greater success and growth by implementing Google Ads without further ado.

What Are Google Ads for Plumbers?

Google Ads

Google Ads, previously known as Google AdWords, represents one of the most frequently used paid search marketing campaigns in the plumbing industry. It is an online advertising platform for Google. Google Ads is a business tool that helps plumbers to promote their plumbing services on any Google properties, which consequently results in more customers. Most home service contractors like roofers and plumbers we work with invest part of their advertising dollars in it.

This concept applies whether they are handling marketing on their own, depending on an in-house team, or paying a plumbing ad agency to manage it on their behalf.

The reason is candid: Google Ads for plumbers work in attracting new customers.

But to obtain the most benefit out of Google Ads, it’s crucial to know the differences between three primary categories:

Search Ads

1. Google Search Ads: These campaigns help you place ads on the vast network of search engine results. You can display ads to homeowners actively searching for your plumbing services online. You only pay when someone clicks or calls through your ads for this type of ad.

Display Ads

2. Google Display Ads: Unlike conventional search ads, Google display ads are shown to more than 2 million users, applications, videos, and websites that are part of the Google Display Network based on their past online activity.

Local service ads

3. Google Local Service Ads:  Local service ads offer a unique opportunity for plumbing contractors; in that, you pay for quality leads instead of clicks. That makes them ideal to use to ensure that you are getting the most out of your advertising dollars.

How Does Plumbing Google Advertising Work?

Google advertising

There are two primary ways in which plumbing contractors use Google for advertising and marketing. One is through plumber SEO (search engine optimization), the practice of offering engaging and relevant content while strategically using search terms or keywords. This is usually achieved with the assistance of a professional plumber marketing agency or using paid or free tools.

Plumbing Google AdWords is a paid advertising service offered by Google. Plumbers pay Google to have their ads page put in an advertising slot on users’ browsers. But how does Google determine which plumbing ads will get more priority? Through a process in which plumbers place bids. Depending on the kinds of ads, the winning ad will appear either as a banner on the Google Display Network or on the search engine result pages (SERP). But to attain any meaningful success with your advertising budget, it’s essential to implement a good plumbing Google Ads strategy.

Google Ads for plumbers targets browsers looking for particular keywords. Plumbers can later fine-tune their ads based on the factors like geographical location. Ad spend will impact the reach of your ads and the time frame they will be shown to users. The quality of your ad is another factor to the success in attracting paying clients.

5 Reasons Why Google Ads for Plumbers Are Crucial

Online ads concept

Homeowners first research on Google to find plumbing near them to solve their problems. So, internet marketing revolves around being available whenever prospects or clients demand information about your plumbing company online.

Most plumbing companies use Google Ads to promote their services online, making it crucial for plumbing businesses to create campaigns that can help them stand out from the competition. Here are some incredible benefits of using Google Ads in your plumbing business strategy:

1. Increased Customers and Leads

Lead generation

Google Ads for plumbers is one of the effective tools for generating leads online. If your ad campaigns are correctly set up, they can send extremely qualified and targeted leads to your plumbing website, opt-in form, or other online collateral.

Google Ads helps your plumbing company focus on prospects or clients searching particularly for what they offer. This implies your plumbing company’s search can be refined so that only homeowners who are ready to book service appointments are sent to your plumbing website through this platform.

2. High ROI

Return of Investment

Unlike other internet marketing strategies, Google Ads makes plumbers pay only for ads people click on. But once you optimize your plumbing Google Ad campaigns, you can enjoy a higher return on investment, which may not be possible with other marketing strategies. But this takes time.

To get a clear perspective of what hacks will give your plumbing business get the best results, you need to continually track and test your campaigns, which plumbing AdWords is known for, as it offers all the data crucial to calculate your ROI, as well as keywords entered, and the cost of each click.

3. Google Ads Helps You Discover More About Your Target Market

Target Market

Google Ads for plumbers aren’t restricted to advertising only. In fact, they help you get in the minds of your potential customers.

Understanding your target audience makes it much easier to deal with clients and discover what they want. While this is typically hard to do and needs a lot of research, Google Ads provides information about customer requirements and habits that plumbing business owners dream about.

This includes details of the keywords a client used to find your plumbing website, their location, type of devices used, and days or times of the week they were actively searching. You can utilize this information to refine your plumbing marketing efforts so that your ad budget is not wasted on marketing to prospects that are not interested in your plumbing services.

4. Google Ads for Plumbers Ensures That You Stay on top of the Competition

Business Competition

It took years before some home service contractors like plumbers or roofers appeared on the first page of the Google search results pages. You will appear on top of their search query since you promote your plumbing ads through Google Ads.

You are paying Google; therefore, you will be at the top of their priority list. In fact, as many people that clicked on the search results, the same number would visit to know the incredible services your plumbing company offers.

5. Using intention by creating Google Ads for Plumbers

Google Ads for Plumbers

What makes Google Ads stand out from other forms of online adverts is their intention.

Google Ads may come enticingly, yet it still advertises your plumbing company as the best consideration. But on the search platform, whether a prospect is not searching for you, but as they type in your keywords, you may assist them in finding what they really need.

We will discuss how to create, analyze, and manage your Google Ads for plumbing services within this post.

Don’t have time or skill to run Google Ads for your plumbing company?

Schedule a free discovery call with Blackstorm Design + Marketing PPC experts for help.

12 Tips for a Successful Plumbing Google Advertising PPC Campaign

Your plumbing company is unique, and it requires a personalized ad strategy to meet your goals and bring in more clients. This is because people are looking for almost everything online. Some of them are searching for your plumbing services. Advertising your plumbing business on Google is an effective way to generate new business and create brand awareness.

While creating an instant plumbing PPC campaign is possible, developing one that generates optimal results can take a lot of effort and time. But, with lots of competition online, you need to make sure that your ad stands out and gives you the clicks you need. Here are some steps you can take to make sure that you obtain the most out of your plumbing Ads campaign:

  1. Understand and Research Your Target Market

Target Audience

At this stage, you still haven’t invested one dollar into plumbing ads. Instead, you should invest the resources and time to understand your target audience fully. Examine the kinds of websites your target audience spends the most time on? Which plumbers are running effective Google ads campaigns? You can utilize the Ads platform to understand most of these elements, all without spending a cent, courtesy of Google!

  1. Conduct Keyword Research

Keyword Research

Competitor and keyword research are important steps for an effective plumbing AdWords campaign. Tools such as Keyword planner can assist you in finding search phrases that relate to your plumbing service. But you should choose keywords with your rivals in mind, factoring in which phrases other plumbers are likely to bid on and ways in which their plumbing services differ from yours.

A keyword such as “plumber” with high search volume is crucial to the content of your page and might have a low bid price. But it might not be the best place to invest your ad budget. If you notice other plumbers are using the same high-volume keywords, they will outbid you for a Google ranking.

More plumbing niche keywords, for instance, “[your city] bathroom sink not working” will have a lower search volume monthly. It may also be a costly bid, and even if it obtains lots of clicks every month. Your Google Ad will likely have a click-through rate if your plumbing business is a top result. The danger in advertising only to plumbing keywords is that you are less likely to be visible to multiple online users.

Carefully selecting and researching plumbing keywords helps to make sure that you are reaching the right audience with your plumbing ads while maximizing your Return On Investment (ROI).

  1. Write an Effective Google Ad Copy

In the plumbing industry, your ad copy assists you in creating the initial impression of your business in the eyes of prospects or clients. A compelling Google text ad will help your business obtain more clicks, resulting in high conversion rates.

That said, how you write your ad copy affects the cost per click and the ranking in the paid search results. Your ads should be relevant, empowering, and specific to reach potential clients effectively. Here are some best practices for writing effective Google text ads and common pitfalls to avoid:

what makes you unique

  • Showcase What Makes You Unique

Free plumbing inspections? Emergency plumbing services? Tell homeowners! Highlight the plumbing services or offers that may make your plumbing company stand out.

  • Include promotions, prices, and exclusives

limited-time offer

Homeowners or property managers often use Google to make a decision about plumbing services. Offer them what they require to make an informed decision. If your business is offering a limited-time offer, say so.

  • Empower clients to take the desired action

Call to Action

Are you providing a specific plumbing service? Tell people how they can schedule a service appointment. CTAs like call today or get a quote makes it clear what steps the client needs to take next after visiting your plumbing website.

  • Include top keywords in your ad copy

What is an effective way to attract users’ attention than to have the plumbing service they are looking for being the initial thing they see in your ad? Adding plumbing keywords in your ad copy shows that your ad is relevant to what people are searching for.

  1. Create a Targeted Landing Page for Your Plumbing Google AdWords

Landing Page

This is perhaps the most common blunder plumbers new to Google Ads make is directing all the web traffic from PPC ads to the home pages of their plumbing website. Many times, these plumbing contractors invest in ads, realize they aren’t obtaining results, and write off Google Ads as a waste of advertising dollars.

Let’s face it: Your home pages are a terrible place to direct your traffic. Figure it out this way: homeowners are looking for a particular plumbing service when they search. By directing them to your home page- which has lots of different options and elements on it-you have wasted their time (and possibly your ad spends).

Instead, you need to build targeted landing pages that address a homeowner’s query entered into Google. Landing pages should have one definite purpose, and there is a single conversion goal and a path to that goal for browsers to follow.

  1. Have a Clear Goal for Each Campaign

Goal

It is easy to get ambitious with a plumbing AdWords campaign, especially if you consider spending a huge chunk of your advertising budget. But, you must select one specific objective for each campaign. By doing so, you will help increase the ROI of your campaign dramatically.

  1. Target Emergency Plumbing Keywords

The first step to success on Plumbing AdWords is knowing where your ideal client is coming from and then targeting them with your ads and keywords. Think about an ordinary homeowner. Perhaps it is about midnight, and it’s cold, they discover that one of their pipes has burst and is flooding their basement. They quickly turn on Google-what do they require? Immediate help. It is an emergency. They don’t want to complete a lead submission form and wait two or three days to get a response-they require a plumber to come over to their house right now!

Emergency Plumbing

You target this client by including the keywords “emergency plumber near me”, “emergency plumbing”, and “plumbing after hours” to an ad group in your plumbing AdWords campaign. Then, in your emergency plumber ads, emphasize that you provide 24/7 service, and you are the best plumber for emergencies.

When your ideal client realizes that you offer what they require, they will instantly click your ad and become a hot lead. When given the option between a generic plumber and one that particularly emphasizes their ability for emergency plumbing, you can bet which ad that client will choose. Make sure that you put your emergency phone number on your plumbing website.

  1. Ensure Relevancy with Keyword Granularity and Ad Group

Relevance is vital when you are advertising your plumbing services on Google. When a prospect types in “commercial plumbing services”, for example, they would rather click on an ad that specifically talks about commercial plumbing than a generic ad that focuses on local plumbing. Why? Generally, they feel that the plumbing company that addressed their specific pain point understands them better and their unique needs. This establishes an instant sense of trust. When you can showcase, with your Google ads, that you clearly understand what they require and provide a solution to the problem that they have, your qualified plumbing leads will skyrocket.

So, how do you create a plumbing AdWords campaign to display specific ads to particular types of searches? When you craft your ad campaign, you are given the freedom to sort your keywords into various ad groups, and every ad group will only display its search terms in the ad group.

For example, if you have a commercial plumbing ad group, you will only add commercial keywords in that group to target in Google Search. The same applies to any type of plumbing service that you provide. Do you provide remodeling plumbing services? If so, create an ad group targeting “remodeling” and create remodeling ads. Do you offer emergency plumber services? Set up its own ad group just for emergency services.

When a potential client sees that you provide not only what they generically require, but what clearly they need, get ready for a consistent stream of hot leads.

  1. Set up a Retargeting Campaign

Retargeting Campaign

Retargeting is an effective tool for improving your conversion rates and skyrocketing your lead generation. Plumbing retargeting shows display ads to browsers who have already visited your plumbing website as they browse other websites to remind them that they may still require your services. Plumbers who run retargeting ads generally enjoy high volumes of qualified leads.

Best of all, it is typically cheaper to show a prospect a retargeting ad than to find the initial client on Google. For example, you may spend $10 to get a client on Google Search, but if they land on your plumbing website without becoming a lead, you could spend an extra $1 through retargeting and retaining them as a qualified lead. In the long run, you spent $11 instead of an extra $10 to attempt again with a prospect completely new, for a total of $20.

Use retargeting ads for plumbers to increase the effectiveness of your search advertising campaigns and obtain more leads to grow and sustain your ROI.

  1. Use Negative Keywords

Negative Keywords

Negative keywords are utilized to prevent your plumbing ads from appearing to people whose search queries are not related to the services you offer. In turn, giving your plumbing business a chance to reach the best target audience whilst efficiently spending your advertising dollars on clicks that won’t convert.

The key to success with the plumbing AdWords campaign is to understand exactly who you are targeting to increase your conversions and CTR ultimately. Your goal should be to focus on relevant keywords as well as refine the search terms you are bidding on to skyrocket ROI and increase relevance. Here are some of the benefits that you can enjoy by using negative keywords:

  •       Increase relevance of your ad group
  •       Skyrocket conversion rate
  •       Improve Click-Through Rate
  •       Attract relevant leads to your plumbing website
  •       Save your plumbing business money
  •       Improve return on ad spend
  1. Bid Strategy

Google Ads bidding type

Selecting the right Google Ads bidding type and implementing a good strategy for adjusting bids is crucial to driving your ad spend down. If you don’t understand clearly what you are doing, you can end up wasting your advertising dollars on a few clicks. But when you make the right moves, you can take your plumbing Google advertising performance to a whole new level.

  1. Use Ad Extensions

Let’s face it: you can’t say enough with your plumbing Google ads. That’s why Google now gives more options with Ad extensions, making it easy for you to include extra information about your business, plumbing services, thus encouraging users to take the desired action.

  1. Conversion Tracking

google ads conversion tracking

After a user interacts with your plumbing ad, you should be able to monitor what happens thereafter. Did they sign up for your emails? Did they schedule a service appointment? That’s why you need to enable conversion tracking in your Google Ad campaign.

Doing it Yourself or Hiring an AdWords Agency: 4 Reasons Why Hiring a Plumbing Advertising Agency is the Best Option

Digital Marketing Agency

Managing a Google Ads account or advertising campaign for your plumbing company is a skill that you can only acquire after investing a lot of time and effort. If you don’t have the time to master the skill well, then you are losing an opportunity to obtain better returns from the dollars spent on your advertising campaigns. You will not also get a great conversion rate because you don’t have the tools to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns and make necessary changes.

Here are some reasons to consider hiring a reputable plumbing ad agency to manage your campaigns:

1. You will Save Time

Save Time

Creating a Google Ad PPC strategy, building ads, and managing a campaign takes a lot of time, particularly if you don’t have previous experience with running a successful campaign.

A plumbing PPC management agency can handle all of the above steps for you, freeing up your time to spend on other important business activities. Plus, an experienced Google Ad management company can quickly create and launch your campaign.

2. You will obtain detailed, transparent reporting

Data report

The best plumbing PPC management firms should have systems to track your ad campaigns and give you regular results reports.

This feature saves you from the headache of setting up such processes yourself. They will be able to give you more comprehensive reports than you would obtain otherwise.

3. Ad Management Agency’s Experience is invaluable

A plumbing ad agency has specialists who have seen many campaigns come and go. You can leverage a few skills from such experience, including when to push for risks, when to play safe, and when to venture into untapped markets.

4. Plumbing Ad Agencies Know How to Obtain Desired Results

Obtain Desired Results

A high-quality plumbing PPC agency understands how to get results and has been doing so countless times. Working with such a Google Ad management agency can help you drive great results without wasting your budget.

When choosing an agency, search for one with evidence of testimonials and results.

Frequently Asked Questions on Plumbing Google Advertising

Question mark symbol

Do Google Ads work for plumbers?

Google ads help plumbers to be found on top of the search engine results pages, thus translating to more booked jobs and consequently increasing your revenue. Best of all, they provide a quick way of generating qualified leads for your plumbing business than other internet marketing strategies like SEO.

How can you get more plumbing leads online?

 You can do several things to generate a consistent stream of leads online, including creating a professional plumbing website, Search Engine Optimization, Google local service ads, social media advertising, online reputation management, and retargeting.

How do you advertise your plumbing services?

If you are figuring out how to market your plumbing company, consider exploring the following options:

  • Claiming, verifying, and optimizing your Google My Business listing
  • Creating a converting plumbing website
  • Manage and collect numerous positive reviews
  • Use superior customer service as a marketing tool

Optimize Your Plumbing Google Ads Campaigns to Maximum Profitability with Blackstorm Design + Marketing

Consult expert

Today Google local service ads offer numerous opportunities for plumbing contractors. They develop a sales funnel for local clients who understand what they want and are ready to schedule a service appointment while allowing plumbers to pay for leads instead of clicks.

But for most plumbers, Google local service ads, like other internet marketing channels, will represent just one crucial piece of an overall plumbing marketing strategy.

Following best practices for channels like Google Display and Search ads are no less crucial to leverage your advertising budget effectively.

Trying to manage all these elements manually can be an uphill assignment. But partnering with a plumbing ad agency like Blackstorm Design + Marketing makes such tasks incomparably easier.

Do you want to grow your commercial or residential plumbing business through Google Ads? 

Schedule a free discovery call with Blackstorm Design + Marketing to see how we can help generate leads with our PPC services while increasing efficiency across your plumbing company.

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Google Advertising Plumbing

An Effective Way To Rank #1 For Plumbing Keywords On Google Maps And Get More Clients

Plumbing GMB SEO Tips That Will Connect Your Business To Wallet Out Customers Looking For Your  Services Online

The plumbing industry is extremely competitive, particularly when it comes to getting your services in front of clients when they need them. Nowadays, it is common for homeowners who need a plumber instantly to turn to the top listing on Google and work their way from there.

Setup Google My Business

Google has shifted the way that customers search online by making it hassle-free for plumbing contractors to get discovered. Your plumbing website is still the main element of your marketing but Google has made it simpler to find your services from Google search results.

While having a conversion-focused plumbing website, using Local Service Ads, and investing in online advertising are all crucial components of an internet marketing strategy, many plumbers tend to overlook Google My Business, a free tool given by Google.

Google My Business is all about making your plumbing services visible to prospects/clients online. To that end, we will provide a definitive guide for plumbing contractors who want to make the most out of their Google My Business profile. Keep reading to learn more about Google My Business marketing for plumbers.

What is Google My Business for Plumbers?

Google My Business

Previously known as Google Places, Google My Business is a free tool for plumbing companies and other businesses that promotes your website and company listing on Google Maps and Search results. More importantly, Google My Business is a way for new clients to find your company when searching for plumbing services online and can offer an effective way for you to obtain new clients. It helps you to display important information for your plumbing business like address, hours of operation, website, reviews, frequently asked questions, phone numbers, and more.

4 Reasons Why Every Plumbing Business Needs a Google My Business Profile

Google My Business Profile

First things first: why should plumbers even bother with Google My Business in the first place? The simple answer is Google is visited almost 62 billion times annually-more than any other website on the planet.

Google My Business is the go-to platform when you want to ensure your plumbing business performs well online. It is a tool offered by Google Search Engine to help plumbing company owners reach a wider audience in their local service area. Homeowners type in a search for a plumber near them, and Google offers a local plumbing company name, phone number, hours they open, and an URL link to the website. You want to be the very first plumbing business clients see when searching for a local plumber help, so you must make use of the Google My Business Profile.

There are plenty of reasons why Google My Business is crucial for plumbing contractors. Consider the following reasons for including Google My Business SEO in their plumbing marketing strategy:

1. Local SEO Control

Local SEO

The organic result following a local search for a plumbing company is at least three of the nearest plumbing contractors to a customer. If you want to outrank your competitors, then you need to be one of the prominent three results that show up. Google My Business will assist you to control what customers see when they use search engines, and the amount of information offered is up to you. The more prospects know, the more they are likely to trust your plumbing business, and the higher chance they will hire your company for their plumbing needs.

2. Obtaining Reviews

5 star customer review

One of the most crucial aspects of obtaining a Google My Business Profile is the online reviews that will you will get. Homeowners will start talking about the quality of the plumbing services you offer will have a huge impact on how people perceive your company. There is a huge amount of trust pegged on online reviews, and a prospect is more likely to go with a business with customers talking online than one without any third-party opinions. But you need to be careful when responding to negative reviews.

When handling negative reviews, make sure to respond thoroughly and with much respect to the reviewer’s opinion. You want to offer a satisfactory response that addresses the pain points and shows your willingness to make things right. Once you obtain the hang of handling both negative and positive reviews, the entire Google My Business profile journey becomes much easier. You will be able to attract new customers while satisfying the existing ones.

3. Google Analysis

Analysis concept

When you create a Google My Business profile, the process is free, and you can include as many locations as you want. Remember that every location needs that you include all the information and verify each one at a time. Every location will have its online reviews, and if you register sufficient locations, then that might entitle you to a discount. Google is always looking for spam, so you will be required to register your home address instead of putting a P.O. Box. This is for companies that offer services at client locations, and this address will not be availed to the public as you mark you don’t get clients at that address.

When a homeowner is frantically looking for an emergency plumber online while their basement gets flooded, they are less likely to scroll down to the bottom of a search page. That’s why having a Google My Business Profile is so crucial to your plumbing company.

4. Build Local Authority

You can count yourself as a local authority with your plumbing services, but an optimized Google My Business can alter the way people view your company.

This is particularly true if you craft consistent content that helps homeowners understand your plumbing services. Most people will search for local plumbers on Google by asking questions.

There is no denying the power of Google My Business for plumbers. It is one of the effective ways of growing your plumbing business, creating brand awareness, and generating plumbing leads online.

Interested in hooking new plumbing clients with GMB SEO services?

Schedule a free discovery Call with Blackstom Design + Marketing to learn more.

Understanding the Google My Business Plumbing Customer Journey

Customer Journey Maps

Google My Business for plumbing contractors and all the optimizations that go with starts with James.

James is new in town. He recently bought a new house last month. But James has a toilet clog problem. James has no idea what’s wrong with his toilet. And why should he? He’s not a licensed, professional, certified plumber like you are. So what does James do? He is going to do what every other James does across the nation. He conducts a local search for toilet repair on Google.

Up until now, James doesn’t know your plumbing company from a specific hole in the wall. He understands what his problem is- his toilet will be flooded because of a clogged sink- but he doesn’t know which plumber to call to repair it.

Eventually, James gets a couple of options. He sees a few local plumbing contractors and their Google My Business profiles. After scrolling below the fake plumbing GMBs, James comes across legit-looking companies and is now singing the Ghostbusters song: “Who are you gonna call?

At this stage, James could end up selecting a plumber who is going to rip him off or fail to complete the job. And James needs to report to work tomorrow early in the morning! He needs a qualified plumber, and he requires a plumber right now!

In 2022, your plumbing Google My Business listing is more crucial than that if it assists decide whether the client should or shouldn’t work with your plumbing business.

Now let’s discuss the plumbing customer buying journey and your role in helping clients make an informed decision:

Customer journey map

They Don’t Know: A plumbing client conducts a quick search on Google. They don’t personally know you or the service you offer, and they are clueless about you or your competitors. Not only that, they don’t understand what makes your plumbing services stand out.

Pain Points: Your potential client has a problem but doesn’t have a clue on how to address it. They are definitely not calling you at this stage in the buying journey. But the more your Google My Business is visible online, the more your prospects will consider your plumbing company as she or he moves on to the next stage.

Solution: The plumbing client now understands the exact service they require, but they don’t know if your plumbing business offers it. How you optimize your plumbing GMB listing at this point is important. Do you have all your plumbing services filed out on your GMB?   Make sure that you optimize everything to respond to any questions the clients might have.

Service: At this stage, the plumbing client understands what plumbing services you provide but isn’t sure what she or he needs. This is the decision-making time! Do they know what plumbing services you provide but aren’t fully convinced? This is where online reviews, Google questions, and responses are so crucial. Most clients will read your recent reviews online, and they will look at the answers and examine your content. If you aren’t analyzing your online reviews, replying to them, and learning from them, then you are leaving a bunch of dollars on the table.

Ready: Now the customer is ready to schedule a service with your company and wants an answer to this old age question: How much? Pricing is a topic we will handle another day. But at this point, your client is at the bottom of the sales funnel. And your plumbing company is ready to close the lead!

Tips to Optimize Your Google My Business Listing for Plumbers: Our Proven Bag of Tricks

Google My Business Listing

Simply claiming your plumber GMB profile won’t cut it- to ensure that your listing pops us for relevant keywords in top rankings while converting browsers into paying customers, you require to optimize your plumbing business listing. Here are some steps you can take to optimize your plumbing GMB listing:

1. Use Your Operating/Legal Business Name

Your plumbing company name is one of the most crucial components of your Google My Business profile. It is essential that you follow Google’s best practices when it comes to the company name you use in your plumbing GMB listing.

You can use several blackhat tricks to game the system to achieve great rankings. Don’t do them. One thing plumbers try and do is place the location of their GMB profile. For instance, Dan owns a plumbing business, and the legal name of his company is Dan’s plumbing. Dan services Murfreesboro, TN area. The name he utilizes in his GMB listing should be Dan’s plumbing, not Dan’s plumbing in Murfreesboro.

If the name of the region or city you serve is part of your legal company name, then you need to incorporate it by all means. But if your registered name doesn’t include the name of the city or area you service, don’t add it to the name in your GMB profile. This strategy may get you short-term results, but it can get your listing suspended by Google.

2. Choose the Right Primary Category

Category

One of the most common blunders we see plumbers make with their Google My Business listing is not choosing the right primary category. This is because the categories you select for plumbing GMB profile can assist Google to connect your business to clients based on what they are looking for online. There are two kinds of categories- secondary categories and primary categories, and you choose your secondary and primary categories from a predefined list.

You must select the right primary category. In the case of a plumbing business, the primary category you choose should be “plumber.”

If you offer more than just plumbing services for instance, electrical or HVAC, you can add these as secondary categories-“Electrician” and “HVAC Contractor”. There are other categories you may want to consider depending on the services you offer.

Whatever your primary plumbing service, put it as your primary category. If HVAC is your main service and plumbing is secondary, then define those categories accordingly.

When it comes to displaying plumbing-related queries, our analysis shows a clear winner; more than 90% of businesses used plumbing or plumber as their primary category.

3. Focused Plumbing Marketing: Define Your Service Areas

Define Your Service Areas

Another crucial section to complete is the service area section of the GMB profile. Service areas are a very crucial field to fill out, and here is a good place to list all the states or cities your plumbing company is servicing. By adding a city to the service area section, you are allowing Google to understand that your business is ready to service clients in these cities, and this is where your GMB listing will be popping up. For instance, if you offer plumber services and you select Murfreesboro, TN as your service area, your profile can pop up whenever residents in Murfreesboro search for “plumbing services”.

Don’t add cities that you are planning to service later, as this will reduce the overall quality and accuracy of your plumbing GMB listing. You can include such cities in the future when you will be ready to send your crew to those areas.

4. Hours of Operation (+Special hours)

Hours of Operation

Hours of operation allow your prospects to know whether you are open for service on holidays and weekends. It is extremely crucial to list opening and closing hours as accurately as possible and typically update your special hours, letting your clients know whether you are closed or open on specific days (Mother’s Day, Christmas Eve, etc.).

The secret here is to always keep track of the upcoming public holidays and update your profile accordingly.

5. Complete your Plumbing Company Description

Company Description

The description is an area in your profile where you need to target those “money search terms” about your plumbing company. You have more than 750 characters to convince clients more about your plumbing company or services. Avoid stuffing keywords here. Always keep your potential clients in mind when filling out this section.

The primary keywords to use here are “City +yourservices” use the keywords as naturally as possible.

As a rule of thumb, always follow the Google Business description best practices when completing this section.

Let clients understand why they should hire you over other plumbers in the area, how long you have been in the business, the plumbing services you offer, and more while focusing on competitive keywords.

Don’t add any HTML codes or links in the business description area. At the end of your description, let clients know how they book a plumbing service appointment. Do they fill out a form or call your company? What hours should they expect to get their phone calls answered by your team?

6. Have a Well-Designed Plumbing Website

Plumbing Website Design

Your plumber website is important for internet marketing; it’s where prospects go to learn more about your plumbing company, meet your crew and see if you provide the plumbing services you are searching for. Best of all, your plumbing website helps your GMB rank higher for target Google searches and with your defined service area.

According to our analysis, almost 60% of plumbing contractors link to their website from the GMB listing. So having a professionally designed plumbing website will help in your GMB optimization efforts.

If you require any help with designing and developing your plumbing website, schedule a no-obligation session with one of our growth coaches for assistance.

7. Provide Your Phone Number

Your phone number is another crucial element of your plumbing Google My Business listing. It is prominently displayed on your GMB listing and helps clients contact your company directly even without visiting your site. This is particularly true if customers are accessing your GMB profile on a mobile device such as a smartphone. All they need to do is click your phone number to contact your plumbing business. It is convenient and quick for customers. The opposite is true, it can be frustrating as a homeowner if you are trying to call a plumbing contractor, but you can’t easily and quickly find their company’s phone number.

8. Get and Respond to all Online Reviews

Responding customer reviews

In the modern plumbing landscape, online reviews can break or make your business. They are like word-of-mouth recommendations from family or friends to new customers who consider your company for hire, and most homeowners are willing to use your plumbing services after seeing tons of positive reviews.

Besides such reviews assisting your company to make a great initial impression, they also assist you to rank higher on Google because of the relevant keywords used in every review. The more positive reviews your plumbing business has, the more potential clients will want to do business with your plumbing company. That said, it is important to be generating positive reviews every day to keep your plumbing business on top.

The good news is that obtaining such reviews isn’t hard. You can either request reviews from clients whom you have already worked with before or utilize follow-up calls or emails.

The reviews on your plumbing GMB profile can influence whether a homeowner will do business with your company or not. Here are some crucial facts about reviews:

  • More than 80% of customers read reviews for plumbing businesses
  • The average client reads about 10 reviews before feeling they can trust the business
  • 0% of clients said that they judge a business depending on how it responds to reviews

That’s why it is crucial to respond to each review you obtain to introduce great keywords that will help your listing rank.

9. List Your Plumbing Services

Although this section in your plumbing GMB profile is optional, you can include all the plumbing services you provide in the part of the service. You can add the price, a description, and a service name for every service.

Unlike products that are shown as part of your GMB listing, plumbing services are only visible on mobile devices. While the visibility of services is restricted, we highly recommend you include services in your GMB profile. Including services is a great way to differentiate your plumbing company from your competitors and can help to boost your local search rankings.

10. Upload More Photos

Google has previously stated that “Businesses with photos receive 35% more clicks to their website than businesses that don’t have photos. As you can see, having more photos in your GMB listing will make Google rank your site higher and gives clients more ways to know about your plumbing business and become comfortable with you as a plumbing service company.

One of the best photos on your GMB profile is those given by customers. Therefore, you should encourage your happy clients to add photos of your recently completed jobs. Client-added photos make prospects feel at ease with hiring you and become confident in your service offerings.

11. Questions and Answers

Q and A

Google My Business helps users to respond to your plumbing company. It is best to answer these questions accurately and comprehensively.

12. Add Highlights

Highlights help you tell people about your plumbing business’s specific attributes or services. Including them can assist you to stand out from other plumbers in the area.

13. Complete Every Section

The most crucial thing for you to do is to entirely fill out each section available on the profile so that search engines understand your plumbing business and understand what is right to display online. These details include:

  •       Business Name
  •       Services you offer
  •       Phone number
  •       Address
  •       Website
  •       Description
  •       Hours of Operation
  •       Question and Answers
  •       Photos
  •       Business category

It is crucial that the information shown for your plumbing business is accurate and matches the information displayed across the web. Be thorough with each detail as Google will favor listings with more details when deciding how to rank your profile amongst other plumbing contractors.

Frequently Asked Questions on Plumbing GMB Listing

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the steps to take to set up your plumbing GMB Profile?

  •       Login to Google Business Profile Manager
  •       Add your plumbing company
  •       Enter your location
  •       Complete your contact information
  •       Verify your business
  •       Customize your profile

How do you get your plumbing company to show up on the first page of Google?

If your goal is to achieve top rankings on Google, then you should do the following:

  • Use the right keywords
  • Develop a good local search engine strategy
  • Focus on creating high-quality plumbing content
  • Use social media to promote your business
  • Generate backlinks

How do you optimize your plumbing Google My Business listing?

Some of the things your plumbing company can do to get the most out of your Google My Business Profile include: selecting a specific and relevant category, uploading quality photos, using your phone number, and completing each section of your profile with accurate and correct details.

Generate More Leads with Our Plumbing GMB SEO Services

GMB SEO Services

Running a plumbing business is hard and time-consuming, even without thinking about your online strategy. You just want to become a plumber, not spend all your time creating an online presence that may be a waste of your advertising dollars.

Save time and concentrate on what matters most by putting your plumbing local SEO strategy in the hands of experienced internet marketing experts. We are a dedicated team that requires a huge, untapped market with tried and proven strategies, a results-driven mentality, and many years of experience helping home service contractors across the US.

Are you ready to dominate the local plumbing market and see incredible company growth? Schedule a no-obligation session with Blackstorm Design + Marketing today.

Categories
Google Advertising Plumbing

The Top 30 Most Searched Plumbing Keywords on Google You Need to Know

Read on to learn the best PPC and SEO Plumbing Keywords for your campaign

If you operate a plumbing business and want to improve your local market visibility through PPC or SEO, you will be required to appear for keywords that homeowners are looking for.

PPC and SEO campaigns

When optimizing your plumbing website for local search, one of the most crucial decisions you (or your internet marketing agency) should make is what search terms or keywords you want to optimize for.

Luckily, there are potentially hundreds of keywords that you can choose.

If you select the right keywords, that could imply your phones are ringing off while you are getting a lot of $$$.

Without the right plumbing keywords, you can’t get clients for your plumbing business online. It is crucial to advertise or rank for the right keywords so that you can obtain targeted clients and close a sale.

The keywords you use throughout your plumbing websites can help you rank higher in local search engine results pages and offer your business increased client traffic, better online visibility, and more plumbing leads.

While it might appear like a simple task of just putting a couple of search terms and the go-ahead to craft content, the sad reality is that other plumbing contractors in your area are implementing comprehensive keywords into their plumbing SEO strategy. You must invest in keyword research to obtain a competitive advantage over other plumbers online.

Without further ado, let’s dive into our topic.

What are Plumbing Keywords?

A group of words an internet user uses to perform a search

Keywords are phrases or terms that internet users look for on search engines like Bing or Google. When more homeowners look for the same phrase (or its variation), it becomes known as a high-volume keyword. You can measure the volume of a plumbing keyword using tools like Ahrefs, MOZ keyword explorer, or SEMrush.

What are the Different Types of Plumbing Keywords Available?

Keywords research

Do you know that there are three different types of plumbing keywords that you can select from for your business?

These three kinds are long-tail keywords, trophy keywords, and LSI keywords. Let us discuss in detail these three types to assist you in understanding how to select search terms for your plumbing business.

Short-tail plumbing Keywords

Short tail keywords for your plumbing business are characterized by their high value among all keywords associated with your business. If you operate in Murfreesboro, your trophy or short-tail keywords would be “Murfreesboro plumbing” or “plumbing Murfreesboro”.

It typically combines the industry which you are operating from plus the city name of your service area.

In this case, the other short tail plumbing keywords can be “Plumbing Contractor Murfreesboro” or “plumbing repair Murfreesboro”. It is based on the value attached to the keyword. You need to calculate the value of each plumbing keyword, and the top five can be regarded as trophy keywords.

LSI Plumbing Keywords

LSI Keywords

LSI is a synonym for Latent Semantic Indexing. Search engines like Google show relevant search results. It implies that the same plumbing keyword can be tweaked according to the homeowner to find the plumbing companies or any other service businesses. That’s why; it takes into account the LSI plumbing keywords you use. LSI keywords in the case of a plumbing business, can incorporate keywords:

  • Best rated plumbing contractors in Murfreesboro, TN
  • Plumbing repair in Murfreesboro
  • And so on.

Long-Tail Keyword

Long-Tail Keyword

When searching for a particular plumbing service, long-tail plumbing keywords are general terms that homeowners look for. Although they may not have a high volume like short keywords (such as plumber near me), they rank easily and convert at a higher rate. This implies that focusing on long-tail keywords can lead to sales for your plumbing business.

Blackstorm Design + Marketing has many years of advertising and internet marketing experience incorporating SEO strategies such as keyword research, so your plumbing website has a higher ranking on search engines. While we provide keyword research and strategy to increase plumbing SEO, we want our plumbing clients to understand what keywords can assist them to get on top of search engine results.

Most Popular Plumbing Service Keyword Formats

Keyword Formats

 

Another thing to mention here is that you would want to ensure you use these search terms with variations of your service area city name as illustrated below:

  • Your City + Plumbing
  • Your City + plumber
  • Your City + Water heaters
  • Your City + Leak detection
  • Your City + drain cleaning
  • Your City + water heater repair
  • Your City + plumbing contractor
  • Your City + water heater Installation
  • Your City + commercial plumber
  • Your City + clogged toilet repair
  • Your City + residential plumber
  • Your City + repipe

Top 30 Most Searched Plumbing Keywords for SEO

Most Searched Keywords

 Keyword                                                        Search volume

  1.     Plumber                                                       65,000
  2.     Plumbing                                                    41000
  3.     Emergency plumber                               40, 500
  4.     Plumbing services                                    40, 500
  5.     Water heater repair                                   27100
  6.     Plumbing companies                              22200
  7.     Water heater replacement                    18000
  8.     Plumbing contractors                             9900
  9.     Sewer cleaning                                          9900
  10. Toilet repair                                                     8100
  11. Sewer cleanout                                              6600
  12. 24-hour plumbing service                         2900
  13. Gas repair                                                        2900
  14. Drain repair                                                     2400
  15. Sewer inspection                                          2400
  16. Plumbing installation                                 1600
  17. Hot water repairs                                          1600
  18. Local plumbers in my area                        880
  19. Clogged drain                                                3600
  20. Leaky faucet                                                   2900
  21. Sewer pipe                                                      1600
  22. Clogged sink                                                  2400
  23. Toilet installation                                           2400
  24. Commercial plumbing                               1600
  25. Garbage disposal installation                   2900
  26. Water pressure                                              4400
  27. Tankless water heater                                 6600
  28. Backup sump pump                                   1600
  29. Electric water heater                                   18100
  30. Hot water plumber                                      1000

Where Should You Use These Plumbing Keywords?

Keyword research illustration

To get your plumbing website to appear for these search terms, it will be essential to craft a thorough set of service pages focusing on that primary keyword. For instance, if you want to show up for “hot water repairs” then ensure that you have a dedicated page on your plumber website that discusses the hot water repair page.

It takes effort and time to create these pages on your plumbing website, but know that they will become one of the most important types of pages on your website.

Categories
Google Advertising Plumbing

Google Ads for Plumbers: The Ultimate Guide to Winning Local Clients and More Leads Online

Increase Traffic to Your Plumbing Website and Gain New Clients Looking for Your Services Online.

Plumbing contractors are after one thing, a consistent stream of qualified leads. There are multiple ways to drive leads for plumbers but one outshines them all, that is Google Ads.

Hands with laptop

Homeowners normally take plumbing seriously unless there’s an issue. Thus, it can be difficult to get new leads if you are advertising a plumbing company. But that doesn’t imply that you have to relax and wait for prospects to call your business.

To set your company for success, you must do quality plumbing marketing. This step-by-step guide on Google Ads for plumbers will help your business attain greater success and growth online. Without further ado, let us dive in.

What are Plumbing Google Ads?

Google ads

Google Ads, previously known as Google AdWords is a Pay-Per-Click advertising platform where you pay Google to have your Ads displayed on the search engine results. Specifically, for plumbing companies, a Google advertisement promotes plumbing services within a particular service area.

There are lots of advantages that your plumbing business can obtain from using Google Ads. Ultimately, it is an effective way to promote your plumbing business so you can reach your target market and drive leads to your site. This post will discuss how to launch a successful Google Ads for plumbers campaign.

What is the Difference Between SEO and Google Ads?

Plumbing SEO and Google Ads can complement one another, but it is crucial to note that there is a difference between the two. Using SEO assists make your website more appealing to clients and create engaging content that addresses your specific client’s specific pain points. Thus, plumbing SEO involves everything in your website from ensuring a user-friendly design to optimizing website layout and all written content and videos. SEO ensures that your plumbing website ranks higher in the organic search results.

SEO

On the flip side, Google Ads helps your business targets specific keyword phrases that your prospects use when searching on Google and then craft an ad to promote your plumbing website. It is an efficient and fast way to reach your target market. Here is an example of a Google ad when a prospect searches for a ‘plumbing company’ on Google.

Google Adwords

How Does the Plumbing Google Ads Process Work?

Let us discuss how the Google Ads auction process for plumbers works. There is a lot of misunderstood and incorrect information out there, and a lot of plumbers think that Google AdWords auctioning process solely depends mainly on the cost per click.

They wrongly think that if they just bid a bit higher, my ad will appear on the coveted #1 spot and then will obtain more leads and clicks.

But since Google wants to show more relevant results to its users, thus they cannot allow the highest bidder to get the top position. That’s why they use the “quality score” to determine which ads will show up higher in the search results.

Google gets more money if plumbers get clicks, and to be more effective, they need only to show the most relevant ads to their users.

Quality Score

Average Quality Score

What is a plumbing Google ad quality score, and why should plumbers care about it? Quality score is typically Google’s rating of the relevance and quality of your PPC ads and keywords. Google uses it to calculate the cost per click (CPC) and multiply it by the maximum bid to determine the rank of your ad in the auction process. That said, your quality score is based on various factors including:

  • Relevance of your ad copy
  • Relevance of every keyword to the ad group it is in
  • Ad historical performance
  • Your ad’s Click-through rate

Why Are Google Ads for Plumbers Important?

As we have already discussed, most people have to claw and scratch to get to the coveted first position on Google. The top organic search results obtain all the clicks, and so, the highest likelihood to convert clients. So this presents a lot of crucial benefits to plumbing contractors including:

Precise Ad Targeting

Ad targeting

Compared to other conventional ways of advertising, Google Ads for plumbers is better targeted as you only display your ad only when prospects are actively searching for your plumbing services. This cuts down on unnecessary advertising spending and increases the chance of people contacting you.

With Google AdWords, you can ensure that the ads you pay for reach prospects who are likely to want/ need your services as a plumber. You can target prospects by age, geographic location, particular keywords and even ensure that your ads appear at a specific time of day.

Immediate Exposure

When you are initially starting out, your business will require immediate exposure you can obtain. Plumbing SEO could take months or years to generate desired results, but with Google Ads, you can instantly reach the coveted spot on the first page of Google and get noticed by prospects in your local market.

People can see your Google Ads multiple times and never click them (implying that you don’t have to pay a dime), yet your plumbing business is now top of their mind the next time they are ready to schedule a service appointment.

Cost-Effective

Google ads cost-effective

Google Ads for plumbers operates on a pay-per-click model, and this implies that you only have to pay Google when a prospect clicks on the ad-not every time your ad shows up.

Data Mining and Marketing Insights

Marketing insights

When you utilize Google Ads, you can visualize statistics of how your ads are performing. This can offer you important invaluable market insight like who is clicking on your Google ads and taking action.

Besides the real-time campaign performance and analytics, we obtain a treasure trove of user data. We utilize it in various ways to further grow your client base.

Creating Google Ads for Plumbers: 10 Secrets to Getting More Qualified Plumbing Leads Online

Creating Google Ads

1. Creating a Google AdWords Account

Setting up plumbing Google Ads is easy and simple. We will utilize a fictitious plumbing business as a major example for this post. Click on “Start Now” on the left side of the main page. You will also be requested to sign in with your business Gmail account.

Google will ask you what your main advertising goal is, and you can click on any of the three options offered. For instance, I select “get more plumbing website sign-ups or sales.”

The Google Ads setup process is fairly simple, and the prompts will direct you through the whole process. You have to sign up here to get your first plumbing ad campaign started.

2. Focus more on Emergency Plumbing Keywords

Keywords

The initial step to success on Google Ads is to understand where your ideal clients come from. Then you have to target the prospect with your keywords and ads. Let’s figure about an average homeowner. It’s 1:15 AM on a very cold night, and they realize that one of their basement has flooded and their pipes have burst. They turn to Google-what do they do now? Emergency plumbing help! They don’t have enough time to submit a lead form on your plumbing website and wait for two days to get a response back, they want a plumber who can assist them right now!

If you want to zero in on this client, include the keywords “emergency plumbing”, “plumbing after hours”, “emergency plumber near me” and so on to an ad group in your AdWords campaign. In addition, emphasize that you provide 24/7 service in your emergency plumbing ads so that they will hire you for emergency situations. Once they notice the services you offer, they will instantly click on your ad and become qualified leads. Homeowners prefer emergency plumbing services rather than generic plumbing contractors.

3. Use Call Only Ads

Call-only ads are plumbing ads that can only be utilized to make a call. They offer an excellent way to obtain leads for your plumbing company. The great benefit about these ads is that they are straight to the point and allow your sales representatives to book jobs over the phone. A lot of homeowners want to speak to someone over the phone and let them call instantly from the ad, giving your plumbing company a good opportunity to close on a lead before they call the next plumber.

Since a call ad-only campaign is mobile-friendly, and your headline is your phone number when your ad shows up. This way, you make it simpler for the clients. Generally, in the process of generating leads, they notice your ad, visit your plumbing website and then decide whether to contact your business or not. But with call-only ads, you eliminate one step of the process. Here, they conduct a search for your plumbing company on Google, bump on your ad, call you instantly from the ad, and instantly become a qualified lead.

Homeowners don’t happen to be in the mood to compare different plumbing companies and shop around when they are in an emergency situation.

Call-only ads are ideal for plumbing repairs, as homeowners want to instantly speak to a reputable plumber at the moment so that you can resolve the issue. Thus, they work perfectly with local organic keyword searches as the searcher’s intent is probably urgent and wants to talk with a plumber on the phone rather than spending time researching.

A few plumbing keywords to consider for your call-only ads are:

  • Local + Keyword (Local plumbing company)
  • Keyword + near me (Plumbing contractor near me)
  • City +keyword (Murfreesboro plumbing companies)
  • Keyword + city (Plumbing repair Murfreesboro TN)

4. Structure Your Plumbing Ad Campaign for Success

Ad Campaign

The structure of your plumbing Google Ads will play a huge part in the amount of money you spend per lead. The structure of your ad will impact your quality score, which affects your cost per click, which impacts your cost per lead, and ultimately the cost of acquiring those leads. For plumbing companies, oftentimes there is more than one plumbing service that is provided, so your campaign structure should reflect so. For instance, you might provide the following:

  • Drain cleaning
  • Toilet repair
  • Sewer repair
  • Leak repair
  • Garbage disposal services

All of the services above should be classified in their ad groups since they will have different ad copies to that plumbing service and be directed to landing pages. After your ad campaign structure looks awesome, now your ad copy should stand out from the clutter.

Your Google Ads account is comprised of Ad groups, keywords, Ads, and Campaigns. There are various parts of your plumbing business and advertising strategy that correlate with every one of these structures. Let us define the following Google Ads terms:

  • Campaign: The individual plumbing service units which you build groups of ads for. For instance, you should have distinct campaigns for people looking for “plumbing repair” versus people seeking “plumbing installs”. They are two kinds of plumbing services and thus require different ads.
  • Ad group: A group of plumbing ads that concentrate on a particular portion of your target market (also referred to as a client persona). For instance, you may have one ad group for prospects who require “clogged toilet” and a different one for people looking for “Emergency plumbing”.
  • Ad: The actual content that conveys what that person is really concerned about (fears, expectations, fears, and pain points)
  • Keyword: The specific term that’s typed into a search engine by the prospect searching.

5. Consider Your Ad Copy

In the plumbing industry, you are competing against all the local plumbers running PPC ads, directory sites such as Thumbtack, Home Advisor, and Google Local Service Ads. Plumbing is a very competitive landscape, and your ad copy requires to soar above all that clutter.

Google gives you two descriptions and three headlines for the ad copy, but these may not always show up. Your headline should feature the plumbing keywords you are focusing on, the second heading should be a compelling call to action (schedule a free estimate, call for a free quote). In your description text, you should discuss why your plumbing business is different. For instance: “20+ Years experience”, “fully insured” “Locally owned and operated,” etc.

6. Use Your Negative Keyword List

Negative Keyword List

Negative keywords are search terms that tell Google you don’t prefer ads to appear.

The importance of having a list of negative keywords cannot be overstated. It is crucial to include a negative keyword list at the beginning of your Ad campaign. This should be a continuous process as there will be multiple searches that you cannot plan for.

Considering that plumbing keywords are very competitive in paid search, negative search terms are particularly crucial. Without them, you will end up spending your ad budget on irrelevant traffic, fast. Here are some negative keywords, to begin with, your list will depend on your business, the types of plumbing services you provide, and geography:

  •  Books
  • Careers
  • Pictures
  • Videos
  • DIY
  • School

Creating a list of negative keywords and continually checking on your keywords will help minimize your cost per lead and improve the quality of searches your ads appear for.

7. Capture Lost Leads with Plumbing Retargeting

Retargeting

When someone requires a new toilet installed, they will conduct some research, ask for recommendations and shop around for the best price before making a final decision. Often times the potential client is ready to contact your business, they click on your website or ad, but their kids come back from school, life issues get on their way. With display retargeting, you can get that lead back in the sales funnel.

Plumbing retargeting is a cost-effective way to obtain more leads since they are warm, they have already visited your website.

For instance, you can retarget prospects that have made it to your contact page or spent one minute on it but failed to fill out the form. With that audience, you can retarget them (follow them to other websites they visit) with an ad showcasing your $300 off new toilet installation offer.

If your Facebook pixel is properly set up on your plumbing website, you can retarget users that made it on your plumbing website from your Google Ad and capture them in your Facebook newsfeed.

8. Bidding Strategy

Google Ads Bidding Strategy

Bid strategy is actually telling Google how and if to utilize their algorithms to optimize your keywords for best performance instantly.

Bidding on your plumbing brand keywords is a challenging one to wrap our heads around. If someone is looking for your brand, they want to partner with you, right? Then why should you spend the advertising dollars to get that client?

It would be ideal if every search for your plumbing brand means they are going to become your clients, but this is not often the case. Most plumbers have the industry in their brand’s names.

This implies that when a prospect types in your brand names in Google, it is more common than in other industries that PPC ads will appear as well. This is because they are targeting plumbing keywords. Bidding on your plumbing brand’s keywords will assist you to appear and stay on top of the page where those competing plumbers show up.

The good news is that your brand’s keywords will generally be cost-effective due to ad relevance and quality score. By bidding on your plumbing brand, you will be spending less money on click and stick it to your competitors, catching those low funnel leads.

9. Use all the Ad Extensions

Google AdWords With Two Structured Snippet Extensions

Talking of ad copy, Google has offered plumbers multiple ad extensions that can assist you to take over the search engine results page. This is particularly crucial on mobile devices since they are most likely to see one or two ads before the user has to scroll.

Utilizing ad extensions will improve your Click-Through Rate (CTR), which will result in a high-quality score, thus reducing the cost per click. Google provides lots of site link extensions, but here are the ones plumbing contractors should implement on their Google Ads campaigns instantly:

  • Sitelink Extensions: Use sitelink extension by sharing quality links on your plumbing website. This could be utilized to showcase your testimonial page, service page, contact us page, FAQ, blog posts, anything that is crucial for the searcher is great to add.

Adwords extension

  • Callout Extensions: The callout extension gives you short 25 character descriptions that are included after your descriptions line. These can be utilized to entice the prospect to take the desired action or offer additional details that make your plumbing company stand out. For instance, free estimates, quick installation, Lifetime Guaranteed, amongst others.
  • Structured Snippets: Google allows plumbers various headline options to select from when including structured snippets. The best types of headlines for plumbers are highlights, services, types, and types. This could be utilized to showcase the services you provide (toilet repair, drain cleaning, and leaks repair). Types could be used to display the types of toilets you install. Neighborhoods are ideal for a plumbing company that only serves specific cities or towns or if you wish to concentrate on the most profitable ones.

The Structured Snippets

  • Call Extension: As stated earlier, the call extension helps someone who comes across your ad instantly call from their mobile devices without visiting your plumbing website. This is important for plumbing companies as you want potential clients to call during office hours.
  • Location Extension: When a prospect is searching for a plumbing contractor, typically they aren’t going to come to your doorstep, but the location extension allows searchers to see where your plumbing company is situated and operating hours, and helps your ad to appear on Google maps.
  • Price Extension: It is difficult to show prices for jobs because they will typically differ across various houses, but there is a creative way to utilize Google’s price extension for plumbers. This is achieved by using it to showcase free estimates with a price tag of $0.00. The price extension aims not to get prospects to click on it but to occupy more of SERP and prove that you are a no-risk plumbing contractor.

10. Adjust Your Location Bidding

Location bid adjustments

All plumbing companies understand the more profitable zip codes and neighborhoods in their service area. With location bidding, you can adjust your bids higher in those profitable neighborhoods giving your plumbing business a good chance of getting in front of those prospects or clients.

Your cost per lead or click may be higher in those areas, but they are more profitable. Alternatively, you can reduce your bids in less profitable zip codes and neighborhoods, and this will make sure that you are maximizing your advertising budget (dollars).

11. Create a Landing Page That is set to Convert

Plumbing ads are directed to landing page

If your best plumbing ads are directed to your homepage…. stop! A landing page is normally one of the most overlooked aspects of a great Google Ad campaign. You must figure out the keywords the client typed in thus triggering your ad and what their intent was, then offer exactly that on your landing page.

A good landing page should have the following important elements:

Landing page

  • Primary keyword(s) in the headline
  • Differentiating features and trust Factors-This could be testimonials, what makes you unique from competitors, star ratings, etc.
  • Easy to find contact information
  • Obvious and clear steps
  • Simple, clean

12. Improve your Local SEO to Market Your Plumbing Services

Local SEO

You should consider your local search engine optimization. It is one of the best ways of obtaining plumbing leads. It helps you establish an online presence and helps to connect with people when they need your plumbing services.

13. Call & Conversions Tracking

Google Ads conversion tracking

Setting up conversions for your Google ad campaigns is as crucial as creating the ads yourself. If you fail to set these ads properly, there is no way to ever realize which plumbing keywords are working and which ones aren’t. It negates the entire purpose of plumbing marketing in the first place.

Here are the three types of conversions our expert setups:

1. Contact Form Submissions: put a conversion code on thank you page after prospects or clients submit.

Email submission form for website

2. Track calls from your landing page: people click on your ad and then make a call using the phone numbers on the landing page. You can utilize Google’s call tracking numbers or create them on your own.

3. Ad extension calls: These are phone numbers that show up in your ads if prospects call directly instead of clicking on your ad to head over to your landing page.

Google ads call reporting

Common Problems for Plumbers Using Google Ads

Google Adwords

A common problem for both commercial and residential plumbers is typically your competitors. Through our experience over the years, we often find that most plumbing contractors are guilty of click fraud. This uncouth behavior is when a plumber intentionally clicks on your Google Ads to increase costs. By increasing your costs, it is likely that you may stop the ads, or your daily advertising budget might have run out. This implies your competitors then take a top spot on Google and obtain the leads that could have been on your business.

Other problems that plumbers face with Google Ads include:

  • Sending prospects or clients directly to their homepage
  • Writing irrelevant ad copy that can easily be ignored

Frequently Asked Questions on Plumbing Google Ads

Question marks

How can you write a relevant plumbing ad on Google?

Although there is no textbook approach to crafting Google Ads copy for plumbers, here are some best practices we developed internally that guarantee impressive results:

  • Use plumbing keywords strategically. Keyword placement and choice are a bit different with Google Ads than it would be with a web copy or blog post
  • Keep your ad copy specific and concise
  • Always incorporate a compelling call to action

Is Plumbing Google Ads a waste of marketing dollars?

Yes, Google ads will waste your advertising dollars if you don’t craft and implement them properly. That’s why we highly recommend that you partner with a reputable plumbing Google Ad agency to achieve desired results.

What makes a good Google ad for plumbers?

Your ad copy should be attractive, specific, empowering, and relevant to reach property owners or homeowners effectively. Some of the aspects of a good Google Ad include:

  • Highlight what makes you unique
  • Includes promotions, exclusives, and prices
  • Empower clients to take the desired action
  • Include at least one of the keywords
  • Match your ad to the landing page
  • Appeal to customers who are using mobile devices

Why Partner with Plumber Google Ads Experts at Blackstorm Design + Marketing?

Plumber Google Ads Experts at Blackstorm Design + Marketing

Google Ads offers tremendous benefits to plumbing contractors. They create a funnel for local clients who understand what they require and are ready to schedule service appointments while allowing plumbers to pay for qualified leads instead of the clicks. In combination, these two great qualities make Google ads both laser-focused and cost-effective.

But for most plumbers, Google Ads, like other internet marketing channels, will represent just one crucial aspect of an overall plumbing marketing strategy.

Trying to manage all the elements of plumbing Google Ads campaigns on your own can be daunting.

If you are a plumber or running a plumbing business and do not get the maximum benefits out of Google Ads, then we got you covered. At Blackstorm Design + Marketing, we have been working with home service contractors, including roofers and plumbers throughout the US for many years, leveraging Google Ads to generate inbound calls and service enquires. Our proven Google Ads system for plumbers has delivered lots of plumbing contractors just like you affordable leads.

  • We create a winning Google Ads strategy for your plumbing business
  • Increase phone enquires and calls
  • Full support, setup, and Google Ads optimization
  • Scale your plumbing company
  • Scalable and proven ad campaign structure to make sure you get low-cost, high-quality leads.

Looking to grow your plumbing company with Google Ads? Schedule a free discovery call to see how Blackstorm Design + Marketing can assist you to drive more qualified leads while improving efficiency across your plumbing business.

 

Categories
Google Advertising Plumbing

Everything You Need to Know About Google Local Service Ads for Plumbers

Generate More Leads, Build Trust and Grow Your Plumbing Business with Local Service Ads

Google constantly tests, removes, and adds more search result features to connect home service businesses like plumbing or roofing companies with local customers. Your plumbing company can now be found at the top of organic search results courtesy of Google Local Service Ads.

Benefits of Local Service Ads

As a plumber, you need to keep your calendar filled with booked service appointments, and with approximately 3 billion searches daily conducted by clients searching for a local business on google, if you are not using local service ads for plumbing contractors, you are missing out on new sales and leads, guaranteed.

If you don’t have a local plumbing advertising strategy, it is time to develop one. With Google Local Service Ads for plumbers, you can easily attract qualified plumbing leads and convert them into paying clients without wasting your advertising dollars.

This post will discuss how Google Local Service Ads can drive incredible results for your plumbing business and how to get started with local service ads.

Without further ado, let us dive in!

What Are Google Local Service Ads for Plumbers?

Similar to conventional Pay-Per-Click ads, Google local service ads show up on the top of organic search results- just above the organic listings.

Helping plumbing businesses with Google Local Service Ads

Unlike the traditional Google Ads, where you pay for every click your ad gets, local service ads are pay per lead platform, and as such, it is a distinct platform from Google Ads, but Google owns the two platforms.

These ads help local potential clients find your business, understand more about your plumbing services and call your business to take the next step of scheduling some service appointments.

Local Service Ads for plumbers typically display three plumbing businesses at the very top of the search engine results page.

Browsers can select from these three plumbing contractors or choose “more plumbers” to view other options.

After visiting the “more plumbers”, you will see a whole page full of local plumbing contractors. At the top of the page, users can filter plumbing businesses by selecting their required service.

The filtering option makes it easy to find the right plumbing contractor that fits your unique needs. Once a browser identifies the right plumber, they click on the listing to obtain more information.

The main difference between local service ads and conventional Google Ads is this:

When investing in the traditional Google Ads, you are simply paying Google to direct more traffic to your site

When investing in Google local service ads, you are paying Google for qualified plumbing leads.

Local Services Ads direct prospects to contact your plumbing company without even clicking off from the search engine result page. They never visit your plumbing website but instead see key information snippets that guide their purchasing decision. These snippets include:

  • Opening and closing hours
  • Service area
  • Client reviews
  • Phone number

As a plumber, you should not perceive Local Services and Google Ads as an either-or option when crafting your plumbing marketing strategy but rather as different and complementary tools in your marketing plan, like plumbing SEO, that you can utilize to reach various audiences.

Read on to learn more about how plumbing contractors across the U.S. generate more sales and leads through the Google Local Service Ads for plumbers.

Why Should Plumbers Invest in Google Local Service Ads?

Are you still on the fence about using Local Service Ads to market your plumbing business? Keep reading to understand more about our top benefits for using Local Service Ads in your plumbing company:

  • Local Services Ads for plumbers drive More clicks and Visibility

Organic Traffic

When prospects look for something quickly on Google, they are directed to a set of search engine results pages(SERPS). SERPS typically include a mixture of local service ads and conventional Google Ads, organic search results, and local results (which are generally mapped).

Local Services Ads are normally placed at the top of all other kinds of results, including the normal google Ads. This offers your plumbing business a true competitive advantage since such top results normally attract more clicks.

Having a listing at the very top of search results increases visibility and helps you get more leads for your plumbing company. And since Local Service Ads are one of the newest Google features, many of your rivals aren’t using them yet, offering you the chance to be the first to advertise your service with this marketing strategy.

  • Google Guaranteed

Local Services Ads on Google

As a strategy for rolling out the local service ads, Google launched the Google Guaranteed badge for plumbing contractors, which offers prospects more confidence when moving forward with making a hiring decision.

The Google Guarantee benefits both your clients and business. For instance, if a client schedules a service appointment through Google Local Services Ads, they can get their money back if they aren’t satisfied with the plumbing services offered. This kind of satisfaction guarantee could make them more likely to hire your business than your competitors.

  • With Local Service Ads, You Only Pay for Verified Leads

Verified Leads

Irrelevant and spammy leads are a waste of your advertising dollars and time. As a plumber, you only pay for leads from the Local Services platform if the client contacts you and is a verified lead. For whatever reason, if your lead becomes unqualified, you can raise a dispute for the lead fee with Google and refund your money. This helps you optimize your advertising dollars and increase ROI from your internet marketing campaigns.

  • Local Services Ads for Plumbers Offer Affordable Leads

Affordable Leads

With many marketing channels, it can be hard or even impossible before you launch your campaign to know how much money you will require to spend to obtain a positive return on your investment (ROI). Fortunately, that’s not a challenge with Local Services Ads. Before you launch your LSA, during the process of setup, Google will offer you the cost-per-lead (CPL) you can expect.

The CPL is not a generic guess-it is specific to your geographic location and plumbing industry. You can then set your ad budget depending on either a dollar amount or desired leads per week, and Google also helps you decrease or increase your budget at any time.

How Do Google Local Services Ad for Plumbers Work?

Whenever a property owner looks for plumbing services in your area, the major thing they will notice in Google results are the Local Service Ads.

Local Services ads for plumbers feature your business profile, with your company name, hours of operation, phone numbers, and aggregate review rating.

Once a browser chooses your company’s local service profile, they are directed to a page that has information that Google knows prospects or clients require to make an informed buying decision;

Animated business overview

  • Business Overview: This will be a list of all the plumbing services your company offers, what makes you unique(differentiators), hours of operation, and your service area. If you are a home service business that provides HVAC or plumbing services (or any other home improvement service available through Local Services), you can market these on your profile.
  • Company bio: Here, you may mention some of the accomplishments you are proud of –”veteran-owned” or “family-owned”. You might mention the number of years you have been in business and list discounts you are currently offering.

5 star reviews

  • Reviews: Online reviews can break or make a client’s decision to hire your plumbing business. Thus, you need to generate as many 5-star reviews on your profile as possible to showcase your exceptional work to other potential customers with your Local Services profile.
  • Google Guarantee Badge: Google is always proud of its brand, and you will notice a Google Guaranteed badge appear two times on the local services listing, along with a brief explanation for clients that don’t know what that implies: “Your business has passed Google’s plumbing verification and screening process.”

How can Plumbers Get Started with Local Service Ads in a few easy steps?

Alright, so far, we have discussed the how and what of the Google Local Services ads for plumbers, but how do you get started? Here are some simple steps you need to follow:

1. Apply for the program. Local Services Ads are available nationwide.

2. Google starts its “due diligence”. They will get copies of your company license(s), business insurance, and new background checks for business owners and any plumbers entering clients’ homes. It is important to note that the background checks should be done for the plumbing company owners and every employee on your team who will be out in the field. Even if one of your plumbing technicians is not background checked or fails to pass the verification process, you cannot obtain the Google Guaranteed Badge. Such background checks will take anywhere between 2-and 6 weeks.

3. While Google is conducting its due diligence, you should already set up your local service ads profile. Here is what you need to do:

Google Business Profile

  • Build your business profile – the basics like your opening and closing hours, service area (s), and telephone number
  • Include an overview – what kind of plumbing services do you offer
  • Company bio – what are the unique selling propositions about your plumbing company.
  • Reviews – if you have already been getting reviews online on your Google My Business profile, these will pop up on your local services ad profile as well.

Why Hire Blackstorm Design + Marketing to Manage Your Local Services Ads for Your Plumbing Company?

Digital Marketing landing page

Expertise, convenience, and a streamlined process. We handle it all on your behalf.

Google Local Services Ads for plumbers always come with a stringent qualification and screening process. Thus, it takes more than understanding your plumbing business inside and out, as you need expert knowledge in local Services Ads. Becoming a Google Guaranteed plumbing company and enjoying the advantages of being one can be a boom for your company, but you may be wondering how. Besides, you will pay per lead with local services ads, so recoding your leads and disputing unqualified ones will take digital savvy and experience.

Blackstorm Design + Marketing is the advanced local Service Ads Management Agency for plumbers. Make sure that your plumbing business relies on experts that understand Local Service Ads for Plumbers thoroughly.

Blackstorm Design+ Marketing is the top choice of many home service contractors in managing their Local Service Ads efforts since we know what it takes to become a Google Guaranteed business and make it work to your advantage. We include every effort in managing your LSA requirements to assist you in maximizing their ROI benefits for your plumbing business.

At Blackstorm Design +Marketing, our Google Local Services Ads Service include:

  • Application process: Our experts will handle everything, including the first steps to make sure you obtain a solid online reputation.
  • Phone Answering Service: we will deal with fielding concerns and questions from prospective leads.

Staff answering phone call

  • Reviewing and recording phone calls: we will help distinguish leads and ensure that you only obtain those relevant to your plumbing services.

Reviewing call recordings

  • Managing reviews: We will analyze every customer review to ensure that they come from your verified clients.

Managing customer reviews

  • Reporting and Tracking: Our experts will help you supervise data, including ROI and cost.

Local Services Ads tracking data

Frequently Asked Questions About Google Local Services Ads for Plumbing Contractors.

A lot of question notes: why, who, where, how, why

Now, let us discuss some of the contractors’ common questions concerning Google Local Services Ads for plumbers.

Do Google Local Service Ads for Plumbers work?

From the quality of call perspective, local services ads are definitely worth your plumbing business. The rate of verified leads per phone call exceeded that of paid search campaigns and that of other internet marketing channels.

What is the difference between Google Local Services Ads and Google Ads?

Google Ads are referred to as Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads, implying that you pay each time a prospect clicks on your ad-even if they don’t contact your plumbing business at all. With Google Local Services Ads, you will pay per lead instead of the click, implying that you are only charged when potential clients call your business through the ad.

How do you run a local service ad for your plumbing business?

Here are some steps you can take to create a local services ad:

  • Check your Eligibility – Local service ads aren’t available everywhere, and thus you need to check whether your state or service area is eligible.
  • Creating a local service ads profile
  • Submit the relevant documents
  • Complete the background check
  • Set your budget
  • Review Ad leads

Start Driving Consistent Plumbing Leads from Google Local Service Ads

Generate more local customers for your plumbing business.

Google Local Service Ads for plumbers will assist you to generate more local customers for your plumbing business. It is a great investment if you search for ways to obtain new leads through internet marketing methods.

If Local Services ads feel like a challenging task, Blackstorm Design + Marketing experts are here to help. With many years of experience, we understand how to optimize Local Services Ads to meet your unique business requirements.

Do you want to learn more about how Blackstorm Design + Marketing can assist your plumbing business flourish online?

Schedule a free strategy session with our Local Service Ads experts to get started today.

 

Categories
Contractor Google Advertising Roofing

The Ultimate Google Tag Manager Guide for Roofing Contractors in 2020

Many prospects that land in your roofing website end up abandoned, sales dropped contacts, and incomplete conversions. Facebook and Google provide remarketing tools that help your business market your services and products aggressively to attract more conversions. Once a potential client visits your roofing website, remarketing tools analyze their behavior and present ads at other moments to improve their user experience. This results in more promising leads and significant connections. This post will explain everything that roofers need to know about Google Tag Manager.

What is Google Tag Manager

What is Google Tag Manager?

Google tag manager is a great tool that helps roofing contractors gauge how their website performs, like what areas need improvements, what areas are generating good results, or generally an overview of your website’s functions. It is a management system developed for HTML and Javascript tags used to track your roofing website’s performance. 

A thorough understanding of the Google Tag Manager requires some experience in coding and roofing website design. The tag manager helps to track all your roofing website performance under one dashboard. 

 

Google Tag Manager Guide for Roofing Contractors

Basic Google Tag Manager Terms that Roofers Should Know

 

As a roofing contractor, you need to know what is working in the digital marketing space to make an informed decision. Without further ado, let us explain a few definitions and terms that pertain to the Google Tag Manager.

Containers

Synonymous with the account structure in Google analytics, a roofer can create a GTM account to manage multiple mobile apps or roofing websites. When managing individual properties, roofers will create what is referred to as containers.

A container serves as a method of grouping tags. Using the Google tag manager interface, roofers can incorporate all the supported tags in one container.

Think of a container like a shopping basket where you throw all the items you want to purchase. Within the Google tag manager, you can find the snippets that you can apply throughout your site. 

Tags for Google Tag Manager

Tags

Tags have various uses, including monitoring form submissions, generating heat maps, conducting surveys, putting cookies that help in retargeting, and tracking how clients interact with your site.

Tags can also monitor particular events or actions customers take, like downloading files, adding items on their cart, or clicking on specific links.

Roofing websites often leverage multiple tags, and they normally hire developers to manage them. With Google Tag Manager, roofing business owners can disable, edit, or add tags right from the GTM interface, thus eliminating the need to hire web developers.

Triggers

Triggers (aka rules) are conditions that, once met, tell your tag to fire or activate. Clients’ actions taken on your websites-commonly, referred to as events-can only be analyzed using pre-determined triggers. Common events that will cause triggers to include page views, form fills, and link clicks. Triggers within the GTM interface automate your tagging efforts, and thus roofers can spend less time adding tags to their roofing website.    

Filters 

After defining the kind of tags you want, you can refine your results further with filters. Categorized into “values” and “operators,” these factors are particularly tailored to the trigger.

  • Operators define whether a numerical event is important enough to cause a trigger; for instance, greater than ten or less than two. Operators normally specify when a tag should fire based on a certain event like time spent on a web page or number of successful clicks.
  • Values specify when a tag should be fired based on a satisfying condition. It may contain a particular URL or words like “thank you.”

Variables 

These set conditions signify when a trigger should make a tag to fire, containing details that a trigger requires to evaluate beforehand.

Why Should Roofers Use the Google Tag Manager?

Here are the several advantages that roofing contractors can enjoy by setting up and installing Google Tag Manager in their websites:

Google Tag Manager Eliminates the Hassle of adding Tags to your Roofing website.

Before the Google Tag Manager was invented, every time a tag required is editing, adding, or deleting, a website developer had to be outsourced to hard code the roofing website. The Google Tag Manager container code can contain various analytics and marketing tags placed on your roofing website’s pages. This means that you only require a few clicks to remove, add new tags, or edit, and you can perform all these tasks in a user-friendly GTM interface. Google Tag Manager has made the process of adding tags easier since they are controlled from one place. 

Google Tag Manager Reduces Reliance on Web Developers 

By far, the major advantage of Google Tag Manager is that it helps roofing contractors implement tags without relying on website developers. Website developers are usually occupied with high priority projects, so they may not have all the time to help with your tagging needs. But since the Google Tag Manager helps you bypass the source code, you can quickly edit or add tags.

Google Tag Manager Makes Tracking of Your Roofing Business a Breeze

Google Tag Manager helps roofers perform the same task that took several days or weeks within minutes. It comes with various built-in functions and tags that make tracking of your roofing website a breeze. 

Google Tag Manager is Pretty Easy to Use

This is one of the major perks of the Google tag manager; no prior programming experience is needed. Roofing contractors can easily add tags, make updates, deploy tags, and test every change without requiring performing complex website coding. This provides autonomy to your team and streamlines the process, thereby improving the launch times, thereby giving your IT department enough time to concentrate on crucial matters like why your roofing website is so slow. 

Saves Time on Google Tag Manager

GTM saves time

Google tag manager saves roofers time by allowing them to track the codes on their own. You don’t need to hire a marketer to send the tracking code to a developer, only to have it installed a week later since the developer was too busy with other projects. Roofers don’t have to email back-and-forth when they require tracking other events during the week. All tracking codes (also known as tags) can be deleted, edited, or added via the Google Tag platform. 

It is Free!

Before we forget, Google tag manager is free and is ideal for small and medium-sized roofing businesses. However, large roofing companies can upgrade to the premium version of the Google tag manager.

Make Your Life Easier By Partnering with Blackstorm Roofing Marketing Today! 

The learning curve of understanding Google Tag manager is steep; however, once you master the basics, tracking all your marketing activities becomes a breeze. Fortunately, the Blackstorm Roofing Marketing team can manage website analytics and events tracking on your behalf and deliver a simplified data analysis to see the progress you are making on your roofing business. Here are some of the common events that we will track on your roofing website; 

  • Engagement with maps: we will monitor how often customers with a Geo-map embedded in your roofing company location.
  • Form Submissions: Tracking the number of clients that submit a subscription or contact form. 
  • YouTube Views:  Monitoring the number of website visitors who play the video embedded on your site.
  • Clicks on External links:  Tracking the number of visitors who click on your social media profile or on Yelp to review your business.

At Blackstorm Roofing Marketing, we aim to provide a substantial ROI for our clients by utilizing the data provided by Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager to hone, revise, and improve your roofing website regularly. 

Google Tag Manager Installation 

For optimal results on your roofing business website, professional Google Tag Manager is always recommended. Blackstorm Roofing Marketing is ready to offer expert implementation, planning, and management of your GTM efforts to ensure that you get the most leads from your roofing website. However, our services don’t end here. We also provide search engine optimization, pay per click, retargetingreputation management, and website design services to make sure that we cover a full spectrum of digital roofing marketing so that qualified leads can be generated through multiple platforms. 

Social Media Tag Management

Social Media Tag Management  

Facebook also provides a remarketing tagging option that allows roofers to remarket to prospects who have visited your roofing website, Instagram, or even Facebook page. This increases your conversion rates and increases the chances of making a roofing sale. The Blackstorm Roofing Marketing team has the know-how and experience to manage your social media remarketing and tagging campaign for increased company website traffic, advertising return, and awareness.

Custom Google Tag Manager Installations can also improve tracking performance and the online system’s performance. Basic installations do not allow variables or event tracking and remaining of data layers. Thus, investing in a roofing marketing company with an in-depth knowledge of GTM, along with JavaScript and HTML code, is highly recommended. 

When you consider all the Blackstorm Roofing Marketing team’s benefits, you find a roofing marketer that can achieve as much at a competitive price.

If you need a partner to manage all your online marketing campaigns, please schedule a free strategy session with our growth experts to get started today! 

 

 

Categories
Google Advertising Roofing

Make More Money with Research-Backed Google Ads (AdWords) Strategies for Roofing Contractors

 

Improve your Click-Through-Rate, Reduce the Cost of Acquiring Leads, and Make More Money with Google Ads (AdWords).

When it comes to search engine market share, Google is the market leader with more than a 75% stake, but nowadays, Google has become more than a search engine. Google Ads (AdWords) is an excellent tool that can boost your roofing website rankings and plan an organic search strategy by assessing the right keywords for your target audience.

Roofing contractors are always looking for qualified leads. There are multiple ways that roofers can use to generate leads, but one of them surpasses them all, which is Google Ads (AdWords). Google Ads (AdWords) provides an intention-based platform, where your roofing business is presented in front of property owners that need to install a new roof or repair an existing one.

A property owner may only need to install a new roof after 2 to 3 decades, thus being able to present your business in front of them when they need your services is the ultimate lead generating machine. That said, other roofers consider it as a waste of marketing dollars because they cannot get the right prospects to click on their ads. Google Ads (AdWords) can help you to grow your roofing business and generate qualified leads for your company if done correctly. This post will explore the top ten tips to help you generate more leads and book more jobs with Google Ads (AdWords).


Here are the top 10 Google Ads (AdWords) tips that we will cover in this article:

  • Stand out from other roofers with call-only ad campaigns
  • Make sure that your landing pages are designed to convert
  • Create a unique ad copy
  • Utilize a lot of ad extensions such as callouts, structured snippets, and call extensions.
  • Add negative keywords because they are as essential as the targeted keywords.
  • Bid on your roofing brand
  • Structure your ad campaign for success
  • Make sure you target the correct locations
  • Retarget, retarget, retarget.

Use Calls-only ad campaigns to stay ahead of the game

As the name suggests, call-only ads are advertisements that can only be used to make a call. The fantastic thing about these ads they are always on point and help your roofing sales representatives to close the deal over the phone.

Most property owners want to speak with a representative over the phone and giving them a chance to call straight from the ad gives your business the edge of closing the lead before they contact your competitors.

Call-only ads are great for roof repairs, as property owners want to talk to someone immediately to fix their problems. They work seamlessly with local keyword searches as the intent is urgent and wish to speak with a roofer over the phone than researching.

Here are some keywords suggestions that you might consider for calls-only ads:

  • Local+ keyword (Local roofing contractors)
  • Keyword+ near me (roofer near me)
  • City + keyword (Nashville roofing companies)
  • Keyword + city (Roof replacement Nashville).

Call-only ads are ideal for roofing contractors that want to get their phone ringing and get more leads. If you need help in setting up a call-only ad campaign in Google Ads (AdWords), then experts at Blackstorm Roofing marketing will be there for you.

Make sure that Your Landing Page is designed to convert

If your ads are directing prospects/ clients to your homepage, you are losing a massive chunk of qualified leads. A landing page is one of the crucial elements of a great Google ad words campaign. It can be the difference between the failure and success of your roofing business. Thus the design of your landing page should be conversion oriented.

When conducting a Google Ad words campaign, the main objective of a landing page is to generate an inbound phone call. One method that will naturally create calls is if you have placed your phone number on the right-hand corner of your ad using a call to action.

A conversion-focused roofing landing page should contain the following elements:

  • It should have a strong headline that communicates the benefits your business offers.
  • A clear call to action that compels prospects/ clients to take action
  • It uses the main keyword(s) in the heading, which communicates the ad.
  • Differentiating features and trust factors- This may include testimonials, star ratings, reviews, or anything that sets you above other roofers.
  • Simple to navigate as it gives relevant and straightforward information.
  • Obvious and Clear steps: Draws a picture of how it is more accessible to partner with your roofing company.

Create a Unique ad copy

In the roofing industry, you are competing with roofers running PPC ads and directory websites like Thumbtack, Home Advisor, amongst others. Roofing is a very competitive field, and your ad copy should stand out from the rest in the market.

Google will give you three headlines and two descriptions for your ad copy, but these descriptions and headlines may never show up. Your first headline should incorporate the keywords that you are targeting; the second headline should be the call to action (something like schedule a free roofing estimate or call us for a free quote). In the description text, you should explain what makes you different from other roofers online. For example, 2 decades + of experience, fully licensed, insured and bonded.

Track Your Ad Conversion Rates

 You should remember to setup conversion tracking that will help to separate right calls from bad ones. In Google Ads (AdWords), roofers can opt to make calls that last for a certain period. It is crazy for any roofer not to have a proper mechanism of measuring how the ad campaigns are performing. If you are not tracking your ad campaigns accurately, it is tough to know how to improve your Google Ads (AdWords) campaigns.

Without conversion tracking, roofers will not know which keywords generate leads or the ones with a high click-through rate. Some of the parameters that you need to track include:

Phone Calls:

This can be achieved by setting a call extension and monitoring the amount of time that you deem to be a lead.

Your preference will determine the duration of your call, but 60 seconds is a great place to start.

Schedule an online appointment submission

Filling a form and submitting it online.

Utilize a lot of ad extensions such as callouts, structured snippets, and call extensions.

Extensions are pivotal to the success of your roofing Google Ads (AdWords) campaign. They make your roofing website to appear on top of Google search results and thus drawing the attention of prospects/clients. Using extensions will improve your click-through rates, which will result in a higher quality score, thus lowering the cost per click and more revenue for your roofing business.

Here are some extensions that roofing contractors should implement in their Google Ads (AdWords) campaign instantly:

Site link extensions:  These are links from other pages on your roofing website. This is an excellent place for “Why Us” or “About us” page. Use sitelink extensions by sharing other pages on your roofing website. This could be utilized to showcase one of your client testimonials, service page, FAQ, or contact us page. Sitelink extensions occupy a lot of space in the search engine results page.

Callout Extensions:  This is where the roofers spell out their differentiating features or advantages to the clients. Callout extensions are typically added after the description lines. They can be used to entice the prospects or give additional details about why the roofer stands out from the rest—for example, showcasing your A+ BBB ratings, offering Lifetime Guarantee, and free estimate.

Structured Snippets: Google gives roofer various headline options to select from when adding structured snippets. For roofers, the ideal headlines are highlights, types, services, and neighborhoods. This could be utilized to highlight the services you provide (repairs, deck, siding, windows). Types could be used to show the kind of roofs you provide (such as TPO, flat or metal roofing). Neighborhoods are ideal for roofers who provide services to specific towns or cities.

Call Extensions:   This allows prospects on mobile to call your roofing business. It is advisable to schedule this extension for business hours only.

Location extensions: When a property owner is searching for a roofing company, they usually are not going to come at your doorstep, but this extension will help prospects to know where your business is situated, operating hours, and show up in Google maps.

Price extensions:  It is difficult to show prices of roofing tasks as they will differ from house to house, but there is a creative way of displaying prices using Google’s price extension. The goal is not to get prospects to click your extension but to portray that you are a no-risk roofing company.

The extensions discussed above may or may not show up in your ads all the time. This will depend on your keyword, quality score, ad position, competition, among other factors.

Add Negative Keywords to Your Google Ads (AdWords) Campaign

Negative keywords should be added instantly when launching a Google ad campaign. This should be a continuous process as various search terms will come up as you continue with your campaign. Considering, roofing keywords are generally competitive in paid search marketing; negative keywords are particularly crucial. Without them, you will end up spending your marketing dollars on irrelevant traffic.

Here are some quick negative keywords that you can add straight to your ad campaign;

  • Neighboring cities that you don’t accept work
  • Competitors in your region (unless you want to target them)
  • Careers
  • DIY or cheap
  • Marketing
  • Red Roof Inn
  • Auto Manufacturers (i.e. F150 Roof Leak)

You should continue looking for more search terms and adding negative keywords to minimize the cost per lead and improve the quality of searches your ads show up for. This takes time and effort, but it could be the difference between a waste of marketing dollars and running a successful ad campaign.

Bid on your Roofing Brand Name

Bidding on your roofing brand keywords is a complicated one to think about. If prospects are searching for your brand online, they want to work with you, right? Then why would you spend your marketing dollars to get that lead/client?

It would be awesome if each search for your brand meant that they are going to become your customers, but that is not the case always. Most roofing contractors are nowadays using their brand names in the industry.  For example, Johnsons windows and roofing or Terry & Sons roofers.

This implies that when a prospect searches your brand names, it is more predominant than other industries that PPC ads will show up in the search results. This is because they are focusing on keywords such as “roofing” or “windows and roofing” Bidding on your roofing company keywords will help you stay on top of Google search results when those competitors appear on the search results page.

The good news is that bidding your roofing company keywords will be cheaper due to their relevance and quality score. This means that you will pay a low cost per click and get ahead of your competition in capturing more leads.

Structure Your Google Ads (AdWords) Campaign for Success

The structure of your Google Ads (AdWords) campaign plays a critical role in the cost of acquiring leads. It is going to affect the cost of buying roofing leads. For roofing contractors, it usually goes beyond the products or services offered; thus, your campaign must consider that. For instance, you may provide the following services;

  • Asphalt shingles
  • Metal roofs
  • Windows
  • Flat Roofs
  • Siding
  • Commercial roofing
  • Doors

The services listed above should be in separate ad groups because they will explore that service and be directed to their landing pages. After making a good structure for your campaign, you need to develop a unique ad copy that will differentiate your business from other roofers online.

Make sure you target the correct locations.

All roofing contractors know the most lucrative zip codes and neighborhoods in the city. When you target the correct locations, you will set higher bids in those profitable neighborhoods to present your roofing company in front of homeowners looking for your services online.

Your cost per click and lead may go up in those areas, but they are profitable in the long run. Alternatively, you can reduce your bids for less expensive neighborhoods and zip codes in the city. This will ensure that you are maximizing your marketing dollars.

Retarget, Retarget, Retarget !

When property owners require a new roof, they will first research online, ask for reviews and recommendations from family and friends or look around for the best price before they make up their mind to hire your roofing company.

Frequently the property owner is ready to contact your business, they click on your roofing website or ad, but they are distracted by kids who come out of school or their pet that knocks at the garbage can. Fortunately, ad retargeting can help you to get that lead back to your business.

Ad retargeting is an effective way of getting more roofing leads online since they are warm, and have already visited your roofing website before!

Grow Your Roofing Business with Google Ads (AdWords) Today

If you are a roofing contractor, then you know that Google Ads (AdWords) are effective marketing tools because they deliver immediate results. That said, many factors go into creating a successful Google ad campaign that will bring more leads without wasting your marketing dollars. Using the ten tips discussed above for your company will assist your roofing business to get more leads, profitable jobs, and estimates.

If you are a roofer who doesn’t have previous experience with Google Ads (AdWords) but wants to stay ahead of the competition, feel free to schedule a free strategy session with our experts for assistance today!

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Google Advertising Roofing

Why 90% of Roofers Lose Money with Google Ads (AdWords)

 

How You Can Create an  effective Adwords Campaign that Generates Consistent Stream of Leads.

“We tried PPC ads but did not get any results from it.”

“It was a waste of our marketing dollars; it didn’t work.”

We meet a lot of roofing contractors each week.

90% of them believe that PPC ads don’t work.

Are Google Ads (Adwords) that ineffective in generating roofing leads?

Are Google Ads (Adwords) the worst scam ever seen?

Let’s face it…

PPC ads are not as easy as some Yellow pages, and Yelp representatives make it appear.

There are hundreds of settings, ways, and features that can make a PPC campaign to fail.

We have been helping roofing contractors with PPC ads for more than ten years and thus can show you why it’s a powerful method to generate roofing leads.

This post will explore the three main reasons why PPC campaigns fail to generate roofing leads and what you can do to create an effective campaign to grow your roofing business.

Mistake #1: Most Roofers Send Prospects/Customers Direct to their Home Page

Just because your roofing home page is the first thing that property owners see on your website, it does not make it the best place to send your PPC ads.

The thing is…

Your roofing website has a lot of things to read or click.

This creates lots of distractions for clients to read and convert.

People have short attention spans nowadays, and having various things that your prospects have to do makes them even forget why they came to your roofing website in the first place, which is.

To obtain an estimate from your company!

Instead of sending prospects/ clients to your home page, you need to send them to a landing page that gives them the main advantages and requests them to fill a form or call your business.

When you send prospects to your homepage, you may end up getting only 10% of clients calling you.

A landing page can get at least 30% of prospects calling you.

That’s 3x more roofing leads without breaking your marketing budget.

Mistake #2: Roofers Write PPC Ads That Are Easy To Ignore

To make Ad words work for your roofing business, you need to persuade people to leave Google and visit your roofing website.

This is where PPC ads come in handy.

They should have a powerful message, stand out, and be hard to ignore.

An active roofing ad will discuss the benefits you provide and what makes your business stand out from other roofing contractors in the area.

If you can craft a PPC ad that’s rich with advantages, you can quickly grab property owners’ attention and make them visit your landing page.

Mistake #3: Roofers get Behind the Steering Wheel without Knowing How to Drive

When you have a complicated and high-powered machine, you should know how to use it before you set your foot on the pedal.

You can’t win any race while you are still learning how to drive a car.

We are not saying that you cannot run your roofing Adwords campaign.

You certainly can.

But you stand high chances of generating a steady stream of roofing leads with Adwords when you partner with a reputable roofing marketing agency.

How to Create an Effective Roofing PPC Campaign

Need more roofing leads or want to grow your roofing business?

For many roofers, Adwords can seem like a waste of their marketing dollars. It can be daunting to get the right prospects to click on your ads, persuade them to become a lead, and convert them as a new client for your business.

After working with a lot of roofers over the years, however, we have learned how to produce high click-through rates of around 6% and turn a quarter of such clicks into qualified leads.

Creating an effective roofing PPC campaign boils down into how you execute the parameters listed below:

Targeting

One challenge that most roofing contractors face in Adwords is targeting the wrong roofing keywords.

While you can be tempted to bid on every roofing keyword you come across, but in the long run, it creates more problems than it solves.

In most roofing PPC campaigns, we have started managing, less than 9% of their keywords produce leads. This means that the other 91% are plain useless. And to make the matter worse, those unnecessary roofing keywords consume three-quarters of your marketing budget.

That’s bad news for your roofing business.

The more dollars you waste on wrong clicks, the higher your cost per conversion becomes.

To make most out of your PPC campaign: Target the Right Roofing Keywords.

At Blackstorm Roofing Marketing, our team has spent many years identifying the most appropriate keywords for the roofing industry. We have researched and tested many roofing keywords to produce impressive results for our customers.

If you calculate the percentage of wasted ad spend by the total marketing budget, you can get a quick overview of how much money you are wasting on the wrong keywords.

Analyze the poor performing keywords and make some tweaks. Depending on the circumstance, this may imply removing some keywords, rewriting landing pages, and ads.

Time

Unfortunately, this is the number one reason why roofers waste most of their marketing dollars on the wrong roofing keywords. They simply don’t want to spend more time in their Google Adwords account.

Now, we get it. You got so many things competing for your attention, from sourcing materials to managing employees. You don’t have a lot of time left to check your Adwords account on a weekly or daily basis.

In fact, that is one of the primary reasons why you need to hire an experienced roofing marketing agency to manage your Adwords account. However, even after bringing the right agency on board does not mean that your account will get the attention and time it requires to perform efficiently.

No wonder an average roofer wastes a lot of marketing dollars on PPC ads!

To get the most out of your Adwords account, make sure that you visit and analyze it at least once a week. At Blackstorm Roofing Marketing, we visit your Adwords account at least twice a week to ensure that results are always improving.

Tracking

The last principle in running an effective roofing PPC campaign is high-quality tracking. After all, devoting much time to your Adwords account is not helpful if there are no useful statistics to look at.

High-quality tracking means tracking new contracts and conversions. Once you have followed your sales and conversions effectively, you can set your PPC campaign for success.

Grow Your Roofing Business with PPC Ads

After spending years helping roofers with Adwords account, we have found out that running a successful PPC campaign boils down to how well executed the three factors discussed above.

If you are spending time using the right roofing keywords and tracking results, PPC can produce amazing effects to your roofing business.

If you require help to set up your roofing Adwords campaign, schedule a free strategy session with our experts to see how our team can help your business grow today.

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Google Advertising

Your Customers Are On Google Maps… Are You?

Why Small Businesses Should Register On Google Maps

Did you know that Google Maps is the undisputed navigation app of today?
It’s true! In a recent survey, about two-thirds of all respondents say that they prefer Google Maps over other options. Statistics have further cemented Google’s dominance in the navigation market- about six times as much as Waze, the second most-used app.
The numbers don’t lie- Waze only has a 12 percent adoption rate, while third placer Apple Maps only has 11 and MapQuest comes in at 8 percent.
What does it mean for small and local businesses? Mobile navigation is an essential part of acquiring more customers. Therefore, getting on the Map (Google’s, that is) is a must-have if you want your business to grow and thrive.
Interestingly enough, the survey from The Manifest showed that the 511 smartphone users use at least 3 unique apps each day. 72 percent of the total respondents are female. In groups, 28 percent of them are aged 25 to 34 and the least are people aged 65 and up (5 percent).

How People Use Google Maps

Navigation apps are meant to show you the route you can take on a turn-by-turn basis to your destination. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that more than 70 percent of participants say that they use navigation apps mainly to get from Point A to Point B.
Broken down further, 36 percent say they look up the directions before climbing in their vehicles, while 30 percent say they open the app while en route. 30 percent of respondents mention they use maps before getting into and while driving on their cars.

How Do Others Use Navigation Apps Like Google Maps?

Navigational tools like Waze, Apple and Google’s popular map aren’t just exclusively for drivers. As it turns out, people also look up directions while walking, riding a bicycle or as they head to the nearest public transportation.
Per region, the Northeast tops out the list by having up to 24 percent of responders using the app for non-driving reasons. In the West and Midwest, about 12 percent of responders say they use navigation for other things, while the figure is only 8 percent for the South.

Why Should Small Businesses Take Notice?

It makes total sense to put yourself on Google Map. Not doing so is missing out on all the opportunities it can present.
For instance, you can make your business discoverable by others who are looking for what you’re selling, whether it be electronic goods, services, food and others. The more people can see you on the internet, the better it will be in terms of reach and exposure.
As you may know, the more customers you have the greater the profits and possibility of repeat customers. Moreover, there’s also the power of word of mouth advertising, which can single-handedly give you the momentum in terms of returns, profits and reach.

Registering your small business on Google Maps only takes a few steps:

Step 1.

Claim your business. Head to the Google My Business section and tap on “Get on Google”, then fill up the fields with the necessary business information.

Step 2.

Add some additional info if you’d like.

Step 3.

Verify and complete the process. Done!
Keep in mind that you will appear on Google Maps even if you don’t have a website.

Categories
Google Advertising

Pros and Cons of Using PPC Advertising as a Marketing Strategy

With technology here with us, marketing your brand is made easier. Apart from traditional methods of advertising, there are new and emerging advertising tools that have seen small businesses grow exponentially. One of the most popular advertising methods used by both small and big businesses currently is PPC advertising. PPC stands for pay-per-click advertising, and while more and more business owners are drawn to it, there are challenges that come with it. Here are some of the benefits that come with PPC advertising, as well as some of the challenges you may face while using it as a marketing strategy.

1. Leverage on Data Received

One of the most important benefits of PPC advertising is its ability to gather vast and unlimited data on a brand. With PPC advertising, you get access to real time data showing your performance on online platforms. With this unlimited information, a prudent business owner can be able to consider a marketing strategy that exposes their brand more and cut out those that do not seem to work. The data you receive can also be useful in knowing what to optimise on your website in terms of content. With good SEO, you can increase your search engine visibility and rank higher on platforms such as Google.

2. Benefits for Niche-Specific Businesses

Another benefit of PPC advertising is that it allows a business owner to redirect their marketing strategy towards a specialised niche. With the data you receive from your advertising, you can tailor your website content and campaigns towards a preferred target audience, this may not be easily done with traditional advertising methods such as billboards or print media. It is also easier to find out who exactly consumes your content based on the number of clicks on the ads that you put out. This way, you can monetise your business accordingly.

3. Real Time Results

One of the reasons why PPC advertising has gained traction in the recent past is because of its ability to provide almost instant results for whoever is looking for metrics to benefit their business. For example, with Google AdWords, you can easily put up and ad and get the metrics you require the next day. It is also easy to come up with a campaign strategy and set up ads instantly. This not only saves your business time but also money spent waiting for a traditional advertiser to do an ad for you.
With all the pros that come with PPC advertising, the reality is that it is not all that glamorous. While the pros certainly outweigh the cons, it is advisable that any business owner pay attention to the following challenges so as to come up with better strategies for marketing using PPC advertising.

1. Data Might Be Overwhelming

For a small business owner, one of the challenges you may experience is sieving through the data you receive through PPC advertising to retain only that which is necessary. While a lot of data is beneficial for your brand in terms of strategy, you might end up with data which is not useful. This is where the help of a professional comes in handy to assist you in finding use in all the data you accumulate.

2. Extra Work

To be able to hack PPC advertising as a business owner, you have to have knowledge in marketing, content creation as well as data analysis. To be an all-round marketer is not easy, and most business owners trust their PPC advertising with reliable professionals who are a one-stop shop to handle these aspects of marketing.

3. Keeping Abreast with Changes in Digital Advertising

For most business owners, staying ahead of the curve is not an easy thing to do. The digital marketing space is mot an easy one to navigate. However, you can put in extra work by keeping abreast with updates and best practices in PPC advertising. For example, google AdWords has daily updates, which means you have to stay on top of your game at all times.
With PPC advertising, it is easy to see returns but all this comes with a price. However, for any dedicated business owner, developing workable strategies can make PPC advertising work to your advantage. Working with professional advertising agencies is also crucial if you need a helping hand.

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