CO2 Blast Cap - Paid Search

Editor's Notes

• #3: Good morning everyone! Some of you I know and/or work with, and some of you I haven’t had the pleasure to meet yet. I am Rachel Betterbid, and I am a senior inbound strategist here at Coalmarch and I have a specialization in Pay-Per-Click advertising.
• #4: Today we’ll be discussing why you need to budget for paid search in 2017. By a show of hands, how many of you have already determined your marketing budget for the upcoming year? For those of you who have, how many of you have a line item in your budget for paid search? For those of you who don’t, let’s talk about what PPC is and why it makes sense for your business.
• #5: First things first, what exactly is PPC advertising? PPC stands for pay-per-click, a model of online marketing in which advertisers pay a fee every time one of their ads are clicked.
• #6: Basically, you pay search engines to display your business's ads at the top of the “ad” section of the listings page. Your ads are triggered based on a user’s search - so you choose exactly which keywords you want your ads to show up for. For the pest control industry, you’d want to bid on relevant keywords such as “pest control” and “exterminator”, whereas for lawn care you’d want to bid on keywords such as “lawn care”, “weed control”, etc.
• #7: So now that we know what PPC is, let’s talk about why PPC makes sense for your business. One of the biggest benefits of PPC is that you can capitalize on user intent by advertising to those already searching for the services you provide. After all, it’s going to be a lot easier to sell to someone who already knows they need your solution, isn’t it? Let’s say I’m a homeowner and I discover an infestation of ants in my kitchen. As a millennial, I immediately open my smartphone and search for an ant exterminator in my area. Your business shows up with an ad about ant treatment, telling me I can call right now for same-day service. I explore your website which seems legitimate, so I give you a call for more information. Boom! I’m now a lead for your business. That was easy, right?
• #8: This scenario goes hand in hand with my next point: with PPC, you can meet people at their exact point of need, with the right message in the right context. For a needs-based industry like pest control, meeting people at their exact point of need is crucial in capturing a sale. You’ll know they are a qualified lead because like I said before, they’re already searching for the services you provide with intention.
• #9: One of the most awesome things about PPC that I like to highlight is that there is a lot of flexibility with spend and you can maximize your budget by seasonality. So, you can spend as low or as high as demand allows. This is great for industries with a sense of seasonality - because you can spend more in your busy season and then scale back your budget in the off-season. You can also make changes to your budget in real-time which is convenient in case you need to adjust it at any time.
• #10: One aspect of PPC that I personally love is that there is so much data that is readilly accessible to you, which you can use to assess performance and make executive decisions. So, you can track success (or lack thereof) down to a keyword, location in which the user is searching, device they’re using, or even the time-of-day in which they see your ad. This data will help to inform your overall strategy and will help guide you to put your money where you’ll get the most bang for your buck and the most profit for your business.
• #11: Another great benefit of PPC is that regardless of whether a click becomes a lead, you help increase your business’s brand awareness - for free. Because you only pay for clicks and not impressions, you do not pay for people to see your ad. This is especially important to note for smaller, locally-owned companies who have to compete with the big brands for business. Free exposure = more awareness of your business and its solutions.
• #12: Now let’s be real, this is the one you’ll probably care the most about. With PPC, you can generate qualified, cost effective leads and, essentially, purchase new customers. If your main business goal is growth in revenue, PPC can definitely help you grow your customer base.
• #13: Last but not least, another important thing to consider when talking about PPC is the landscape of Google search and how that has evolved throughout the years. Right now, in 2016, paid ads are the very first thing that a user sees on both Google and Bing. Let’s journey back in time and see how the landscape of search has evolved throughout the years, and how that affects your business.
• #14: There was a time - light years ago - when Google’s search engine results were majority organic, with only 1-2 “sponsored links” in the sidebar at a time. This means businesses couldn’t pay to be at the top, and instead, the results were based solely on relevancy and how legitimate Google perceived your website to be. This is when ranking on the first page of Google was everything.
• #15: Flash forward ten years, and this is Google about 2 years ago. As you can see, there are ads on the top, on the side, and on the bottom--as well as shopping ads depending what you searched. This is when paid search really blew up, and as you can tell, you cannot escape the ads!
• #16: Now, we look at present day Google on a desktop. With the growing use of technology and smartphones, users are becoming impatient - they’re looking for immediate gratification, and they’re making decisions faster than ever. That means in order for your business to capture as many leads as possible, you simply need to have visibility in the paid search section.
• #17: Here’s what Google looks like on a mobile phone. Another important thing to consider is that more than 60% of searches are performed on mobile devices, so you want to make sure your business is as visible as possible on a mobile device. With both mobile and desktop, you have to scroll at least twice to reach the organic listings, which brings me to my next point.
• #18: Even if your keyword rankings are strong and your website ranks in the top 3, you still have to compete with so many other listings for visibility, especially on a mobile phone. In order to capture as much search traffic as possible in your area, paid search should be a necessity for your business in 2016.
• #19: Now that we know the benefits of PPC and why it makes sense for your business, let’s look at the numbers and talk performance.
• #20: In 2016, Coalmarch managed over 1 million in ad spend. We saw the following averages across both the pest control & lawn care industry: We saw an average cost per click of about $8 An average cost per lead of $65 An average conversion rate of 13%. For those of you who don’t know, a conversion rate is simply the percentage of people who visited your website and contacted you… aka became a lead for your business.
• #21: So, with a sales closing rate of 50%, our clients on average are purchasing new customers at around $130. We do recommend to all of our clients that paid search be a major component of their marketing strategy and spend. But at the end of the day, it’s up to you to figure out if these numbers makes sense for your business. We’ll be here all week to answer your questions or give recommendations, so if you want to chat later, feel free to stop by our Sprowt booth!
• #22: Thank you!