Categories
Google Advertising Plumbing

Google My Business Optimization Guide For Plumbers

If you operate a local home services company, like plumbing or HVAC, you already know how competition can be tough or challenging. Single-man operations, established plumbers, new start-ups, and national franchises are all eyeing to get in front of a property owner when they require assistance.

While investing in a paid advertisement, using local service ads, and building a conversion-focused plumber website are crucial elements of an internet marketing strategy, many plumbers overlook the importance of Google My Business listing. The sad reality is that plumbers that do not have a Google My Business profile risk losing tons of leads to your competition.

Plumbing contractors that offer their services in a specific location usually use Google My Business as one of the effective ways to establish a vibrant online presence and generate new business. Google My Business is about making your plumbing company visible to prospects looking for your services online. If you don’t know what Google My Business is, read on to know the essentials of Google My Business for plumbing contractors in 2021 and beyond. 

 

What Is Google My Business For Plumbers? 

Google My Business is a powerful, free tool for home service contractors like a plumber that promotes your company listing on Google Maps and search results. By claiming your GMB listing, you can showcase client reviews, post updates, and rank in the coveted local map3 for relevant plumbing keywords.

 

Why Is Google My Business So Important For Plumbers? 

A common question from the conventional plumber is, why should you take your plumbing business online? Not all plumbers know what Google My Business is and how crucial it is in the modern digital environment.

 

If you are one of these traditional plumbers, you miss out on many potential customers online. So, let’s dive into how Google My Business strategy can benefit your plumbing business. Here are the top benefits of having Google My Business for plumbers: 

 

1. Get Your Plumbing Business on Google’s Local 3-Pack.

If you have used Google local search results lately, you might have realized that only local listings to show the above organic search results in first-page reviews are in a simple 3-pack format. Most plumbers don’t know that by claiming a free Google My Business profile, you improve your local search rankings and boost the odds of being included in the coveted local-3 pack.

 

The benefits of being included in the local map 3-pack listing? Not only does such listing show your prospects where your company is situated on Google Maps, but they also show up higher in the search engine results pages, providing a significant impression share. 

To better understand how GMB is crucial from a business perspective, plumbers that appear on Google’s local 3-pack get over 700% improvement in clicks over those that don’t.

2. Google My Business Increases Traffic and Sales

 While a quick Google search can help narrow your options, particularly for clients on mobile devices, more than 80% of people use Google Maps to locate nearby plumbing contractors. When it is more appropriate for clients to come to your plumbing business, you are likely to make a sale if they realize you are close. 

 

Plus, homeowners who find a plumbing company through their Google My Business listing are up to 50% more likely to close a sale. Simply claiming a Google My Business listing and finishing the verification steps, your office location will also start to show up for local searches on maps.

 

3. Google My Business Listing Earns Trust From Clients

One of the hurdles clients face today is building sufficient trust with a plumbing business to make a purchase confidently. As a plumber, one of the steps you can take to assist in offering them your location on your Google My Business profile. 

 

Plumbers that appear on Google are almost three times deemed reputable by the client.

This is mainly because of the legitimacy of the Google My Business verification process. Since its known plumbers must go through specific steps to appear for a local search, Google is a trustworthy platform that users can depend on. 

 

4. Rank Higher in Organic Search Results

By listing your plumbing business on GMB, you increase your chances of showing up when homeowners search for keywords related to your company (e.g., Murfreesboro plumbers). Google wants to tell users (clients) about your company since it intends to offer valuable information to searchers. The more Google knows your plumbing company, the higher it will rank in the search engine results and maps. Your Google My Business listing is the best way to give Google information so that it can satisfy your user’s intent.

 

5. Reach and Engage With Your Target Audience for Free

There are various ways to promote your plumbing business and put it on the first page of Google. One method is to run a Google Ads campaign, but you should allocate a hefty budget. The other tactic is to enhance your plumber’s SEO, but it takes time to establish authority and improve your ranking. But, a GMB listing provides a cheaper and faster way to gain targeted exposure on the major search engines. Creating, verifying, and claiming your Google My Business listing doesn’t cost you even a dime and takes less time to optimize your listing.

 

Google My Business listing puts your company in front of many wallet-out clients and gives them quick access to your direction, operation hours, and website, all without paying a dime! So, having an essential resource without incurring any cost allows you to invest your resources in other aspects of your plumbing company.

 

6. Improve Your Appeal Among Potential Clients with Reviews

Online reviews are influential when homeowners want to make a purchasing decision. Over 90% of clients first read online reviews to evaluate the quality of a plumber, and most property owners always choose a plumber with the highest number of positive reviews.

Google My Business profile is handy as it allows clients to review your plumbing company and leave feedback. This improves your appeal to prospects and gives you an honest analysis of what you are doing right and where you need to improve. 

 

Reviews also establish confidence and trust among customers. According to a local client survey, over 80% of customers trust online reviews, and they carry the same weight as personal recommendations. Online reviews are also a ranking algorithm factor utilized by Google to know where to put your company on organic search results. According to a study by Moz on local organic search rankings, online reviews contribute up to 10% of how search engines determine their organic rankings. 

 

7. It Shares Appropriate Information With Your Potential Clients

Google My Business listing helps you share information about your plumbing business, including your contact information, operating hours, and contact details. It also lets you share updates, news, offers, and announcements. These posts appear on Google Maps and Search, helping you keep in touch with prospects and update them.

 

But, before posting anything, it’s crucial to consider what you want to achieve. Do you want to increase awareness about a new service or new company? This will help you to craft the post with that goal. Besides, add a call to action that compels prospects to take action, like calling your business for a quote.

 

How Does Google Determine Local Organic Rankings For Plumbers?       

For the large part, Google ranks local plumbers organically based on the following metrics; 

 

  • Relevance

Relevance refers to how well a local plumber matches what a homeowner is searching for. When you include detailed information to your GMB profile, you give Google more details to match your plumbing company to searches it may apply to.

 

  • Prominence

Prominence denotes how well-known your plumbing business is in the area. Sometimes, Google will consider some offline factors to evaluate your distinction. For example, famous museums, landmarks, or well-known plumbers are likely to appear in the local organic search results. 

 

  • Distance

Distance evaluates the distance of each prospect’s result from the location used in online searches. If a homeowner doesn’t specify a location, Google will utilize what they know about a potential client’s location to calculate the distance.

12 Ways To Optimize Your Google My Business Listing & Get More Plumbing Clients In 2021

Optimizing and claiming your Google My Business listing is one of the simple ways to get organic traffic and clients. To that end, there are several ways you should consider before diving into claiming and optimizing your plumbing contractor on Google.

Optimizing your Google My Business is one of the simple ways to reach new clients, but you should ensure that you follow the best practices to get the most out of your listing:

Google My Business For Plumbers Checklist

1. Ensure that You Qualify for a Google My Business Listing

The initial step in optimizing your GMB listing is to ensure that you qualify for a local plumber listing on Google. Not every plumber will qualify for such a listing. To clarify, you require a physical location to verify your plumbing business on Google.

Businesses or homeowners should be able to walk in or meet your representative. However, there are some exceptions, but primarily Google My Business is for an offline, conventional plumbing business.

2. Verify Your Plumbing Business’s Information

One of the fundamental steps when creating a profile is verifying your Google My Business listing.

Verification implies that you sign in with a Gmail account associated with your plumbing company. 

The various method of verifying your Google My Business include a phone number, email, or postcard. Furthermore, you can use the Google search console to prove this, particularly if you have a plumbing website already. Verification using a postcard is the most common method to verify your plumbing business, and you will require a physical location to which Google can send the postcard.

3. Select the Best Category to Describe Your Plumbing Business

 This is one of the most crucial steps toward optimizing your plumbing company’s Google My Business listing.

Google My Business allows you to select one primary and the other nine categories. The concept here is to state your plumbing business industry in simple terms, and you should pick the best primary category that accurately describes your plumbing business. 

For example, a plumber is the best category for a plumbing contractor, and a secondary category might be the drain service category. Avoid the temptation of stuffing your listing with irrelevant categories unrelated to your plumbing business.

Accurate details matter on your Google Business listing; relevance is undoubtedly everything.

 4. Complete Every Section

As a plumber, one of the most crucial things you can do is to fill out each section on your Google listing to ensure that Google knows more about your plumbing business and understands what is appropriate to display across the web. Such details include:

  • Business Category
  • Business name
  • Phone number
  • Plumbing website
  • Operation hours
  • Question and answers
  • Photos 
  • Description
  • Address

The details displayed for your plumbing company must be accurate and match what is said across other platforms online. Be thorough with each detail, as Google will favor listings with more details and higher rankings on the search engine results pages.

5. Get More Online Reviews

Online reviews can break or do your plumbing business in the modern digital business landscape. They are like word-of-mouth recommendations to new property owners considering scheduling service appointments with your plumbing company. Furthermore, online reviews can help you make an excellent initial impression, but they can also help your website rank higher on the search engine result pages. The more positive online reviews you have, the more prospects will want to book plumbing jobs with you. That said, it is crucial to be generating online reviews daily to keep your plumbing business afloat.

Here are some surefire tips to help you obtain more online reviews:

  • Request for them

Asking for online reviews is the easiest way to obtain reviews daily. 

When one of your technicians is on the job site with a happy client, request that the customer give you an excellent review on your plumber’s website. Mostly, the homeowner will be willing to leave a review on the spot but would have forgotten once you left the site.

  • Follow-up with Emails

Develop a viable online review management strategy. Always reach out to clients and ask them to leave reviews or leverage tools that automatically make such requests to your customers. Use email campaigns that follow up with customers, politely requesting if they can give a review or send reminders to vendors and clients on the Google My Business listing. Include survey links in your listing and describe how they will support your plumbing business, and tell them it will take less than five minutes to finish the survey.

  • Monitor Reviews

Only go for the legit plumbing reviews, and this is because Google will detect fake reviews and spammers and penalize your website. Avoid trying to trick the system because Google only selects online reviews that are honest and unbiased. So, utilize natural tactics and offer exceptional client service to get glowing online reviews.

Besides, focus on quality as opposed to quantity. Also, remember to respond to all reviews. This shows clients that you listen to them and appreciate the effort and time they take to review your plumbing business. Plus, this lets the Google algorithm know that your plumbing company is engaged, responsive, and actively using the GMB platform. Focus on creating custom, meaningful responses that showcase your unique selling propositions.

6. State Your Plumbing Business Hours

You would assume that most plumbers would ace this crucial step. Unfortunately, most don’t.

The idea about Google search rankings is that they require regular attention. Some plumbing contractors start with ambitious plans and extend their operating hours. 

 However, your plumbing company can shorten operational hours for various reasons. Of course, no plumber would want a great client to show up when no one is around to serve them. Stating accurate business hours prevents that from occurring. 

7. A Thorough Description of Your Plumbing Business

The description section of the GMB listing can be utilized to introduce your plumbing company to a prospective client as the most effective solution to their problem. 

Your description should incorporate your plumbing services, experience in the plumbing industry, the advantages of hiring your company, and a compelling call to action. To optimize your plumbing company description, always include some hiring intent search terms for your plumbing specialties and services

Here is a simple formula you can use to describe your plumbing business in the Google My Business listing:

{Name of the business} provides professional {list your plumbing services}in your { Your City}. {Offer some background information about your plumbing company and why clients hire you} Call {phone number} now. Our technicians will be there in less than one hour!

 8. Add Relevant Videos and Photos to Your Google My Business Listing 

Did you know that including more than 100 photos on your listing increases the likelihood of getting found by prospects online? It’s true but doesn’t just go stuffing your profile yet. The videos or photos should be high definition and relevant to your plumbing business.

First impressions can make or break your plumbing business. Thus, uploading high-definition videos and photos shows search engines like Google or Bing that you care about your plumbing company and how to attract new clients. 

Pro tip: Ensure your plumbing company logo is prominent on your main cover photo.

Upload new photos or videos regularly. This will improve user engagement and skyrocket your organic rankings. Many plumbers forget about the GMB listing once it is finished, but you should periodically update the videos or images to make fresh materials available to users. Check your photo/video engagement statistics, and you will note the positive impact.

9. Include the Plumbing Website in Your GMB Profile 

 

Your plumbing website is essential for internet marketing; it is a platform where homeowners learn more about your business, meet your crew, and know if you provide the plumbing services they are searching for. Plus, your plumbing website and your GMB listing rank higher on search engines. 

According to recent studies, 60% of plumbers link to their websites via the GMB profile. But if you don’t have a plumbing website, you can still use your Facebook page or set up a free Google Business page.

10. Point Clients to Your Appointment URL

An appointment URL is another method of contacting your Google My Business profile. It is visible to your clients, who can use any appointment system or leave a message through the contact forms. 

11. Ask Questions & Provide Answers

Have you ever realized that on Amazon, besides giving customer reviews and product descriptions, there is a section for answers and questions? Google offers the same features in your Google My Business profile.

GMB allows clients to ask questions about your plumbing business. Answering such questions may be the impetus a client needs to schedule a service appointment with your plumbing company. 

Go to the “knowledge tab” of your GMB dashboard, and you will see a tab for questions and answers. Complete it with questions that clients might have about your plumbing business and provide detailed answers to ensure that property owners view the most accurate information possible.

12. Pinpoint Your Service Areas 

A service area denotes the distance you are willing to go to service a customer. Every plumbing business is unique, so you may only offer services at your client locations. 

Independent plumbing contractors commonly experience this problem. This is because they provide plumbing services in person but not necessarily in one location. 

In such a case, you should add a service area, not a direct physical address. Google doesn’t want property owners to show up where they can’t utilize your plumbing services. Service areas have a direct impact on your client’s experience.

Expert Google My Business Services For Plumbing Contractors

As a plumber, you want local businesses or homeowners to find your GMB profile when they quickly search online. Google’s new algorithm updates have put more emphasis on local search, which implies it is more crucial than ever to emphasize Google My Business optimization strategies. It has little-known features that allow plumbing contractors to boost their organic rankings and obtain more traffic.

Every plumber wants their business to get listed on the first page of Google to obtain more clients/leads for free. The problem comes when there are only ten listings on every page to claim the top spot on Google. But with a properly optimized Google My Business profile, it can be a potent advertising tool for your plumbing business. It helps your plumbing company appear greatly when property owners conduct local searches, boosting your conversion rates and landing more plumbing jobs. 

Blackstorm Design + Marketing has helped many home service contractors, including roofers, HVAC, and plumbers, get their companies to show up on Google for relevant business keywords by leveraging and optimizing their Google My Business profiles. 

Creating a Google My Business profile is the initial step in establishing a vibrant local SEO strategy for your plumbing business. This is because it allows plumbers to manage their online presence, which can significantly impact how well you run on Google or Bing. 

 Plumbers with a physical location, which draws local clients, can be found through a quick Google search, Mobile search, Google Maps, and Google Earth, respectively. By claiming or creating your GMB listing, you can include additional details about your business, including your phone number, business hours, address, and plumbing services.

Why Choose Us? 

At Blackstorm, we don’t just make empty promises; we deliver accurate results!

With our optimized Google My Business profile, your plumbing business will be able to:

Show Up On Google Maps

We create a particular location and keyword-optimized content for your Google My Business listing. We optimize videos and images and publish posts consistently.

We Get Your Plumbing Business More Google Reviews

Our experts will manage your online reputation by soliciting positive reviews and handling negative reviews like an expert, offering your business more success and exposure.

We Promote Your Plumbing Company Rightly

 We keep you updated and monitor your local ranking on the SERP results by measuring maps, organic and mobile rankings on Google maps, Google, and more. 

And the list continues……

As a plumber, you must follow our post to ensure these tips for claiming and optimizing the Google My Business profile. 

So, what next? 

Contact Us For Google My Business SEO Consultation 

Regardless of the current status of your Google My Business profile, Blackstorm + Design Marketing professionals are here to help. Our team of SEO professionals can help you achieve your plumber marketing goals.  

Schedule a free strategy session with one of our Growth Coaches to help you create, claim and optimize your Google My Business profile today.

 

Categories
Plumbing SEO

PPC for Plumbers: A Game Plan To Scheduling More Plumbing Calls And Increasing Your Online Presence

Killer Google AdWords Tips To Create Ads That Property Owners Can’t Help But Click

Are you struggling to get quality leads for your plumbing business? Does your company use internet marketing? If so, read how to attract leads and schedule more service appointments for your business. 

Nowadays, if a homeowner requires any plumbing services, they probably conduct a quick search on Bing or Google to find the nearest plumber. So, it is highly recommended that your plumbing website rank high in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERP). Your plumbing website is the key to your internet marketing success. One way to make your website appear higher in search engine results is to run effective PPC campaigns.

PPC is a short form for Pay Per Click and is regarded as one of the effective ways for plumbers to market their services online. Using particular plumbing keywords, PPC can help skyrocket plumbing sales, improve brand awareness and schedule more plumbing appointments in less than one month. Are you wondering how PPC for plumbers works? Read on to discover the best practices we use at Blackstorm Design + Marketing to deliver cost-effective qualified plumbing leads. 

Why Invest In PPC For Plumbers? 

Wondering how PPC for plumbers can be beneficial for your business? Here are some powerful reasons to use PPC ads to market your plumbing business: 

1. Fast Results

With some internet marketing tactics, like SEO, it takes time to see noticeable results. But PPC gets your ad in front of homeowners as soon as you start your campaign. 

This also implies that you can see results instantly.

While long-term strategies are crucial for creating lasting brand authority and awareness online, PPC is a good strategy for getting plumbing leads quickly. It can also assist you with insight into the effectiveness of your marketing campaign, which can also help improve other online marketing strategies like Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

2. Precise Targeting

PPC ads allow you to target locations, time, and demographics to reach your desired audiences. Once your PPC ads are running, you will get valuable data on your audience that’s segmented, showing location, gender, and the type of platform they used to reach your plumbing business. Tracking also helps you monitor where users go once they visit your site after viewing your ad. 

PPC ads give you various targeting options, including: 

  • Retargeting: This allows you to follow up with users who had previously clicked on your plumbing website or ad
  • In-market targeting: It helps your business target users who had previously searched for your plumbing services online.
  • Demographic targeting lets you target prospects based on location, age, and other demographic characteristics.

3.No Minimum Investment Needed

One of the benefits of using PPC ads is that plumbers aren’t needed to risk a lot of marketing dollars upfront to try it out. Besides, there’s no minimum amount required monthly to have a PPC ad campaign, which makes it financially risk-free compared to other internet marketing strategies. Further, you are in complete control of your marketing budget; you will be able to set the amount of money you are willing to spend daily. PPC ads for plumbers work on a bidding system; therefore, you will be able to control the amount you are ready to pay for a property owner to click on your ad.

4. Highly Measurable Marketing Method

When you are spending dollars on marketing, regardless of how large or little, you should be able to track the results and get a glimpse of the Return on Investment (ROI). 

PPC ads are one of the most measurable internet marketing techniques compared to conventional marketing methods.

PPC ad platforms provide detailed information about how your campaign is performing. Such information helps you enhance your campaigns as they run. This allows you to test various versions of your ads to know which performs better and optimize it further.

5. Increase Your Conversions & Sales

As a plumber, getting qualified leads and attaining a return on such investments is often stressful and complicated. Getting more clients is typically what plumbers are searching for, and PPC ads are an excellent tool for generating such leads online. When done right, PPC ads help you target homeowners searching for your plumbing services online. With PPC ads, you can create relevant ads for this market segment, targeting keywords and creating a sense of urgency through ad copy.

6. Your Competitors Are Using PPC Ads

If you are contemplating using PPC ads, other plumbers are already using them. 

We are not saying that you have become a copycat. But there are high chances that if your rivals use PPC ads, they could push your organic rankings beneath the top three search engine results pages, making you lose quality leads to them.

Property owners search on Google to find answers to their plumbing problems. 

Therefore, internet marketing is about showing up when prospects/clients search for information about your plumbing company online.

First, it is crucial to know the primary goal of PPC ads for plumbers. One of the objectives is to offer information to prospects when they search for keywords related to your plumbing business online. The main objective, of course, is to get more qualified plumbing leads for your business. 

 Don’t have time to run PPC ads for your plumbing business, schedule a free strategy session with our experts for help.

 

PPC For Plumbers Platforms

There are two major PPC platforms for search engines: Bing Ads and Google Ads. The two have their separate networks. But Google Ads is the most famous search engine, and thus it makes sense to use it over Bing Ads.

What Do You Need To Know Before Using PPC Ads For Plumbers For The First Time?

Every plumber needs to market their services, and today, regardless of the kind of business, that also implies marketing online. There are various methods of doing it, but one of the fast, effective ways is using Google Ads, which applies the Pay Per Click Model, in which you will only pay once a prospect/client clicks on your ad. It is one of the most effective ways to drive more relevant traffic to a plumber’s website, but it is also one of the fastest ways to do so.

 Many sad stories online of home service contractors who have used Google ads only to realize minimal results after spending their whole marketing budget. But in most instances, when done right, the advantages of running Google Ads greatly outweigh the costs.

Plumbers must know how to use and optimize PPC ads to advertise their services online and be armed with these crucial tips before using Google Ads for the first time.  

Here are some things that you need to know before you invest in your first PPC campaign:

  • Have a Strategy in Place to Get More Plumbing Leads

An excellent strategy is crucial for any plumber marketing campaign, and the same applies to Google AdWords. So, what does Google Ads for plumbers entail? It involves a lot of things you would include in any kind of internet marketing campaign.

A good advertising strategy should define your target market, the impact you want to have on prospects, and what you want them to do after clicking your ad. After your Google Ad campaign runs, you should know how to analyze and measure results to understand whether your ads are performing as anticipated.

  • Set an Appropriate Budget for Your Plumbing Company

One of the major benefits of Google Ads is that you can set the amount you want to spend on a specific campaign. And while Google will always persuade you to increase your advertising budget to get more plumbing leads. A higher marketing budget will imply that more property owners will likely click on your Google Ad, but you should set a realistic budget for your campaign. Before launching your Ads campaign, you must understand your budget to avoid breaking your bank account.

  • Know Which Plumbing Keywords to Use

Finding relevant search terms is essential for any Google Ads campaign. Keywords are simply the terms property owners will use when looking for a plumber, and they are typically the phrases you use within your plumbing company. For example, would you use terms like “emergency plumber” or 2″ 4hour plumber” for plumbing contractors?

There is a Keyword Planner tool within your Google Ads account to help you pinpoint the ones you want to use, but before you get started, you know the search terms you wish to use. 

  • Make a Landing Page for Each Plumbing Service Plus the Location 

A plumbing landing page is the page potential clients and visitors will be sent to after clicking your Google Ads. Many plumbers make a colossal blunder of using their website’s homepage as their landing page. The sad truth is that if your landing page doesn’t contain appropriate information, is hard to navigate, or is confusing, all the effort you have put into your Google Ads campaign will be wasted.

  • Google Ads is not a One-time Process.

With other marketing strategies, you can just set an ad campaign and let it run independently. But that’s not how Google Ads works. Even after your Google ad campaign is up and running, you should test various aspects of the campaign, monitor the results, and continuously tweak it to ensure you get the most out of marketing dollars. This may sound discouraging to plumbers who wrongly think qualified leads will start contacting your plumbing business for service once their campaign is up and running.

 

Best Plumbing PPC Practices To Help You Book More Jobs In 2021 & Beyond

1. Choose the Best Keyword for the Most Effective Plumber Marketing Campaign

Keywords are the backbone of any Google Ad campaign. Without such search terms, prospects will never see your ad, and you can’t bid (pay for Google Ads) since it is all based on the keywords. This implies that without keywords, Google Ads won’t even exist. This is how crucial they are, so plumbers should conduct in-depth research before launching their Google Ads campaign.

Keywords are the search terms that customers and users will use when looking for a plumber online. So, if a homeowner is searching for a plumber who repairs toilets, they may use terms like “Toilet repair contractor.” So, if you are a plumbing contractor that does drain cleaning, your keywords list may begin with words like drain cleaning or pipelining. Think like a client.

As a plumber, you need to master the skill of choosing the best keywords for positioning purposes.  

But how? 

i)Select General Plumbing Keywords

Include a list of keywords that resonate with the plumbing services you offer. Think like a homeowner; find out your competitors’ search terms. 

Choosing general keywords is exceptional since it will imply that the ad reaches as many property owners as possible. General keywords will also cost plumbers more since these will have a higher bid and be bid by most plumbers online. 

ii) Use Specific Keywords

Broad plumbing keywords are good, and not using them in your campaign may prevent your Google Ad from being seen by property owners. But when you want to create a seed keyword list, it is also good to be specific, and being specific helps you narrow down to look for homeowners searching for particular plumbing services. 

iii) Negative Keywords

Since keywords are the backbone of any Google Ads campaign, plumbers are often confused when we tell them about ‘negative keywords. But that doesn’t imply using negative words or bad ones. So, what are examples of negative keywords?

Let’s examine a local plumber for a while. An example of a negative keyword would be ‘cheap plumber’ if you want to stay away from cheap clients when you choose ‘cheap plumber’ as your negative keyword. 

Google will not show your advert when a prospect types in ‘cheap plumber’ into their search query. This is advantageous to the plumbers since without including that negative keyword if the ad is shown on property owners, you may end up disappointing them for not servicing them. 

iv) Utilize Keyword Grouping 

Keyword grouping is a crucial but overlooked part of running a Google Ads campaign. Chances are that you will have an exhaustive list of search terms you want to use after finalizing your keyword research. This can make your ad campaign look disorganized by focusing on various keywords that target broad topics. 

By grouping such plumbing keywords, you can target those search terms into similar words and separate them into mid-level, low, and high-level keywords.

Once you have created the subgroups and groups, you can craft an ad directly targeted to those search terms instead of an ad that targets multiple keywords. 

Keyword grouping helps your plumbing business reach more clients and give them precisely what they are searching for.

2. Check Out the Competition

With Google Ads, as with any marketing strategy, it is highly recommended that you don’t reinvent the wheel. You can save a lot of marketing dollars and time by spying on what other plumbers are doing in terms of PPC ads. They could have invested much into their campaigns and run various iterations and tests, and you can take advantage of everything they have learned along the way. 

Conduct quick searches on Google using the plumbing keywords you want to focus on. Read through the top PPC ads keenly and learn as much as possible from them. If your rivals are using specific keywords heavily, there is a likelihood they are obtaining great results. This tip alone could save you thousands of dollars!

3. Describe How You Help Your Clients

Saying how great your plumbing company is will not convince many clients to click your Ad. Any plumber can say how they are #1, and property owners are likely to be skeptical. You should focus your Ad on what plumbing problems you solve for homeowners or the benefits your plumbing services offer.

Think about how your plumbing company actually helps clients and discuss this clearly in your landing page copy.

 

4. Leverage a Powerful, Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

A unique Selling Proposition differentiates your plumbing company from the competitors and gives your potential clients a compelling reason to schedule jobs with you.

Simply put, your USP answers this critical question, why should I, as a homeowner, opt to do business with your company versus any other plumber in the neighborhood?

Here are some compelling reasons why you should include a strong USP in your Ad copy:

  • A powerful USP drives more traffic from qualified prospects (encouraging people to click your ads)
  • A strong USP eliminates price comparison issues. If you give property owners a compelling reason to work with your company versus other plumbers, the cost of your services will become a secondary issue.
  • A powerful USP will increase your plumbing conversion rates. It will help to convert the increased traffic into paying clients.

 

5. Create an Irresistible Offer

Providing something that will be irresistible to your potential clients is an effective way to encourage them to click your Google Ad. “Save $100” or “Get a free quote” are all possible examples. 

What can you provide in your ad copy to compel a potential client to take the desired action? This can only be through creating an irresistible special offer. That offer should contain the following basic components:

  • Valuable

Your plumbing service must be more valuable than the overall price. This doesn’t imply your offer has to be cheap, and you just have to discuss all the value your plumbing services offer to your clients and ensure they outweigh the price.

  • Believable

When you create an offer that seems more good than realistic, your potential clients may be skeptical. Therefore, you must offer a plausible reason for your irresistible offer. 

  • Reverse or Reduce Risk

Everyone, including homeowners, is scared of getting scammed online. One of the best tactics to minimize your clients’ risk is a money-back guarantee. 

A money-back guarantee pulls all the risk on your plumbing business to deliver superior service, or else you will have to provide all the money back to the client. 

6. Leverage Ad Extensions

As a plumber, you want your prospects/clients to learn as much as possible from the Google Ad. Such ads provide multiple ad extensions to help you maximize the performance of your ad copy. That said, there are various ad extensions we highly recommend plumbing contractors to use:

Location Extension: This is the major extension that we usually use to crush Google Ads for our customers. You are connecting your Google My Business listing to your Ads account, and this helps display your location details on your ads but allows your plumbing business to be ranked #1 on Google Maps. 

Call Extension: Setting up a call extension helps your phone number to appear in your Google Ads. Besides, it also shows a tracking number in the Map Pack ad, which is essential to know how your ads perform. 

Callout Extensions: These are short phrases highlighting the benefits of your plumbing business. Our experts will use callout extensions like “Family Owned & Operated, % financing” to grab prospects’ attention and resonate with them.

Sitelink extension: This is the most common extension to make your Google ad appear larger than your competitors, giving you a significant competitive advantage.

 

7. Use Relevant Landing pages

At this stage, your prospect has looked for your plumbing service online. They found your ad copy persuading compared to all other options, clicked it to know more, and landed on your plumbing website.

What next?

 Well, if you are doing Google Ads for the first time, your potential client is scratching his head, wondering what he should do next. Your ad made an irresistible offer that the homepage couldn’t fulfill.

That’s because your homepage isn’t a landing page!

Your homepage typically discusses everything your plumbing company does, all your services, and all the kind of clients you serve. Simply put, your homepage may not be relevant for the ad your prospect clicked.

Therefore, you should create a high-quality landing page that matches the ad and the keyword. This page aims to make the sales process congruent to reassure the prospect that they are going down the conversion funnel.

Here are some components of a converting landing page:

• Headline: This is the first thing your prospect reads, so it should reiterate a special offer made in the ad, grab the attention and convince them to continue reading your page.

• Great Images: Converting landing pages have quality images to convince a prospect to take the desired action.

• Convey Your value Proposition: Give your prospect a reason for doing business with your company instead of other plumbers in the neighborhood.

• Clear Call-To-Action: This will tell your prospects what they need to do after visiting your page.

8. Create a Compelling Ad Copy 

With Google, you only pay when property owners click on your ads. So, your ads have two crucial roles: 

• Attract qualified leads so that they click on your ad instead of other plumbing contractors

• Repel unqualified prospects, so they don’t waste your marketing dollars when clicking on the ad.

That implies more sales, traffic, and less wasted budget on unqualified prospects, which leads to more revenue for your company.

A compelling ad copy also boosts your conversion rate and quality score; thus, you will spend less on your click for your ads. 

Here are four key elements of an excellent Google Ads copy:

• Headline

• Description line 1

• Description line 2

• Display URL

 

9. Call & Conversion Tracking

Tracking conversions is the last step in setting up your Google Ads campaign. If you don’t do it, it will be hard to know which ad and keywords generate more sales, plus those losing money. Simply put, you will not be able to improve or optimize your marketing campaigns. 

Conversion tracking helps to measure the sales achieved by your Google Ads campaign. 

It will help you to know which keywords are most profitable.  

At Blackstorm Design + Marketing, we can help you set up three types of conversion tracking, including: 

i)Form Submission: Put a conversion code on the thank you page after submitting a request.

ii) Phone Call Tracking: Prospects click on an ad and then contact you using the numbers on your landing pages. 

Use Google call tracking systems to know if they go down the conversion funnel.

iii) Ad Extension calls; This is where prospects call the phone number on your landing page without clicking your ad.

 If you are not monitoring all of these, you need to schedule a free strategy session with our experts for assistance now!

 

Creating a Google Ads Campaign

The initial setup of a Google Ad campaign is essential. When you create your first campaign, here are some steps you need to follow:

  • Campaign Objective 

Choose a campaign goal, and Google will ask you the objective of your campaign. Choose “leads” as your goal.

  • Campaign Title 

If your campaign is about plumbing, we recommend calling it that. We normally run separate Google Ad campaigns for various plumbing services, but our experts will only run one campaign if it’s associated with plumbing in general.

  • Type of Campaign

Let’s look at how to decide on the kind of campaign you want to run. We highly recommend that you start with a search campaign, which are primary ads found on the search engine result pages. 

  • Locations

 This is an essential step. Ensure that you include the information about your service areas and exclude those towns or cities that aren’t within your reach. 

  • Ad groups 

These are sets of related Ads that will appear in relevant organic searches. 

They contain headlines, descriptions, and URLs. For instance, your plumber services ad group may include toilet and faucet repair.

  • Descriptions

Google recommends that you have a minimum of two descriptions, which include words about your customers and experience. The objective here is to instantly establish trust with potential clients and ground your authority within the plumbing niche.

One great way to optimize your plumbing Search Engine Marketing Campaigns is through Pay Per Click adverts. At Blackstorm Design + Marketing, we have developed a data-driven and comprehensive PPC ad strategy that will help your plumbing business generate more leads who are interested in your services. Our PPC experts will help your plumbing company grow. 

 Our Unique PPC Process For Plumbing Contractors

At Blackstorm Design + Marketing, we handle all aspects of plumbing Search Engine Marketing, mostly focusing on Pay Per Click ads. While each client has a different process based on their needs, desires, and budget, each campaign contains the following main components:

  • Assessing Your Markets: We will assist you in deciding whether to put your ads on Google, Facebook, or another platform. Our experts will look at your plumbing leads are coming from, where your Competition seems to be getting leads and where your focus lies. From there, they will develop platforms that data proves can serve you better.
  •  Craft Your Ads: When running plumber PPC campaigns, it is crucial to have well-designed ads with your target audience in mind. 
  • Targeting Your Ads: A secret to any paid search marketing campaign is ensuring you target the right audience. Our experts will help you choose demographics and keywords that fit the property owners looking for your plumbing services online.
  •  Ads Tracking: When it comes to paid search marketing, it is not just enough to create a compelling ad and leave it there. You need to check how the ads are working or the ones that are making you lose money. 
  • Tweaking Your Campaign: Once our experts get data on how your ads perform, they will start to tweak and optimize them to get the most out of your campaign. 

Why Hire Us To Manage Your Plumbing PPC Campaigns? 

At Blackstorm Design + Marketing, we take an in-house approach to advertising your plumbing company online. Establishing an open, continuous line of communication ensures that your plumbing Google Ads campaign is extensively researched, consistently tracked, and quickly executed to generate leads for your plumbing company. Our PPC experts will create compelling ad copy to help your business outrank the Competition and book more jobs. 

As a full-service plumbing marketing agency, we offer internet marketing services, including web design, online reputation management, SEO, retargeting and social media advertising. 

Do you want to start a new Google Ads campaign for your plumbing business but don’t know where to start? Is your current PPC campaign not generating desired results for your plumbing company? 

Schedule a free strategy session online with one of our Growth Coaches or call us at 1 (865) 205-8822 to find out how you can fix your Google Ads campaign today.

Categories
Plumbing Website Design

What Are the Benefits of a New Website for Your Plumbing Company

Discover ways a new website can help your plumbing company generate new clients and leads online.

Is your plumbing business struggling to grow? If so, it may be time to consider launching a new plumbing website. There are many advantages of having a brand new site for your plumbing company, such as driving insane amounts of traffic to your business from search engines, which can translate to increased revenue and sales. It also offers an easy-to-navigate platform for all your services and information while making it more hassle-free than ever to reach potential customers. With a new plumbing website design, you can convey everything about your plumbing business in one place so prospects can understand what they require without calling your business or searching elsewhere.

Why is a Great Web Design Important for Plumbers?

Plumbers landing page

Since many property owners turn to Google to find crucial services such as plumbing, your company’s digital presence is crucial. We can see plumbing web development and design making their way via the internet. So, you want to ensure your plumbing company is accessible, visible, and instantly found by those who want to hire plumbing contractors.

Furthermore, a plumbing website helps build the credibility of a plumbing business. A website will give prospects an instant overview of your business and give them reasons why they should hire your company. Before using your plumbing services, people nowadays search for credible details about them first. Customers can find all the information they require on a website without too much effort from you, and it is just a matter of responding to their questions.

Lastly, a plumbing website makes it easy for prospects to contact your business. Think of your website as a 24/7 sales representative.

Without further ado, let us dive into the reasons why you need a great website design for your plumbing business.

Make Great Impressions

Two businessmen shaking hands

Having a professional plumbing website is crucial if you wish to make a great memorable impression on your potential clients. A compelling website with all modern integrations tends to improve your business in the competitive plumbing marketplace.

You must know the quote, and the initial impression is the last. Thus making an impression via a website is important. All in all, a plumber website is a good idea for your plumbing business to generate the desired revenue.

Instant Connection

Plumbing websites have a tendency to create instant connections too fast!

Plumbing websites have a tendency to create instant connections too fast! Having a website for your plumbing company today is a must since it will lead you towards two-way communication. It is believed that if you can instantly connect with your target audience, this is a win-win situation.

Furthermore, instant connection building via the custom website will always allow more clients to connect with your plumbing services. And increased connections imply that your business is going to get more sales.

A New Plumbing Website Boosts Your Online Presence

Plumber using wrench

Nowadays, the initial place people go to when they require is the internet, including hiring a plumber for services. According to a recent study, one of the most common ways for gathering details before making a decision is by visiting a website. So, if you want homeowners to notice your plumbing services, a website designed for plumbers is important to establish a vibrant online presence where your plumbing company is more accessible to those searching for plumbing services online.

A great plumbing website should have web design features for plumbing contractors. Not only should it be visually appealing, but it should come with a responsive and user-friendly website design.

An Excellent Website Helps Your Plumbing Company Rank Well on Search Engines

Getting a new website is a good way to help your plumbing company rank higher on search engines.

Getting a new website is a good way to help your plumbing company rank higher on search engines. There are many ways to make your plumber website visible to your target audience online. One way to achieve this is by ensuring that your plumbing website contains all the right tags and keywords and crafting unique content that shows up in local search results. If done properly, you can attract a consistent stream of new leads and clients your business requires for continued success. When you are searching for a great web design for plumbers, it is crucial to use tools in making a good landing page that you can use for your paid ad campaigns.

Integrate Google Maps on Your Plumber Website So Prospects Can Find Your Business Easily

Google Maps

Many clients want to hire plumbers that are near their residences to make sure that they can hire plumbing contractors in the neighborhood at any given time. Having a great plumbing website helps your clients obtain the business address, which saves them time to find directions. On the flip side, this is also especially beneficial if you can only service-specific locations, and you don’t want prospects to have false expectations about your company’s location.

Convenience Comes First

In the modern business world, convenience generally comes as the first element. Every prospect seeks convenience, and that’s why they want to depend on online networking. A great plumbing website plays an important role in this regard, as they offer a convenient service. You can now obtain everything in the blink of an eye, which is an integral part of modern-day living.

Become Credible

Business hands joined together

In the modern marketing environment, your plumbing company will not be taken seriously by prospects or clients if you don’t have a professional website. If you want to be perceived as a trustworthy and helpful business with experience and credibility, it is important that you have a plumbing website that will make your company relevant online. Having a vibrant online presence will increase your bottom line immensely.

Become a Household Name

It is very easy for your plumbing business to get lost in the sea of other plumbers on the internet, but with a professional plumbing website, your company will no longer be unknown or invisible. It will help your prospects or clients find out about your plumbing services on the web. Research in plumbing marketing shows that more and more clients are using the internet to search for local service businesses. This implies that having a professional website will make sure that potential clients find your plumbing business. You don’t want to miss out on potential sales just because you failed to create a plumber website for your business.

Engage Your Prospects or Clients

Engaging your clients

A plumbing website can be a potent tool utilized to communicate directly with your clients and offer them access to the deals and information that they are searching for. You can now engage clients online with the help of a website and develop clear calls to action that can impact your company’s success.

Why Hire Blackstorm Design + Marketing for Plumber Website Design Services?

Plumber Website Design Services

Most plumbers think of their website as an online brochure. But in the real sense, your plumbing company’s website is a 24/7 online sales representative that can generate massive amounts of sales and leads, often at a lower cost than that of conventional advertising and marketing. So how does your plumbing website achieve all this?

Blackstorm Design + Marketing specializes in web design for plumbers’ services that are not only visually appealing but also rank high in search engine results and convert your prospects into clients.

Let our experienced web designers convert your plumber’s website into a seamless marketing tool for your business.

Our Plumbing Business Website Design Services

Plumbing service landing page

From SEO-optimized plumbing content to visually appealing plumber website, our team can do it all on your behalf. If you are operating on a shoestring budget, don’t worry, we have a vast collection of plumbing website layouts proven for converting browsers into qualified leads and effective for plumbing SEO. Searching for a fully-customized website for your plumbing business? We can do that as well!

When you hire Blackstorm Design + Marketing as your plumbing website design agency, you will get:

  • A team of professionals that understands the ins and outs of your plumbing company
  • A project manager who guides and coaches you throughout the process to make sure that your website goes “live” on budget and on time.
  • A visually appealing, professional plumber website that exceeds your expectation
  • A great improvement in your Google search rankings and visit-to-lead conversion

Ready for a new Plumbing Website?

Repairing sink drain

Every plumbing company should have a website where prospects can find all the details they need in a central place and stay competitive in the marketplace. A good website specifically built for plumbers will appeal to your target market and consequently encourage them to hire you for the plumbing services that you provide.

If you want to outrank your competitors with a professionally designed website, schedule a free discovery call with Blackstorm Design + Marketing to achieve your goals today.

You may also be interested in our other digital marketing services for plumbers including:

Categories
Marketing Plumbing

Plumber Marketing 101: The Ultimate Guide To Marketing Your Plumbing Company In 2021 & Beyond

Increase Sales, Booked Jobs, And Leads With Our Proven Offline And Online Plumber Marketing Strategies 

As a plumber, getting new business or leads can be an uphill assignment because of the stiff competition. This is because many plumbing contractors are out there, and it can be challenging to think of the best way to differentiate your business. Plus, the way property owners think about and look for home service contractors such as plumbers or roofers has changed over the last ten years, so plumbers must know how to capture the attention of modern customers.

Without a consistent stream of new plumbing leads or clients, your company will stagnate, wither or die. 

To grow your plumbing company, you need the right marketing strategy, people, and approach to advertising your business. To succeed in your plumbing company, you must bring healthy bank statements. To have a good cash flow, you should keep new leads or clients coming in. Customers are the lifeblood that keeps your company afloat, and if no phone calls or emails are coming in, there is no one to promote your plumbing services to.

Plumbing is one of those lucrative industries where you should find many clients if you target them appropriately. Plumbing is more than repairing clogged toilets or fixing holes. There is no denying that marketing is crucial for your plumbing company. But where do you start, or what plumbing marketing strategies should you use? Without further ado, let’s explore unique ways to20 market and grow your plumbing business.

What Is Plumbing Marketing?

Plumbing marketing is the business or action of promoting your services, including advertising and market research. It also refers to your actions to advertise your plumbing services and attract more clients to your company.

This can incorporate running internet marketing campaigns, conducting market research to know your company’s ideal client, and even collaborating with influencers or other plumbers to improve social search (simply put, increase your company’s pool of prospective clients).

Operating a plumbing company presents unique challenges. Unlike other industries that can focus on a specific target market or rely on seasonal events, you require to reach two essential groups of prospects all year round:

  • The panicked homeowners with a clogged bathroom or other emergencies require to contact a nearby plumber ASAP
  • The install client or routine maintenance researches and compares plumbing contractors to identify the best fit for their project.

Since plumber marketing is either a business or an action, revenue and result can only be measured. 

Because the art of marketing your plumbing company is wide-ranging, there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy.

As a plumber, you didn’t start your company to stay behind your laptop all day and analyze ad impressions or traffic. That’s alright since plumbing marketing is more than that!

You know more about marketing your plumbing company than you think; developing your plumbing business logo and name, spreading the word to family and friends, and requesting existing clients for referrals are all vibrant marketing strategies.

To get the most out of your plumber marketing efforts; we recommend that from the very beginning; 

It would help if you built your brand.

Your brand is the promise you make to your prospects/clients, and it is what differentiates you from other plumbers and why clients will select you over other plumbers that appear when they Google “plumber near me.”

Advantages Of Plumber Marketing

While marketing your plumbing company may initially seem a huge investment, your business will get many benefits by getting its name out there. What can a well-designed plumber marketing campaign do for your business? Here are just a few advantages:

  • Improves customer perception and attracts new clients
  • Keeps your clients, both new and old, informed about your plumbing services
  • Boosts your company’s online credibility and presence.
  • It gives you a chance to increase your online reviews
  • Build authenticity and voice in your plumbing brand.

 

Steps To Launch Your Plumber Marketing Campaign

 1. Conduct Market Research

As with all business endeavors, the initial thing you need to do is study the current landscape. This would imply understanding the demand, the market, and the overall plumbing industry climate for plumbing contractors.

Begin by asking these crucial questions: What are close rivals doing? What demographic or market is your plumbing company targeting, and what does the ideal client want? What are the proven marketing strategies for the plumbing industry?

2. Know Your Ideal Customer

Before you kick off any plumber marketing campaign, you must understand your unique value proposition to prospective clients. Understanding the mindset of your ideal client is essential in building your plumbing company’s success.

Creating a good buyer persona will assist your business in retaining clients in the long run but can also help to refine its brand voice. Adopting such a persona will develop a defined vision of your plumbing company.

3. Be Branding Consistent

Ensure your company projects a consistent voice and image across each market you promote. As a plumber, you last want your client to get lost in finding your business because of inconsistent branding.

A good logo is essential when you want to brand your plumbing company. Your plumbing company logo can represent reliability, quality, and value for money. It is crucial because it will be plastered across all your marketing collateral. It will portray how a prospect identifies you, and thus it should represent you effectively. A professional company logo goes a long way to grow your plumbing business (both online and offline).

4. Build Great Client Experiences

The best publicity is usually free publicity! Your happy clients will do a lot of heavy lifting for your plumbing company if they have a superior experience. Satisfied clients can leave positive reviews and boost your company rankings in the search engines like Google or Bing for relevant industry keywords. One of the best free ways to market your plumbing company is to offer superior service.

How Do You Find Customers For Your Plumbing Company?

Many plumbing contractors operating for a while rely on offline advertisements and referrals to obtain more customers. But the client’s behavior keeps on changing. No property owner calls or visits neighbors to ask for a great plumber. Instead, they turn to search engines like Google or Bing. They look for plumbers near them, check online testimonials and reviews, and schedule service appointments. That increases the need for a vibrant online presence.

To tap out clients who are actively searching on the internet and searching for plumbing contractors, you should ensure that you are visible to these prospects.

Why Does A Plumber Need To Market Their Business Online?

Plumbing is a very competitive landscape, where your target market is limited to local property owners (usually 40 to 50 miles); thus, your business should be focused on obtaining more leads.

The conventional way of advertising, where plumbing contractors would put ads in local dairies, do TV ads and distribute flyers, doesn’t seem to work nowadays and can be expensive nowadays.

Besides that, modern customers always look up to search engines like Google or Bing to answer their daily challenges. This makes it worthwhile to invest in digital marketing and grow your company with it.

At Blackstorm Design +Marketing, we have helped many service contractors, including roofers or plumbers, improve their online presence and generate consistent leads. We know how hard it is to research stuff that isn’t your specialization as a company owner. If you are reading this post, it implies that you have been looking for plumbing marketing ideas and tips online.

Using internet marketing strategies for plumbers can help outrank the competition and obtain more customers. Securing qualified leads in your local area isn’t as hard as you think. With the right platform mix, including advertising and social media, your sales volume and your brand’s affinity will skyrocket.

From our experience, we can be able to show you killer strategies that can help you generate non-stop leads and make your company stand out from the competition.

Internet Marketing Strategies For Plumbers  

Nowadays, homeowners don’t have time to visit their neighbors, asking for recommendations from a great plumbing contractor they have always worked with. Instead, they prefer searching online for plumbing services they are interested in, which has increased the need for online plumbing marketing channels.

 

As the internet becomes a vital step in the buying journey, digital plumber marketing becomes a crucial investment. If you want to put your business in front of prospects searching for your services online, you require an effective internet marketing campaign.

 

If you are searching for plumber marketing ideas to grow your business, keep reading to learn about 16 lead generation strategies. Or schedule a free strategy session with one of our Growth Coaches if you need help creating a vibrant marketing campaign for your plumbing business.

 

As you go through our guide, note where you are succeeding or where you have room to grow or expand. By doing so, you will know where to invest your limited resources.

Without further ado, let us dive in!

 

1. Build a Professional Plumbing Website 

The first thing any plumber needs today is a functional site that can attract customers to your business. Your plumbing website is the heart of your online marketing campaign, and having a plumber website increases your online visibility and establishes trust in the minds of your prospects/clients.

 

Besides pipe wrenches and drain snakes, a well-designed website is one of the best tools at your disposal. Nowadays, homeowners do everything online:

  • Buy new faucets.
  • Watch DIY sink installation videos.
  • Look for the best local plumbing contractors when their toilets get blocked, or pipes start leaking.

 

Your plumbing website is what introduces you to the interested potential clients, so ensure your homepage has all the information that will inspire them to schedule a service call, a list of specialties, and multiple ways of contacting your company.

 

There are several factors you need to consider when building your plumbing website. Designing and planning your plumber website’s layout correctly is set to attract the right clients, and this implies that your plumbing website design needs to be:

 

  • Designed for mobile: This is an essential first step. Google now favors mobile-optimized plumbing websites with higher rankings. And since more than 60% of organic traffic comes from mobile devices, you could be missing many prospects from the competition because of the negative client experience.

 

  • Clearly describe your servicesPlumbers typically provide various services; therefore, the best plumbing website design should clearly define areas of specialization plus any other services you offer.

 

  • SEO-Friendly: You want your plumbing company website to be found by prospects online. Without optimizing SEO by including keywords, it will be hard or impossible to get found online.

 

  • Build trust with reviewsFinding an experienced plumber can be tricky. That’s why you need to include client reviews or testimonials on your plumbing website, provide social proof and showcase exceptional work.

 

  • Secure and loads faster:  if your plumbing website has a complicated design, it will take too long to load, turning away clients who don’t want to wait. Nowadays, people have short attention spans; thus, your website should load in less than three seconds. In addition, it should have a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate to boost your organic rankings and prevent them from being hacked.

 

If creating a good website is something you cannot do on your own, partner with a reputable professional plumber website design agency to get your project done on time and on schedule.

 

2. Invest in Local SEO to Get More Plumbing Clients Online.

Once your plumber website is ready, you need to optimize it for search engines to find it when searching for online plumbing services. People are constantly conducting searches daily, looking for services/products, information, and companies. Businesses or homeowners are searching for plumbing companies like yours, so optimizing your website to appear in front of these wallets and potential clients is crucial.

 

According to the Home Improvement study, online searches are the top ways clients find service contractors, including plumbers. And, when searching for plumbers on search engines like Google or Bing, clients typically take a local approach.

 

Conducting searches with keywords like “plumber near me” is common. That’s why it is incredibly crucial for plumbing contractors to have a vibrant presence in the local search results.

 

This implies that your plumbing marketing strategy should incorporate a local SEO. This strategy helps you get found in the search engine results when prospects search for plumbing services in your area.

 

If conventional SEO for plumbing contractors makes your website indexed and ranked on search engines like Google or Bing, local SEO concentrates on your locality and region. 

 

Here’s how you can leverage local SEO to get more plumbing customers:

i)Online client reviews:  There are multiple directories where clients can express how unhappy (or satisfied) they are with your business. The more positive reviews you have, the simple it is to rank on search engines like Google or Bing.

ii)Name, Address, and Phone number {NAP} citations Make sure that all your online listings are 100% consistent across every platform to allow prospects/clients to contact your business when they need emergency plumbing services.

iii)Online Reputation Management: Sometimes, customers will leave negative reviews, but you can manage to change their experience in how you respond. Customers are waiting to see how promptly and professionally you respond to bad reviews. If you do it right, it might close a sale just like a positive review would.

iv)Ranking in the map listings (Local pack):  This will depend on the proximity of a property owner to your plumbing business. And it can help to ensure that your primary category matches your plumbing service and has lots of reviews across the web.

v)Use white hat SEO strategiesWhite hat” refers to the use of best practices to generate great results for their clients. On the flip side, “black hat” refers to any practices that violate search engine’s best practices and get your plumber website penalized.

3. Submit Your Plumbing Business to Major Online Directories

Plumbing is primarily a local business, so your prospects will find you through local business directories, and thus having your company published in online directories is essential. Listing your plumbing company in major online directories can boost your visibility online.

Adding your plumbing business to online directories will establish trust and improves your chances of getting found by potential customers.

Here are some of the major directories that you can use to list your plumbing company:

Google My Business Profile

When property owners search for local plumbers, Google compiles a list of plumbing contractors that satisfy user search. Such results appear in a box known as the local three-pack. Generally, the pack lists three major plumbers that satisfy the user search query based on proximity and their search for the business’s location.

As a plumber, you must register and claim your Google My Business listing to help more prospects find your plumbing company. Homeowners will find all the details they require in your listing, making them interact with your listing, and it can make them visit your plumbing

website if they want. Getting your Google My Business profile is one of the

best plumbing marketing ideas, particularly when you want to drive traffic to

your local plumbing business.

Yelp

When searching for a plumbing company, homeowners no doubt look for reviews. And your clients do the same. Yelp is one of the famous online directories where customers can leave reviews. So how can you leverage Yelp for your plumbing company? Click here to know to make the most out of this platform.

Here are other online directories where you can list your plumbing company:

4. Get New Plumbing Clients Through Pay-Per-Click Ads

If you want to get qualified plumbing leads online, invest in Pay-Per-Click ads. PPC is an effective plumbing marketing idea since it helps you reach prospects likely to close and become paying clients.

To get started with PPC campaigns, choose the correct keywords. Like plumbing SEO, concentrate on the long-tail keywords, which will drive relevant traffic and keep your ad spend low.

Once you have discovered your keywords through tools like Google Keyword Planner, Semrush, or Ahrefs, bid for the placing of your ad.

This plumbing marketing strategy is cost-effective because it allows you to control how much you want to spend per click.

Once you have set the PPC, you can begin to get more leads for your plumbing business. To make the most out of your paid search campaign, you can also run Google Local Service Ads

for plumbers.

Such ads show above PPC ads, and they offer all the details a homeowner would require to contact your business, so your marketing dollars are only spent when a browser converts than on clicks.

However, to run Google Local Service Ads, you must pass through a verification process to become Google Guaranteed. This simply implies that Google will verify your insurance and license information and tell prospects that a particular layer of protection and trust comes with partnering with your plumbing business.

Pro tip: If you want to target prospects likely to schedule service appointments, invest in Pay-Per-Click ads to drive such prospects to your plumbing business.

5. Connect With Your Potential Clients with Social Media Advertising

Social media provides a great platform to interact with your potential clients. Nowadays, no plumber marketing plan is complete without leveraging the benefits of social media marketing channels, and compelling platforms such as:

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

Instagram is mainly a powerful platform for plumbers since its content is visual. You can utilize it to build a massive following, demonstrate past projects, share your vision, and portray your plumbing business as an authority. Ensure you engage with your prospects regularly, post content regularly, and keep your content varied and evergreen. Possible social media content for plumbers may include:

i) Interior design photoshoots

ii) After and before pictures of completed projects.

iii) How-to videos

To promote your social media posts across channels, include your account handles on business cards, brochures, and other marketing collateral, like at the footer of your plumber’s website or email signatures.

Using social media posts and paid ads, you will reach valuable leads for your plumbing company. This will help you connect better with your target audience and offer valuable insights that interest them.

6. Share Your Plumbing Knowledge with Some Compelling Content

Content marketing is an essential part of digital marketing for plumbers since it is integral to other strategies. It can help boost your plumber’s SEO efforts, give you content to post on social media and offer you something to use in your emails, for instance.

That’s why it is an essential strategy to help your plumbing company build its customer base. But when creating content, concentrate on the value it offers your readers, and it should provide answers to the questions your audience has. To drive relevant traffic to your company, focus on writing topics about the plumbing industry.

By writing informative, compelling content as a part of your plumber marketing strategy, you will attract more valuable traffic to your plumbing website.

 

7. Improve Your Online Reputation

Review management is an integral part of any successful plumbing business online. Property owners regularly read online reviews or testimonials to see how others perceive your business. You must manage your company’s online reviews to ensure that new prospects/leads select your business.

As a plumber, you will have both negative and positive reviews. However, negative reviews aren’t the end since prospects also expect them. The essential part is how you respond to such reviews.

Here is a good way of dealing with online reviews; thank clients for their positive compliments while addressing the negative ones. Acknowledging your customer’s problems or experiences is an excellent step toward showing clients that you truly care for their needs.

 

If you want to grow your plumbing company on the internet, invest in online reputation management services for your plumbing business.

Pamphlets, Business Cards, and Flyers

This plumber marketing technique is simple yet effective, particularly in service areas where word-of-mouth recommendations can be used to grow your business.

 

Business cards remain a powerful and effective weapon for plumbing contractors. They provide a personalized yet quick method of connecting existing and attracting new customers. Only place the vital details on your card, and avoid the temptation of sharing all your plumbing services on a single business card.

 

Flyers and pamphlets can offer any additional information about your plumbing business that cannot be traced on a business card at a glance.

 

8. Use Quality Videos to Engage Your Target Audience

Video marketing is no doubt one of the most effective ways of delivering messages within a short time. 

Plumbing videos provide a fun way for homeowners to get crucial information. It allows one to showcase past projects, build brand awareness and explain complex topics.

 

As a plumbing contractor, you want to create informative and helpful videos for your audience. Such videos can assist them in digesting huge amounts of information within a short span. You can create quality videos to showcase things like:

  • How to fix a leaky toilet?
  • How to fix a bathroom faucet?
  • Bathroom remodeling tips

So, suppose your business continues to post such videos. In that case, prospects/ clients will begin to associate with your brand with relevant and helpful videos and can contact your company in case of major plumbing emergencies.

9. Use Geofencing Advertising to Reach New Plumbing Clients 

Geofencing advertising is an effective plumber marketing technique that can help you reach new customers. Using this strategy, you set up an “invisible fence.” The fence, such as your plumbing business, encompasses a specific area surrounding a building.

Once property owners enter the fence, they get a notification about your business or a Google or Facebook ad about your company. This can cause them to come to your door or think about contacting your plumbing company.

As a plumber, you want to target conferences, trade shows, and other events that homeowners or business owners attend. It is an effective way to get attendees to consider your plumbing business at the first chance.

 10.  Add Branding Everywhere 

Suppose your plumbing company doesn’t have a unique branding strategy. Plumber services lend it well to branding on uniforms, vehicles, and more.

Let’s face it: if you have vans or technicians driving around your neighborhood, a branded vehicle wrap would be a simple way of marketing your plumbing company.

Pro tip: Ensure that your branding incorporates a link to your plumber’s website and your phone number, so it’s easy for prospects to find out about your company when they see your brand.

11. Retarget Your Potential Clients 

 

Not every visitor who lands on your plumbing website will schedule a plumbing service appointment or call you for their plumbing needs, and they might go to another plumber or come back later when ready to use your plumbing services.

But should you let go of these potential clients just because they are unsure or ready? Of course, not! You should retarget these prospects by utilizing smart marketing techniques.

One of the most effective ways to retarget such clients is to ensure they see your plumbing service ads even if they are not browsing your site. Such an ad will ensure that the idea of getting professional plumbing services doesn’t slip away from their mind so that they call you once they are ready.

Common Plumbing Marketing Mistakes To Avoid

The goal of any plumbing contractor is to get more revenue by driving new business. So how can you avoid the common pitfalls that most plumbers make?

To run an effective plumber marketing campaign, avoid these mistakes:

Mistake 1: Skipping the Research

Plumbing marketing decisions shouldn’t be based on emotions or feelings. As a plumber, you don’t have enough resources to analyze your market in-depth, and that doesn’t imply you should create promotions in a vacuum.

You have one significant advantage over larger plumbing companies, access to your clients. Speak to your clients about what they deem helpful. As a rule of thumb, don’t invest your marketing dollars in a campaign that won’t lead to plumbing service appointments. There has to be a demand for your services if you want to book more jobs.

Mistake 2: Trying to Create Your Plumbing Website

 Persuading a site visitor to contact your plumbing company is a science that most plumbers do incorrectly. Here are some plumbing website designs pitfalls that you need to avoid:

  • Not explaining what you want people to do after visiting your site( i.e., booking an appointment)

 

  • Not using a user and SEO-friendly web copy (i.e., brochure-style or cluttered website)

 

  • It is not satisfying the search intent (different groups, varying needs).

 

How can a plumber avoid this?

 

Resist the urge to utilize readymade website templates or hire your nephew to create your plumbing company website. Instead, use a reputable plumber marketing agency like Blackstorm Design+ Marketing to ensure that you are guiding as many property owners as possible toward contacting your company for services.

 

Mistake #2: Creating a plumbing website no one visits

A common misconception is that property owners will magically visit your newly built plumbing website. After all the money and time you have invested in creating the plumber’s website, you should make sure that property owners can see it.

 

How can you avoid this?

 

Fortunately, our search engine optimization experts can help you optimize your plumbing website for users and search engines like Google or Bing.

 

Mistake #3: Not Knowing if your plumber marketing campaigns are working

Maybe you sponsored a local event or gave out brochures. But do you know how many property owners visit your plumbing website or contact or email your business due to such online marketing tactics?

 

Your marketing dollars can easily be wasted if you don’t know the number of prospects and clients your advertising produces.

 

How can you avoid this?

 

The good thing with internet marketing is that everything is measurable. There are strategies to measure precisely the number of calls, emails, and clicks generated from one advertisement. This will encourage continuing with your marketing efforts.

 

Mistake # 4: Not Converting Browsers into Paying Clients

Generating interest in your plumbing company will help you succeed, but you and your staff need to take it to the next level.

 

Make sure you pick up every call. One missed call, and you lose your prospect to the competition.

  

How can you avoid this?

 

Improve your systems and control how prospects are contacting you. Level the playing field by investing in good CRM software, building your plumber website, and managing your leads on autopilot.

 

Plumbing Marketing Services FAQ

 

How can I market my plumbing company?

There are several strategies that you can use to advertise your plumbing business, including but not restricted to:

  • Creating a plumber website that converts browsers into paying clients
  • Get and manage online reviews
  • Optimize your website for search engines and users.
  • Claiming your listings in major online directories.

 

What is internet marketing for plumbers? 

Internet marketing, also known as digital marketing, is a term used to denote marketing activities online. This can include Search Engine Optimization, web design, PayPerClick, online reputation management, retargeting, social media advertisement, and so much more!

 

Why should plumbing contractors invest in internet marketing?

Plumbing contractors should invest in online marketing because over 90% of property owners require a plumber, and the initial place to look is online. If your plumbing business doesn’t have a vibrant online presence, then you stand to lose leads to the competition.

 

What internet marketing services for plumbers do you offer? 

At Blackstorm Design + Marketing, we offer a full suite of online marketing services for plumbers. This includes everything from website design, Search Engine Optimization, Online Reputation Management, Retargeting, PPC, and Social Media advertising.

 

Stop Wasting Your Dollars on Plumber Marketing that doesn’t work, and Let Your Phone Ring off the Hook.

 

As a plumber, you have better things to worry about than what keywords search engines love these days. If you are tired of wasting your dollars on plumber marketing strategies that don’t generate desired results, our experts would love to help.  

Schedule a free strategy session online with one of our Growth Coaches or call us at 1 (865) 205-8822 to get an excellent plumber marketing plan today!

 

Categories
Plumbing SEO

Plumbing Ads: Game-Changing Strategies to Attract New Clients and Book More Service Jobs

Learn the fundamentals of plumbing ads that will help grow your business (both offline and online)

The plumbing industry is experiencing a boom in times with more than 70% of plumbers saying revenues are growing. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand for plumbers is expected to grow by 16% between 2018 to 2027. Thanks to its growth, the plumbing industry is also competitive. In fact, there are more than 480, 600 plumbers in the United States.

With such cutthroat competition, how do you keep your plumbing business’s name in front of potential clients?

That’s why you are here: to learn about plumbing ad strategies to help your business stand out in the industry.

Clogged toilet

If you want to attract new clients, re-engage clients who booked a one-off service job and scale your plumbing company, ads are a great place to begin.

Digital ads for plumbers help you target a particular audience, make the most of your budget, and check what works and what doesn’t to develop a marketing plan for your plumbing business.

This post will help your master the fundamentals of plumbing advertising for search engines, social media, and more.

Without further ado, let us dive in!

What is Plumbing Advertising?

Plumbing service advertising

As a plumber, you provide an essential service. And your clients require that service.

Plumbing advertising or plumbing ads revolve around how you connect their demand with your supply (your plumbing services).

Go back five decades, and plumbing advertising was in print – whether it was a billboard, newspaper, or magazine. But nowadays, the majority of plumbing ads are conducted online since that’s where your clients spend most of their time.

The major types of plumbing ads are run in the form of:

Plumbing ads

  • Facebook Ads
  • Instagram Ads
  • Google Ads
  • YouTube Ads

In this post, we are going to discuss the ad types listed above, showing you how to make the most out of your ads and tons of tips to manage your plumbing advertising campaigns and book more plumbing service jobs.

But first, let us first answer this most important question:

Do I require plumbing ads if I have work coming in?

With the plumbing industry booming, more and more plumbers are identifying the potential to make good money. And with the stiff competition, the ability to attract clients will break or make your plumbing business.

Benefits of Plumbing Ads

Online plumbing ads can bring your business a consistent stream of leads.

What if someone told you, you could advertise your plumbing services online to clients within 1 mile of your plumbing company? Or that your business can reach prospects or clients who look on Google for “plumbing business near me” when they are close by?

This is the power of digital advertising. Modern marketing tools help plumbing companies to reach clients at the right place and time. With advanced analytics, digital marketing for plumbers isn’t a game of guesswork but a correct strategy that helps you achieve high ROI.

Simply put, online plumbing ads can bring your business a consistent stream of leads, thus reducing your cost of acquiring new clients, greater engagement with current clients, and consequently help unprecedented growth of your plumbing company.

The four main types of online advertising are paid search, native, display, and social media advertising. All of them reach your target market in a measurable and cost-effective way while increasing client loyalty and increasing your sales online.

Without further ado, let’s dive into how Google, Instagram, and Facebook work for plumbing companies.

Google Ads for Plumbers

Google Ads are the most common kind of ads that plumbers use.

Modern customers turn to Google to find solutions to their plumbing problems. Therefore, internet marketing is all about being available whenever consumers look for information about your plumbing service business.

Google Ads are the most common kind of ads that plumbers use. It is a beneficial advertising platform for plumbing contractors. You can use Google Ads to drive traffic to your plumbing website and establish your reputation, which can help you book more service jobs.

Related: The definitive Google Business Profile for plumbers

Google Ads is an efficient way to get your plumbing website seen in the top organic results on Google. This increases your chances that someone who requires a plumbing contractor will see your site first, which makes them more likely to call you about their plumbing needs.

But what are the actual advantages of Google Ads to plumbers? And is it worth it for your plumbing business? Here are some of the main advantages for your company:

  • Get more customers: When prospects see that Google ad is always among the prominent results, they will begin associating with your brand with reliability and quality.
  • Increased Visibility: With Google Ads, you can ensure that your plumbing website will be among the very first search results. This will significantly boost the chances of prospects finding you while they look for the plumbing services you provide. Additionally, when prospects come across your plumbing Google Ads repeatedly, they will remember your brand and become familiar with it.
  • Build Your Reputation: Online reputation management is really crucial for any type of home service business nowadays. Potential clients do not look at the quality of work or a professional portfolio.

Here are some strategies that will help you make the most out of Google Ads for plumbers:

Choose the Right Keywords

Search bar template

Google ads are one of the most potent tools in any plumbing marketing toolbox. Why? Since they place your ad right in front of your target client while they look for exactly what they require. But selecting the right Google ads keywords is always a daunting task. There are a lot of things that goes into it, and if you don’t know what you are doing, it can be a waste of money and time. With the right keywords, you can drive insane amounts of traffic who require specific plumbing help – and you will be the plumber to offer it to them. In order to choose the right keywords for your Google Ads campaign, you need to understand your target audience and their needs.

Competitors Bidding

Two men using laptop while running

A competitor bid is an ad that focuses on the search terms your rivals use to get new clients. It often appears identical to the original company website but with quality links going back to your website. This strategy has become more common as plumbing brands try their hand at paid search ads on Google.

Select the Ad types

Google provides numerous ad types, and it is incredibly crucial to select the right ones for your plumbing business. Here are some of the Google Ad types you may want to consider:

  • Responsive Ads: Responsive text ads instantly optimize themselves depending on what target market they are displayed to. They help you to include several descriptions and headlines, which can be combined in a manner that makes sense of every member’s search query. They are designed to make the most out of your screen space, so they are great for mobile users.Responsive Ads gif
  • Display ads: Google display ads utilize text and images to target prospects as they browse apps or websites in the Google Display Network. This network is comprised of more than 2 million websites, reaching more than 90% of all internet browsers all over the world. Display ads are particularly useful when it comes to reaching new clients but also work perfectly as part of your plumbing retargeting strategy.Google display ads gif

Use Negative Keywords to Avoid Wasting Your Advertising Dollars

Negative keywords are a great tool for plumbing Google Ads.

Negative keywords are a great tool for plumbing Google Ads. They can help to prevent your Google Ads from showing up for searches that are too narrow or too broad for the service you offer, phrases that people may search for when they are ready to book a service, or even searches for services that are similar but not identical to yours.

Create and Optimize Your Landing Pages

Plumbers landing page

For your business to succeed in Google Ads, you must place your ads on high-quality landing pages that can transform a prospect into a client. To make a quality landing page, you need to include relevant content, use high-quality images, use a compelling and clear call to action and make sure your site loads super-fast.

Setup Conversion Tracking

Conversion Tracking

If you are running a plumbing Google Ads campaign and not monitoring, you are throwing away your advertising dollars. Conversion tracking is the only way to know whether your Google Ads campaign is working or not. There are different types of conversions that you can track including sales, phone calls, and more. You can monitor all these things with Google Ads and understand how well every ad campaign is performing for the type of conversion.

Google Local Service Ads for Plumbers

Business overview

Just like the conventional pay-per-click plumbing (PPC) ads, Google Local Service ads show up at the top of search engine result pages- above organic listings.

These ads assist more local prospects to find your plumbing company, learn more about your plumbing services, and call you to take the next desired step.

Local Service ads for plumbing contractors typically feature three businesses at the top of the organic search results.

Prospects can pick these three plumbers or select “more plumbing businesses” to see their other options.

After clicking on more plumbers prospects will see a whole page filed with local plumbing contractors. At the top of this page, they can filter plumbing businesses by selecting the service they require.

This filtering option makes it hassle-free for users to identify the right plumber that suits their needs. Once a prospect finds the appropriate plumber, they will click on the listing to obtain more information.

On this page, they can see your areas and the services you offer. Prospects or visitors will also see a bio section of your plumbing company with a bulleted list of essential company characteristics. You offer your target audience crucial information here; the number of years you have been in the plumbing industry or sharing that you offer free estimates.

If prospects love what they see on your business listing, they can call your plumbing company right from the advertisement, and you will only pay when people contact your company.

Investing in Google Local Service Ads for plumbers is a great way to:

  • Be found at the very top of Google search results on a tablet, computer, and mobile device
  • Increase online leads to your plumbing business
  • Generate more low-cost leads.

The other difference with these ads is that instead of targeting search terms or keywords, they focus on famous plumbing services like sewer line repair, fixture installation, drain cleaning, Garbage disposal installation, plumbing repair, refining, and more.

Does my plumbing business require local service ads?

YES!

One reason why Local Service Ads are the best type of plumbing ads is because you only pay after every lead who contacts you, as opposed to pay for every click, like under the pay-per-click advertising for plumbers.

Plumbing SEO services can take your website near the top of organic search results but you require Google’s Local Service ads to get to the coveted #1 spot on Google.

Google Display Ads

Google Display Ads image

Google Display ads can help you promote your plumbing services when prospects are browsing online, watching YouTube videos, or using mobile apps and devices and more. Just like the conventional billboards along a highway, these ads are displayed to anyone who browses on the internet and gives your company greater online visibility.

Google Display ads for plumbers operate as your secret agent who goes out and tracks down your prospects, then displaying the ads that they think you are interested in viewing. You will better placed to persuade that client and drive them to your plumbing website.

Facebook Ads for Plumbers

Facebook Ads template

Social media for plumbers can be a great tool to advertise your plumbing business, and it helps you easily target your ideal clients and monitor your ad campaign results. Use social media to advertise specials or services, show off a perfectly done project or share positive testimonials or reviews.

There are numerous ways you can advertise your plumbing company on Facebook, including particular posts that are currently on your Facebook business page or developing catchy ads.

The best plumbing ads on Facebook are targeted to a particular audience, regularly optimized for numerous devices, and integrated with a larger internet marketing strategy.

Since prospects are not actively looking for services to book on Facebook (unless they are on a marketplace), the platform utilizes an interest-based marketing strategy. It helps you advertise to particular audiences depending on their online activities and interests.

Facebook’s sophisticated target audience selection tools allow plumbing ads to target the following:

  • Lookalike audiences: Reach new clients whose interests are the same as those of your best clients.
  • Custom audiences: Prospects who have already engaged with your plumbing company off or online.
  • Core audiences: Users grouped together by interests, geography, age, and income level among other things.

If you are not leveraging Facebook’s advanced targeting models, you are missing out on an important tool that can assist you to reduce your advertising dollars and skyrocketing your conversion rates.

Examples of Plumbing Facebook Ads

Photo Ads

Plumbing inspection and repair

You can utilize photo albums to advertise different plumbing services, as well as after-and-before images of successfully completed projects. Before and after images work especially well because they highlight your skills and show prospects what they can expect when they start working with your business.

Video Ads

Plumbing slide show

If you show your friend how to eliminate water from a flooded basement, then you will be the first person they will call if one of their water pipes bursts. Your friend will trust your company with their project because you have assisted them before. Video ads have emerged as one of the most efficient formats to promote your plumbing services or brand in multiple ways. With Facebook ads for plumbers, it’s possible to share a video from its Ad manager or boost a specific post that incorporates a video from your Facebook Page.

Story Ads

Facebook story

These full-screen experiences show up in between the stories prospects or clients regularly watch. Story ads provide more freedom than the typical image or video ads since you can experiment with different augmented reality and video effects.

And remember, simple posts on your Facebook page feed that display your expertise can be just as effective at reaching your plumbing ad campaign goals. If you follow an internet marketing strategy and create valuable content consistently that aligns with the needs of your target audience and inspires long-term relationships.

Instagram Ads for Plumbers

Instagram Ads

If you think that Instagram is only for brand influencers, think again!

Instagram has more than 1 Billion active users every month, and most of those users are in the market for plumbing repair, maintenance, replacements, or more. The primary benefit Instagram has over other advertising platforms is its visual nature. If you have a plumbing business that offers services having a visibly noticeable result (plumbing services), then Instagram is a good platform to advertise and showcase your plumbing business.

Visual appeal is a huge factor when prospects make a purchase or hire your plumbing services. In some cases, visual content generates more plumbing leads since it is easier and faster for the brain to process.

Moreover, Instagram Ads are fully integrated with Facebook Ads, so you can have some customization, targeting abilities, and diverse ad formatting. Instagram works perfectly when ads are designed to engage with your sales funnel and are simple.

Instagram is an image-based social media advertising platform for plumbing contractors. To outrank other posts from your competitors, you want to be sure that you use strong videos and images that tell a story of the projects you have completed for previous clients.

Just like Facebook, Instagram offers numerous plumbing ad types including:

  • Image ads
  • Stories ads
  • Collection ads
  • Video ads
  • Carousel ads and more

Naturally, the kind of plumbing ad format will depend on your target audience and campaign ads.

Offline Plumbing Ads

As an internet marketing agency for plumbers, we always call for digital transformation and regularly underscore the value of internet marketing. But, we also understand that service-based businesses like plumbing contractors still benefit from conventional advertising techniques because their operations are mainly bound by their location or service area.

Ideally, your plumbing company should be doing both offline and online digital advertising to reach as many clients as possible. When it comes to offline plumbing ads, a few conventional strategies are still effective such as:

Sending postcards to homes or businesses in your service area

Postman putting a letter in a house mailbox

A postcard has the power to target your market with a concise and clear message. And it achieves by grabbing your potential client’s attention. A high-quality postcard cannot be ignored easily by prospects or clients.

Postcards are easier to create using the free templates from Mail chimp. They are also inexpensive to distribute because you can mail them in bulk quantities.

  • Putting Lawn Signs on the property of satisfied clients
  • Car van wraps
  • Business cards
  • And more

Plumbing Pay Per Lead Generation Sites for Plumbers

Lead generation websites normally connect clients in need of services (such as plumbing) with the right plumbers. These platforms help plumbing contractors to connect with prospects who are actively searching for their services online:

Thumbtack

Thumbtack website

Thumbtack for plumbers operates in two ways:

  • Homeowners can look for plumbers who may be well-suited for their projects.
  • Plumbers can select the type of leads they wish to pay for by tweaking their target audience preferences.

Nextdoor

Nextdoor website

Advertising your services on Nextdoor can assist your plumbing company to get found by local businesses or homeowners that require your services.

You can use Nextdoor to launch your business to your local community, establish your reputation, and post ads.

Plumbing Ad Ideas to Help You Get Started

Know Your Target Market

Target Market

Whether you use Google ads, Facebook ads, or postcards, you will need to first understand your target market.

List down every detail you know about your best and current plumbing clients, including:

  • What kind of neighborhood do they reside in?
  • What type of businesses or homes do they have?
  • How old are they? Do they have a family?
  • What are their income levels?
  • When do they frequent most during their leisure time? (Online? Instagram or Facebook? Or at a local community center or library?)
  • What type of plumbing services do they normally need?

The responses to these questions will assist you to create ads that resonate with your target audience.

Know What Makes Your Plumbing Company Unique

Plumber screwing nut of pipe in the heating system in the boiler room

Figure out why your current clients choose your company to solve their plumbing needs. What makes you outrank your competitors?

This is what is known as a Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Write down the USP in a few words and incorporate it into your plumbing ads.

Related: How To Create A Strong Brand Identity For Your Plumbing Business

Define Your Plumbing Advertising Goals

Plumbing technician finishing kitchen sink pipeline installation

Knowing your plumbing marketing goals will assist you to craft an effective plumber advertising campaign and select the right platforms.

Here are a few examples of plumbing ad goals you may have:

  • You have a new service to promote
  • You have just launched your business and require plumbing leads urgently.
  • You have expanded your plumbing business in a new neighborhood and want to outrank well-established competitors.

Then figure out which plumber advertising channel will be most effective to achieve your goals. For instance, if you want to improve brand awareness, Google display ads will be a great option. If you need plumbing leads urgently, Google’s local Service Ads or search ads may be a great fit for you.

Develop Your Ads

Content ads creation

Make utilize these tips to design a professional ad for your plumbing company:

  • Keep your ad design simple by concentrating on one message (e.g., testimonial, service, or before and after photos).
  • Add a compelling and clear call to action that encourage clients to visit your plumbing website or contact you to book your plumbing services.
  • Select your brand colors and utilize them for all your ads to remain memorable and consistent.
  • Use professional templates to design great plumbing ads to reach more clients.

Allocate Your Advertising Budget

Financial planning for your advertising

To set your advertising budget, you should be able to know the amount you are likely to spend in acquiring a new lead.

Next, figure out the number of clients you require consistently every month.

Do this to know your monthly advertisement budget:

Client acquisition cost X the number of customers per month = Monthly ad spend.

Remember to stick to your budget once you have set it. Internet advertising can be very expensive and you don’t want to spend more dollars than you can afford.

Monitor Your Ad Campaigns

Track your ad’s results and performance

To make the most out of your plumbing advertising strategy, you need to track your ad’s results and performance. This will help you know if you are attaining your goals and what advertising channels or platforms generate more results for your plumbing company.

Related: 10 Important Plumbing Marketing KPIs You Should Be Tracking In Your Business

Frequently Asked Questions About Plumbing Ads

question marks gif

What is the best platform to advertise your plumbing company?

Facebook remains the most famous social media around the world. It is a great start for plumbing advertising, as the platform recommends local plumbing businesses in the neighborhood to clients seeking out plumbing services.

How can I market my small plumbing business?

Here are our best ways to begin some marketing in ways that you have never imagined before including:

  • Creating a professional plumbing website
  • Conduct SEO to make your website get found by prospects online
  • Use paid search engine marketing to make your website get found on the first page of Google search results
  • Foster online reviews
  • Start a customer referral program

How do you get more clients to your plumbing business?

Here are some marketing strategies that you can use to attract new clients to your plumbing services business:

  • Optimize your Google Business Profile
  • Use Google Ads
  • Try Google Local Service Ads
  • Create helpful and informative content
  • Submit your plumbing website to online business directories.

Plumbing Ad Services from Blackstorm Design + Marketing

Plumber with laptop

Blackstorm Design +Marketing is home to plumbing ad experts. We have many years of proven experience advertising plumbing businesses like yours.

We often realize that plumbers that we have worked with are not experts in generating leads and sales online, a skill their rivals have easily honed.

We understand that you are dealing with real and urgent issues such as unblocking a clogged sink in your client’s homes. Let us deal with all the crap online so that you can focus on what matters most-serving your clients.

Schedule a free discovery call with Blackstorm Design + Marketing to learn how digital advertising for plumbers can improve your marketing strategy or read on to know more about our digital marketing services for plumbers

Marketing services your company might be interested in

Categories
Marketing Plumbing

8 Important Plumbing Marketing KPIs You Should Be Tracking in Your Business

Increase your clients base, and maximize profits in your plumbing company with digital marketing KPIs

Do you have an idea of what makes your plumbing company’s marketing or advertising campaigns a success? Clues why is your business not generating enough leads? Why is a plumbing company doing so well?

KPI gif

Well, suppose you are not closely monitoring your plumbing marketing efforts online. In that case, you will never understand what is working or not, and that’s where digital marketing Key Performance Indicators come in. Using KPI, you can measure and track metrics that matter most to your plumbing business growth.

Before internet marketing was introduced, a plumber would only establish how a specific campaign was fairing based on office visits and the number of new clients acquired. However, such results rarely displayed an accurate calculation. But with the right plumbing marketing KPIs, you can know your weak areas and conduct the much-need tweaks in your strategies for maximum results.

That said, here are a few things to understand before selecting and monitoring your digital marketing for plumbers’ KPI.

What Are Plumber KPIs?

Portrait of plumber

A Key Performance Indicator is a measurable attribute showcasing how ineffectively or effectively your plumbing company reaches its desired goals. Plumbing marketing KPIs are quantifiable measures or metrics employed to assess the performance of your company’s marketing objectives. These metrics can be traced to different aspects of your plumbing business, ranging from employees and leads generated to sales.

Internet marketing KPIs go hand in hand with your company’s online marketing strategies regardless of sales growth, brand awareness, SEO strategy, and lead generation. Examples of such metrics include details on conversion rate, engagement rate, sales revenue, page conversion, marketing qualified leads, and SERP. Any measurable figure in your plumber marketing plan that can be acted upon constitutes a KPI.

KPI comes from Google Analytics, lead conversion tool, Google Ads, Google Analytics, or even from your plumbing sales representatives.

Why Track Your Plumbing Marketing’s KPIs? 5 Reasons

When properly used, plumbing marketing KPI tracking can be an incredible tool for growing your company. Some of the key advantages of measuring metrics and acting on data include but are not restricted to:

1. Monitor Your Plumbing Company’s Health

A plumber checking water management system.

Only a few KPIs are required to measure the health of your company. Plumbers who monitor metrics in categories such as employees, customers, processes, and revenue find it very easy to remain on track while keeping their income high.

2. Measure Processes

A plumber in the kitchen installs a new water tap.

KPIs are typically applied to show if your company is attaining its strategic goals set by the top management. Numerous KPIs are utilized to measure processes, such as productivity indicators, profitability indicators, and quality indicators amongst others.

3. Client Metrics

A man looking on a client metrics for his company.

Besides employees and processes, client metrics are also of utmost importance. They can help your company know the number of customers, the revenue generated, and even the cost of acquiring those clients.

 4. Operational Metrics

Plumber fixing problem with faucet in the kitchen.

Operations metrics are a good way to help your operations department enhance its day-to-day operations. You can use such metrics to make sure staffing, finances, and marketing are on the right track.

5. Measure Progress Over Time

measuring your business progress

 A good strategy for measuring your business progress is to set targets at the beginning of the year, such as revenue, gross margin, number of locations, and even number of employees. Then, you can use weekly, quarterly and monthly reports to remain on track with the KPIs and progress towards set goals at the start of the year.

In a plumbing marketing campaign, tracking your KPIs is the only way to understand what is working or not. For instance, if you make good money from a specific marketing campaign, but you cannot show what generated that revenue or profit, then you will never know what you need to improve and where you need to invest more. Your site traffic, for example, could be the one driving all your qualified leads and your marketing crew or department is busy investing a lot of dollars on unnecessary channels.

Top 10 Plumbing Marketing KPIs You Should Be Tracking in Your Business

1. Cost Per Lead (CPL)

CCPL formula

CPL is a plumbing KPI used in lead generation to know how much each lead costs your company. In simple terms, it shows you the cost of bringing in a lead from your advertising or marketing campaigns. Leads help you understand which contact or user is a potential client. It is normally the initial step into knowing how your internet marketing is performing beyond simple reach from metrics like unique visitors to your plumbing website.

Cost per lead helps you understand where your brand awareness efforts in marketing are most crucial. They tell you whether your campaigns are generating desired results at an affordable cost or not. They assist you to understand the amount of money you need to get a particular set of leads for your plumbing company. Because leads are the starting point of your sales processes, improving and benchmarking your cost per lead is an important metric for your plumbing marketing efforts or campaigns.

2. Conversion Rate (CR)

Conversion Rate gif

In plumbing marketing, a conversion happens when a prospect or client completes a particular activity, such as booking a job or subscribing to your newsletter. It can also be any action that helps meet your plumbing company’s objectives. On the other hand, conversion rate measures how regularly a client completes a particular set goal,

Conversion rate is a crucial metric that shows you if your marketing campaigns are on track. They tell you how effective your strategies are in terms of attaining a set goal. A higher conversion rate implies more likelihood of prospects or clients converting after coming across your piece of content. This also means low costs in terms of acquiring customers, which saves you money in the long run.

Consequently, the more conversions, the better your plumbing gets in Google rankings. Thus, if you want to skyrocket your bottom line, make minor but worthy tweaks to your plumbing website. Use Google Optimize together with Google Analytics to test various elements of your website to increase your revenue without necessarily increasing your ad spend.

3. Return on Investment (ROI)

ROI gif

ROI denotes the amount of profit your plumbing company will earn from the money spent on a particular activity or investment like a marketing campaign. As an online marketing metric, ROI helps you know whether your company is profitable or not. It shows the expenditures as well as activities connected with them that are creating revenue and those that are not.

So, it is an important tool for planning your marketing or advertising budgets. While it is not possible to capture the total money spent on marketing activity, say a Google Ad campaign, it is crucial to make sure that your ROI is comparable to other internet marketing activities.

4. Bounce Rate

Bounce rate from website traffic

Simply put, bounce rate refers to the number of clients or prospects who visit your plumbing website and leave right away without completing any meaningful action. If your site has a high bounce rate, this is a good indication that there are flaws in your online marketing strategies, and some of them could be irrelevant traffic sources, weak landing pages, or poor targeting, amongst others.

A prospect visiting and clicking off your website also implies they didn’t find what they were searching for and the only way to make sure that they spend time on it is by auditing your content and identifying what they are looking for. This way, you will craft relevant content that will attract them.

5. Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

Businessmen

CPA revolves around revenue after a lead becomes a paying client. It gives you a rough idea of how much you will spend to get a client to open his or her wallet. CPA is a deal for paid search marketing campaigns like Pay-Per-Click campaigns.

5. Click-Through Rate (CTR)

CTR image

CTR is another internet marketing metric that quantifies the number of clicks on a specific content over the number of impressions it achieves. It is the percentage of prospects that click on a campaign after coming across it.

CTR is the simple form of engagement rate because the only engagement counted is the one that matters the most and clicks on a link. This metric shows whether your site content is interesting to grab people’s attention and lead them to click on the link and be redirected to the plumbing website.

In Google ads, CTR boosts your quality score each time a user clicks on an ad, and when this occurs, your ads are ranked on top of SERPs, which has other advantages, such as increased traffic and more conversions.

6. Lifetime Value

A higher customer lifetime value indicates that your plumbing business is doing well and often signals a profit.

Customer lifetime value refers to a KPI used to measure the amount of revenue you can expect from a specific client for the entire period of doing business with your company.

A higher customer lifetime value indicates that your plumbing business is doing well and often signals a profit. It helps you understand how valuable different customers are and thus allocate more resources to them.

 7. Business Growth

business growth metric

Another important KPI for plumbers is the business growth metric. This can be calculated in numerous ways, but estimating your annual gross profit margins is the most effective is the most effective. This is where you bring things like cost of operation like salaries, and cost of equipment into the equation. To find your gross profit margin, calculate your total sales revenue and subtract your total cost of operation, divide the figure you obtain with sales revenue again.

8. Customer Satisfaction

Woman thanking plumber

Lastly, client satisfaction. Do you know that it is much cheaper to keep an existing customer than to try to get a new one? This is why customer satisfaction is an important KPI for plumbers; since client satisfaction leads to retention.

You can assess your customer satisfaction levels by developing a questionnaire form and asking clients to fill it out. Keeping your eye on online reviews is also crucial. You can improve customer satisfaction by responding to all reviews (whether negative or positive) promptly and professionally.

Top Channels for Local Plumbing Contractors to Generate Qualified Leads

By analyzing your overall plumbing marketing strategy and how every lead source generates qualified sales for your company.

Then you can begin to work on the different marketing efforts with every channel to obtain more qualified leads, increase sales growth and reduce client acquisition costs.

While monitoring plumbing marketing KPIs your sales crew should come in to see how your collective advertising or marketing efforts generate results across the following channels.

Organic Search

Organic Search gif

Homeowners and property managers use search engines such as Google or Bing to find information about a local service business and click on the organic results shown to them. No advertisements. Organic site traffic will be one of the cheapest in terms of acquiring leads but will take the longest time to develop and achieve realistic results.

Paid Advertising

Google Local Service Ads

There are multiple ways paid advertising is showcased to your potential clients to boost website traffic, and here are some examples. But, if you want to increase your chances of increasing traffic to lead ratio, landing pages are a perfect way to achieve this.

  • Google Local Service Ads
  • Text ads from Google Ads
  • Display advertising on other sites
  • Paid ads on social media websites
  • Click to call ads from Google

Social Media Marketing

Go viral

Social media is one of those platforms that can help you in various ways. Not all resulting to direct sales, but offering you an opportunity to build and get:

  • Brand awareness
  • Potential client referrals
  • Client support channel

As you can see, a lot goes into each plumbing marketing KPI, and together they show a clear picture of how your company is performing online. Every monthly report combines it all and makes sure we continually drive revenue in the best ways possible. At Blackstorm Design +Marketing, we are in the business to create lifelong partnerships, and such plumbing business marketing KPIs hold our team accountable.

Let’s work together to create a strong online presence for your plumbing company so you can book more jobs on the web.

Schedule a free strategy session with Blackstorm Design + Marketing to learn how we can help your plumbing business grow today.

Categories
Plumbing SEO

Plumbers: What Is SEO and What Does It Stand For?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a means of increasing the quality and quantity of traffic on your website from organic search engine results. The tasks included in Search Engine Optimization are creating high-quality content for your website that is optimized for search engines, searching for keywords, utilizing them efficiently in your content, and building effective backlinks.

When performing search engine optimization, there are some factors that you need to consider that can determine whether your optimization is done efficiently.

Firstly, there is the quality of the traffic on your website. So what exactly is the quality of traffic? It means that you can track exactly where the traffic on your site comes from. Quality traffic is the traffic that comes from all searches related to the content on your site. 

It has to come from sources that are relevant to your content.

Secondly, there is a quantity of traffic on your site. The more people you have coming to your website, the better. Once you establish the quality of the traffic, it is all about increasing the quantity.

Lastly, there is a need to increase organic results. This is the traffic that comes from sources that you did not have to pay for. If traffic comes from the ads you paid for, then this is not organic traffic. 

WHY IS SEO IMPORTANT?

Search engine optimization is an essential part of increasing the traffic on your site

Search engine optimization is an essential part of increasing the traffic on your site and eventually increasing your website’s profit. Most of your expected traffic is bound to come from various search engines – Google, Bing, and Yahoo. These search engines tend to scan, analyze, and crawl through every website and evaluate them in terms of their content. They strive to bring their users as good search results on the search engine as possible.

These search engines use an algorithm that determines whether the content on a certain site is appropriate and in line with a certain search result. This algorithm is hard to predict or calculate, but SEO tries to use techniques that try to come close to that algorithm as best as possible.

To increase the quality of traffic that comes to your site through a search engine, you must optimize it for search engines. This is where search engine optimization comes in. With search engine optimization, you can increase the volume, or rather, the quantity of traffic on your website. More traffic on your site means more opportunities for conversions, and conversions mean profit. Some phrases and search results also pay per click, which means that the more clicks you have, the more profit you can generate.

HOW SEO WORKS

SEO gif

Search engine optimization is not something that can be done instantly and will work overnight. Rather, it is a long-term process that will demand plenty of time and effort but can be very rewarding if done right. While there will be some results in the short term, it is all about creating a site that will make you profit in the long run.

Arguably, the most important factor of good search engine optimization is creating quality content that will be SEO optimized and attractive to the users. This is certainly easier said than done, and it requires a lot of time, research, and effort to succeed. First, you need to research what the keywords are for certain fields and then rewrite your content in such a way that it contains those keywords. You don’t want to include too many of those keywords. The algorithm is designed in such a way that it detects that and can even hinder your site.

Then there are on-site and off-site optimizations. On-site optimization is a part of search engine optimization where one improves the elements on their site to improve the search ranking. The elements that are included here are title tags, meta descriptions, headings, sub-headings, internal links, and more. Off-site optimization is where you optimize the links from the site and the social media connected to the site. You have to strike the right balance between the two.

CONCLUSION

Plumber on kitchen

To conclude, SEO stands for search engine optimization, which is done to increase quality traffic on your website. 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
Plumbing SEO

Why SEO Is Better than PPC for Plumbers

The debate continues: Which is better, SEO or PPC?

More users trust SEO search listings over PPC listings.

PPC vs SEO gif

Studies have shown that more users trust organic search listings over paid advertisements. Research has shown that around 70% of internet users click on organic search results (SEO) as opposed to only 30% clicking on paid search results (PPC). Most internet users distrust paid advertisements, and most of these consumers are well aware that PPC is an advertising tool. This results in a lot of users bypassing paid advertisements and clicking organic, natural results instead. And to make matters worse, some users that have clicked paid ads don’t end up finding the product or service they are looking for. Thus, businesses that use SEO are better able to provide consumers with more interesting and valuable content. 

SEO is very cost-effective and gives greater value for money.

SEO gif

Both SEO and PPC naturally have costs for initial set-up and hiring PPC specialists or an SEO company to come up with a digital campaign exclusively for your business. But if you use an SEO campaign, there is no need to pay for every individual click or visitor, but you will only pay for the services that your SEO team or vendor renders. With PPC, constant investment is required. If you stop paying, your ads will stop, and your lead generation will be discontinued.

SEO can build and keep an advantage over your competitors.

A woman client calling a plumber to fix her kitchen sink.

It isn’t easy to build an advantage and keep it with PPC. If you are already making profits based on clicks you pay a certain amount for, then it will not last if a competitor bids a higher price for the same product. If your competitor has some venture funding and decides to use it on PPC, it can drive the average cost of a click higher, and your profits will be driven downward. An investment in SEO is much more challenging. You strive to make your search engine results higher for relevant keywords. You come up with great content that is of great value to consumers. You generate inbound links. And your links show up on high-quality websites in your industry. Soon, your rankings will start rising, and with this, traffic and leads generated through search will increase. It takes time to accomplish this. You may have a higher initial cost, but the clicks are free. This investment, however, gives you a more sustainable advantage over PPC. Your competitor will find it more difficult to take this advantage away.

SEO gives better ROI than PPC advertising.

Plumber standing near kitchen sink

Based on a four-year study of profit generation for both SEO and PPC, it has been shown that SEO that creates organic traffic generates $2.74 in profit for every dollar spent in that year. In 3 years, SEO’s average profit is $4.58 for every dollar spent in one year. Comparing this with the profits garnered from PPC advertising, it was shown that for every dollar spent on that year, the average profit is -$0.95. While over three years from the dollar spent in one year, the average profit is -$0.85. This means that for every dollar spent on both SEO and PPC, SEO will yield an additional profit of $2.75 but PPC losses -$0.95. Thus, SEO gives better ROI than PPC advertising. 

SEO has more effective promotion results.

SEO gif

Applying SEO to your website may take around three to six months before your website will appear on search engine results. This is because indexing and ranking a website takes time for Google to do. But over a long time, SEO leads to consistent traffic, whereas PPC only gives an initial boost to traffic. PPC can be beneficial if you have a brand new site that has not yet appeared in organic results. However, with a PPC campaign, traffic immediately stops when the budget is withdrawn. Thus SEO continues to shine. It is a more effective way of promoting your website in the long run.

Ranking #1 in search results will not happen overnight with SEO. But SEO has proven long-term benefits. The reasons given above why SEO is better than PPC should prod you to invest more of your time and resources focusing on SEO rather than on PPC.

Categories
Google Advertising Plumbing

How to Make the Most out of Google Ads for Plumbers on a Limited Budget

Let us face it. Most homeowners don’t think plumbing is a big deal unless their water systems have a serious problem. So to speak, they don’t require a plumber unless their water system breaks down, which doesn’t happen daily.

As a plumbing contractor, it can be overwhelming to market your plumbing services on your own. Obtaining new business or leads might be daunting unless you seek the help of a professional marketing agency.

There are tons of plumbing marketing options out there from Facebook ads to Yelp reviews and more. Google Ads for plumbers is a great option for many companies because of its targeting options, flexibility, and reach. Currently, plumbing Google Ads has increasingly become crucial to booking more jobs and increasing sales.

When a homeowner has a plumbing problem within your target market, your company has a chance to show up as the #1 result in their search engine results pages for “plumber near me!”. Google operates on a pay-per-click model that offers the ability to select the keywords that you want to rank for within Google – these are search terms that prospects are utilizing to find you. You can bid on these keywords and display ads for them.

For instance, “Emergency plumber near me,” “local plumber” and “plumber in Y city” are all keywords your prospects are using to look for your plumbing business. With Google Ads, your clients can find your plumbing business with just a simple search on Google, whenever they are.

Google ads for plumbers can be overwhelming to first create and manage. Luckily, this post will guide everything you require to know, from developing a stellar Google Ads strategy to optimizing your campaigns to increase your chances of booking new jobs and skyrocketing your sales online.

Without further ado, let us dive into our post!

5 Reasons Why Google Ads for Plumbers Is Important

The plumbing marketing world has changed dramatically recently; Google Ads is one of the platforms that are in charge of this major transformation. Indeed, Google Ads for plumbers is one of the best and most effective tactics of internet marketing.

Here are some reasons why you should consider using Google Ads for plumbers in your business:

1. Google Ads Increase Customers and Leads

Female homeowner shaking hands with plumber

When your prospects or clients notice that your plumbing ad consistently ranks at the top of the search engine results page, they will start to associate your brand with dependability and excellence.

This means that you will be the first business people think of when they need a reliable plumber to offer quality plumbing services. You can monitor this using Google Analytics and Google Business Profile.

2. You Obtain High Results on Investment

ROI gif

Unlike other plumber marketing strategies, Google Ads helps you to only pay for ads prospects or clients click on. After optimizing your Google Ads campaign, you can get a higher return on investment, which may not be possible with other advertising strategies.

However, this takes effort and time, you have to find the approach that suits your plumbing business. To get an overview of what campaigns will generate the best results, you have to monitor and test your campaigns regularly. Google Ads for plumbers is perfect for this since it’s transparent and the details you require are available.

When you pinpoint areas of your campaign that offer a good return on investment, you concentrate your budget and efforts on such areas. If there are some parts of your campaign that are costing you money, discard them. Invest that money into successful campaigns, and such campaigns will test you in the future.

3. Google Ads Help Build Your Reputation Online

Online reputation

Your plumbing company’s online reputation is important in the modern digital world. Prospects or clients look at more than just a professional portfolio or quality work.

Google search ads can assist in establishing your online reputation as a reliable plumbing service company.

Essentially, Google Ads is more effective than promoting your plumbing services on social media (for instance, Facebook ads for plumbers) because Google has more credibility for getting legit local plumbing services in an area.

4. Google Ads for Plumbers Give Transparent, Fast Results

It is easy to monitor the progress of your Google Ads

Google ads have a reputation for delivering quick, transparent results and reports of your digital marketing campaigns. It is easy to monitor the progress of your Google Ads since the dashboard offers you all of the details related to every campaign, like the ads clicked, the search terms (keywords) that prospects or clients entered, and the cost of clicks.

These features make Google Ads for plumbers an extremely intuitive and transparent system.

5. Unique Targeting Capabilities

Target market

As a plumber, you know the essence of quality plumbing leads. At the end of the day, your Google Ad campaign should attain the goals of your plumbing brand. With Google enhancing its algorithms on a daily basis, you can be guaranteed of reaching your target market.

You can opt to bid for particular long-tail keywords or even short ones. While the former allows you to target prospects with high search intent, the latter may help you obtain higher traction with fewer plumbing leads.

Types of Google Ads for Plumbers

No two Google Ads campaigns are created equal, though they are distinct types of ads that you can leverage:

  • Search Network Campaign: Through a Search Network Campaign, your ad will show up on not just Google Maps and Search but also hundreds of other Google partners, including Google Shopping and YouTube. On any of these websites, when prospects or clients look for a keyword for your Google Ad campaign, they will come across your ad.

Google Search Network Campaign

  • Google Display Network Campaign: This kind of ad helps you to showcase your visual ad in front of prospects using Google Display Network products, including YouTube and Gmail.

Google Display Network

  • Video Campaign: Here, your plumbing service company will be displayed on YouTube and other Google Display Network properties.

YouTube gif

Pro tip: No matter what type of Google Ad campaign you select; it will incorporate more than one ad group. Every ad group may represent a different service you may want to market to the same target audience, and each ad group might have a unique plumbing keyword set.

Winning Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Google Ads for Plumbers Campaign Account

If you are a plumber just getting started with Google Ads, all the options and functionality can seem a little challenging.

There are a lot of features to explore and settings to fix or adjust, which can be both frustrating and time-consuming. You may even come to know that you are spending a lot of time looking for information on Google Ads help forums.

If this sounds like you, you are not alone. We all want as many controls and tools as possible, but not at the expense of losing control over your Google Ads campaign.

So here are our winning tips for obtaining more of your Google ads account for your plumbing business:

Create a Google Ads for Your Plumbing Company

Google Ads website

Setting up a Google Ads account is easy and simple. For this post, we will utilize a fictitious plumbing business as the main example. Click on “Start Now” at the upper right-hand corner or on the left side of the main page. You will be then being requested to sign in with your Gmail account.

Google will then request you what your main advertising objective is, and you can click on any of these three options offered. For instance, I select to “Get more sign-ups or site sales.”

Before you continue to the next page, it is crucial to scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “Switch to Expert Mode.”

You will then be directed to another website requesting you to set your goals relevant to your campaign. Google Ads campaign is comprised of ad groups that focus on attaining goals like increasing client conversions for the business. Every campaign has its targeted location, set budget, and targeted audiences. A Google Ads account typically consists of multiple campaigns which target different objectives for the business in its internet marketing.

For the purpose of this page, go ahead and click “create an Ads campaign without an objective’s guidance.” This will help you have more control over your Google Ads campaign tactics, thus limiting Google’s input.

Next, you should choose “Search” as your type of campaign. It will then request you to select which results you want to see from the digital campaign. Proceed and click “phone calls” and “website visits.”

Configure General Settings

campaign settings

After clicking “Continue” from the previous page, the type of campaign will be taken to the general settings for your campaign. Here you will be requested to give the name of your campaign, and so we put “Plumbing.” Next, you want to unselect “Display Network” while you may keep or not keep “Search Network” selected based on your budget.

Take Time to Understand and Set Your Google Ads Campaign Goals

Set up your Google Ads campaign account

When you initially set up your Google Ads campaign account, you will instantly begin operating some ads. You may even think, “this is not too bad,” and decide to leave your account alone to generate desired results.

However, you will begin seeing less and less organic traffic, and your return on advertising spend and conversion rates will drop!

This occurs because we normally skip the most crucial step of setting your Google Ads account: understanding our plumbing business goals. If you don’t set clear objectives, you won’t understand how to tweak your ad settings. And even if you identify your goal, without understanding the right level of traffic to focus on, you may end up spending more money than necessary.

Choose the Right Keywords

Google Ads operates on keywords.

One of the most crucial resources available to any digital plumbing marketing strategy is Google Ads. This is because they put your ad directly in front of your target client as they search precisely for what you provide. However, choosing the right Google Ads is not always easy. Numerous factors have to be considered, and if you don’t know the best practices for Google Ads, it may be a significant waste of money and time.

Google Ads operates on keywords. These keywords trigger your ad to show up on the search engine result pages. This needs you to perform keyword research. You can use multiple research tools to assist know the search terms to use in your campaign. As you look for various keywords, you need to focus more on long-tail plumbing keywords.

Related: The Ultimate Plumbing SEO Guide: Best Practices and Tips to Get Clients Online

These are search terms that contain three or more words. Long-tail plumbing keywords are more specific and targeted to one business. A generic plumbing keyword like “plumber” will be hard to rank for in the search engine result pages.

Instead, try something with your neighborhood, city, or even your postal or zip code. For example, “plumber in Murfreesboro TN” or “Murfreesboro plumbing contractor.” Long-tail plumbing keywords generate quality traffic for your advertising campaign because they are more specific and will drive qualified leads who want to get the most accurate and relevant results. By researching long-tail plumber keywords, you will attract leads that are more qualified and more likely to book a job.

This will assist you to get more conversions for your plumbing business.

So, how can you select Google Ads keywords that will support your company’s growth without breaking your bank account? Here are some pointers:

  • Understand your target audience
  • Develop their personas
  • Figure out what they are searching for
  • Make a list of common keywords that people use
  • Use long-tail keywords to increase your ad visibility online
  • Use keyword research tools like Ahrefs and Google Keyword Planner to identify search terms relevant to your plumbing business.

Check The Quality of Google Ads and Ensure They Appear, Professional

Man fixing leaking tap in kitchen

There is nothing so frustrating than seeing Google Ads for plumbers that don’t appear professional. When you utilize Google Ads, you will need to create effective professional ads. This may seem like a common thing, but it is an important part of your advertising campaign. You should create Google Ads that will get your target audience to click on them.

First, you will want to include your keywords in your ad copy. This will make sure that your Google Ad is relevant to their organic search. After that, you will need to create a compelling headline.

You need to create an eye-catching and interesting headline that will make your target audience click on your plumbing Google Ads. Lastly, show your audience what you need them to do after coming across your ad. Include a compelling call to action in your Google ad to help them to take the desired action and convert them into a paying client.

Add all these elements to create an effective ad for your marketing campaign. You will get more clicks on your ads by creating better ads that grab the attention of your leads.

Use Negative Keywords to Avoid Wasting Your Advertising Dollars

Negative keywords

Google ad for plumbers also provides the option to include negative keywords; words that you don’t want to be associated with.

For example, if you offer emergency plumbing services but not selling dolphin keychains, you would not want to show up for the search results to the latter. To know how prospects or clients are accidentally looking for you, check your Search Terms report. Here, you will be able to pinpoint irrelevant queries that are leading people to your business and include them in your list of negative keywords.

Set Your Google Ads Budget

Google Ads Budget

For Google Ads for plumbers, you can only set your budget on a daily as opposed to a weekly or monthly basis. A good strategy to follow when allocating your budget is to be a little conservative in spending. It is fairly simple to use lots of advertising dollars quickly, so that’s why you need to optimize your ad budget spending. Kindly note, your daily ad budget should reflect the amount you are willing to pay for the campaign.

Make Google Ads Stand out with the Right Extensions

Google Ads Extensions example

Extensions are a great way to generate more revenue from the same ad spend.

In fact, extensions can generate up to double the revenue compared to ads without extensions. A lot of Google Ads for plumbers focus mainly on the paths, headlines, and descriptions of your primary ad.

However, Ad extensions are an important part of the client experience and can offer your ads a great performance boost.

Google Ad extensions can assist you to tell your plumbing brand story better while providing valuable details to your clients.

There are numerous ad extensions to select from, but here are the ones that are mostly used:

  • Sitelinks Extensions: These are extra links your clients may find important that direct them to unique landing pages on your plumbing website.
  • Callout Extensions: Use these to establish trust with prospects or clients by incorporating entries such as “Peace of Mind Guarantee” or “Professional Fast Service.”
  • Structured Snippets: You can include these to offer more details about the features provided. They are based on particular categories, so be sure to select an important category as you create your ad extensions.
  • Call Extensions: This will assist you to pull your company phone number into the listing.
  • Location Extensions: If you have a brick-and-mortar office, you can link your Google Business Profile to your Google Ads campaign account. Activating this extension will pull in your phone number and address to your ads for prospects to understand your location easily.

Organize Keywords into Ad Groups

Keyword organizer

Sending prospects or clients who click on your ad to a plumbing landing page that discusses the same topic as the keyword in your ad groups will result in a higher quality score.

This implies that you will be charged less for every click and your ads will be displayed more often. This is because Google wants to show ads that are relevant to their target audience, and increasing your quality score may sound like a no-brainer.

Yes, as the ad copy for plumbing services becomes more specific, you will be tempted to link the ad to pages that are already existing, instead of developing new ones.

This is where many plumbers go wrong. They fail to customize their Google ad copy to match their landing pages in an effort to minimize work on their team.

If your ads are not related to the landing pages, your prospects are unlikely to convert. Outsourcing your PPC marketing to a professional plumbing Google Ads management company implies you will obtain the insight and attention you require to optimize your campaigns to obtain the most out of your advertising dollars.

Bid on Your Competition

An ad mainly focuses on keywords of rivals is known as a competitor bid.

There is no better way to attract your rival’s clients if your niche is competitive like roofing or plumbing than putting a bid on their brand names in Google Ads. As a tried and proven strategy that generates great results.

An ad mainly focuses on keywords of rivals is known as a competitor bid. With quality links pointing back to your plumbing website, it regularly has an identical or similar appearance to the actual plumbing website.

This strategy has become famous as more and more plumbers use Google ads. Now is the time to use this strategy, leading to your plumbing company’s success.

Setup Conversion Tracking

Conversion action

The best way to enhance your ad campaign is to check the statistics and know which ads, keywords, and placements are working and which are not generating desired results. Then optimize the ones that are not working.

This way, you will stop wasting money and time on things that are not generating results and on content that is not attracting your target audience.

Without conversions tracking, running Google Ads for plumbers is essentially a waste of your advertising dollars. To know whether your Google Ads are effective, tracking conversions is important. Without it, you can only operate on speculations.

Get Specialized Help with Your Google Ads for Plumbers with Blackstorm Design + Marketing

Adjustable wrench

Google Ads requires a specialized approach from experts with relevant experience, like those at Blackstorm Design + Marketing.

When a homeowner needs a “plumber” and looks for one online, they don’t simply search for the first result. Before they make a decision, they click on a few of the initial links that show up on the search results, read some reviews online and assess rival plumbing businesses.

If you are a plumbing business owner, you understand how competitive the industry is. And you have undoubtedly thought of utilizing Google Ads as a strategy.

But have you thought of hiring a knowledgeable team to assist in getting the most out of this plumbing marketing strategy?

If used wisely and carefully, Google Ads for plumbing contractors can be a great tool for growing your business. However, many plumbers lack the knowledge or time to effectively manage their Google Ads campaign. They regularly find it daunting to compete with nearby plumbing companies with huge advertising budgets.

We can assist with that. Blackstorm Design + Marketing is a team of experts with years of experience in Google ads for plumbers.

We understand how to make Google Ads work effortlessly for your business, bringing in more customers without costing you more than your competitors do in advertising.

If you need specialized help to run Google ads for your plumbing business, schedule a free profit session with Blackstorm Design + Marketing today.

Categories
Plumbing SEO

10 Unbeatable Plumbing Local SEO Benefits Your Business Needs to Leverage Now

Watch Your Company Soar to Greater Heights with These Plumbing Local SEO Advantages

When people are in doubt about something, they turn to the internet. As much as we don’t want to admit it, we rely so much on the internet to look for almost everything online. When trying to discover a new plumber or find a nearby gas station, people search engines such as Google or Bing to show them what local places are near them.

Plumber inside the house of the client

Those initial results that appear on those “near me” searches are largely coveted by local plumbing companies since they are prime estate for advertising. When you optimize your plumbing website for local SEO, you can watch your company in one of those coveted spots.

Read on to understand what local SEO advantages await your company when you optimize your plumbing local SEO.

What Is Plumbing Local SEO?

Local SEO

We have discussed extensively the importance of SEO for plumbers, but now it’s time to shift focus a bit and discuss the essence of a specific facet of SEO: plumbing Local SEO.

Local SEO focuses on optimizing your plumbing website to reach searchers in your service area. For example, if a homeowner in Murfreesboro, TN is searching for a plumbing contractor, they would type in something like this on Google “best plumber Murfreesboro, TN” or “plumber near me.”

Those keywords (“near me” and “in [city] tell the search engine to show results for local plumbing businesses in that specified area. Local plumbers who optimize their website for local SEO will appear in search results as what is known as a local 3-pack, which you can see below:

Plumbing local SEO 3-packs offer good coverage of your company to the local users.

Why Do You Need Plumbing Local SEO?

Plumber screwing nut of pipe in the heating system in the boiler room

We have discussed the importance of plumbing SEO in our previous post so much that you might be thinking something like, “well, why do I require two kinds of plumbing SEO now? Isn’t one sufficient?

To respond to your question, yes, plumbing SEO is sufficient to get your plumbing brand out there. But if you have a physical office that you are trying to attract prospects to, you require more conventional SEO.

Plumbing SEO generally helps to increase your website’s presence/visibility on a global scale, but that’s just generating traffic to your website. This is awesome, don’t get us wrong, but to drive massive traffic to your business’s physical office, you require local SEO to assist you to connect with searches in your area.

Unbeatable Local SEO Benefits for Plumbers

Local SEO Benefits

There are numerous benefits to having a well-implemented plumbing local SEO strategy. Keep on reading our post below to get a complete overview or idea.

Increased Foot Traffic

Massive foot traffic

How many times have you looked for a local plumbing business online and thought, “huh, am surprised to know that this place existed?”. That’s the beauty of local SEO for plumbers. If your plumbing company office goes unnoticed by local prospects, local plumbing SEO can help improve your online visibility and generate more awareness of your brand.

One of the main benefits, why local plumbing SEO is crucial for small businesses, is the massive foot traffic it can drive for your office. Every month, approximately 1.5 billion business locations are visited by prospects on Google.

With local SEO for plumbers, you can drive that foot traffic from clients you know are seeking your plumbing services or products.

Get Relevant Organic Traffic

Organic Traffic

You are not just improving your foot traffic with local SEO – you are driving relevant traffic to your plumbing website as well. Targeting local clients helps to encourage visits from browsers actively looking for your plumbing services or products.

The relevant traffic you get from local SEO is comprised of prospects actively searching for your plumbing services and ready to book a job with your company.

With this in mind, you can adjust your marketing budget so that you will be converting bottom and middle-of-the-funnel clients who are nearer to booking a job than those who are on the top of your sales funnel.

Higher Conversion Rates

Conversion Rates

Plumbing local SEO advantages like more relevant web traffic and foot traffic can improve your overall rates of conversion. In fact, more than 80% of local plumbing searches lead to conversions. Add that to the initial conversions you made with slick marketing you did toward your new, relevant prospects and you are good to go!

The new traffic you generate from your site through local SEO can assist you to boost things such as emails, phone calls, subscriptions, email newsletters, and plumbing sales.

Increased Online Visibility

Local SEO improves your visibility online in different ways.

We can exhaust the benefits of plumbing local SEO without stating website visibility.

Local SEO improves your visibility online in different ways. As we stated earlier, you are obtaining more foot traffic to your business; enhancing the visibility of your business’s physical location.

In the modern digital world, you are greatly enhancing your site’s visibility and business since your SEO campaign efforts make it prominently visible to local and national users.

Establish Trust Within Your Community

Female meeting with customers and shaking hands

Figure out about your current community. If you are searching for a place to eat your dinner, you are going to trust what the locals have to say about restaurants, rights/other people’s feelings; home service businesses will ultimately impact your own options in some way.

When you get stellar reviews from locals, your online credibility increases, and that can attract more qualified leads. Your local online presence can assist you to attract new clients, and when you are offering quality plumbing services, those customers will leave glowing, honest reviews.

Such reviews can turn into a major deciding factor for browsers trying to choose between your business and those two other plumbers who appeared in a local SEO 3-pack.

Since more than 90% of users trust plumbing businesses with numerous positive reviews. With your plumbing local SEO strategy, you can manage your online reviews and utilize them to generate more leads for your plumbing business.

Reduced Plumbing Advertising Spend

Reduce your advertising spend

Local plumbing businesses require their local market to succeed, which explains why a huge chunk of the budget goes to plumber advertising through pamphlets, billboards, banners, and local ads. While these are true and tried strategies of local plumbing advertising, local plumbing SEO can help you to avoid wasting your advertising dollars.

Link-Building Opportunities

Backlinks

With plumbing local SEO, you will craft more content for your plumbing website that will assist you to rank higher on Google or Bing search results. This implies higher online visibility on SERPs, not just from clients but from other service businesses too.

When you publish informative content, offer insight on a plumbing industry topic or resolve a problem, you get backlinks from other businesses.

Backlinks are links from another site to your own. When you create masterpiece content that is helpful to others, you rank higher on SERPS, exposing your plumbing website to other businesses, industry professionals, and bloggers who could use you as a resource.

Getting a quality backlink is a testament to your plumbing website’s credibility. When prospects browse other sites and notice that your site is referenced, they see one business trusting another. That’s a huge plus for you!

Offers a Long Term Plumbing Marketing Strategy

Plumber clearing blockage in drain

Local SEO for plumbers builds over time leading to improved outcomes for many years. The minimum duration is typically six months for a plumbing website to maintain its optimal ranking. It might appear like a century especially if you are in a hurry to see overnight results, but also know that it takes time to remove you from the top-rank list once you are there.

Track your rankings regularly to monitor your performance as Google Algorithm keeps on changing from time to time. Monitoring will assist you to make tweaks when your performance fluctuates. It is an effective way to ensure the long-term marketing strategy for your plumbing company.

Keeps You Ahead of the Competition

Utilizing plumbing local SEO services can help you get more clients.

Utilizing plumbing local SEO services can help you get more clients. When you are in business, you may come across a similar company to yours that is providing the same services as you do.

To ensure that you outrank them, you need to show up on the first page of the search engine results page. Perform keyword research to offer the clients with exact thing they are searching for online. Besides, understand your competitor’s keywords to make sure that you offer a better one for your plumbing business.

Enables Measuring Plumbing SEO Results

You can use Google Analytics to know exactly your position in the local market.

A major benefit of plumbing local SEO is to help you easily monitor the metrics and know how successful your SEO efforts are. You will be able to know the actual amount of assistance it has offered to grow your plumbing businesses online.

You can later analyze and enhance each aspect of your plumbing SEO efforts. You can use Google Analytics to know exactly your position in the local market. It will also assist you to know how many people visit your plumbing website and how long they dwell there. Best of all, knowing the plumbing keywords that made them land on your website.

Enhances Brand Awareness

Plumbing service logo

Using local SEO can help to promote some degree of your plumbing brand recognition among prospects. They may have a variety of enquires in the progression of the buying process.

Clients tend to research each factor as it has become easier to obtain the required information at their fingertips. Local SEO helps your plumbing website to rank higher as well as get promoted for searches that are connected to your plumbing services if you understand how to utilize it appropriately. So, your plumbing brand will become more recognized once your business continues offering top-notch content.

Should I Be Using Plumbing Local SEO?

water flowing

The answer is yes! Plumbing SEO is data-driven and intentional to enhance the quality of your company’s internet marketing and the visibility your business gets. The advantages of local SEO for plumbers can only assist your business to grow, making it worth your money and time. But SEO is an ever-changing, complex practice.

As new digital technology evolves and emerges, so too does SEO. Plumbing local SEO promotes your brand, drives traffic, engage with clients, and directly impacts your user experience. SEO is an integral element of your company’s successful online marketing.

Contact Blackstorm Design + Marketing for All Your Plumbing Local SEO Needs

Local SEO for plumbers

Local SEO for plumbers involves a lot of strategies to implement for it to become successful.

However, plumbers need to pay special consideration for their unique company model. Some forms of plumbing marketing, like email marketing and social media marketing, may not be as effective as reputation management or advertising.

That said, having a strong plumber SEO team or agency is crucial to the success of your internet marketing.

If you still have questions about plumbing local SEO is essential for your business, schedule a free profit session with any of our growth strategists to learn how our plumber SEO services can help your business grow.

Don't Go Yet!

Request A Custom Quote For Your Design & SEO.

Whether you have a complex project or a simple one, we will provide you with a straightforward custom quote.