The Issue of Truthfulness in Online Reviews

There are several issues when it comes to online review management, which should really be covered here before anybody enters into the review game themselves. It is important to note that a customer review will differ from a business review, but both are equally significant to the ongoing health of interest and traffic to the business and its online sites.

Once that is understood, move onto the content itself. People often lie when it comes to reviews, both individuals and businesses. Individuals can do so for many different reasons, but when businesses do it, it is normally because they want good Google reviews, positive Yelp reviews, or good feedback on some other platforms.

Online reputation management is something which is becoming increasingly important, especially when coupled with the changing ways in which people are interacting with the online world. The use of reviews can make or break a company, so care should be taken.

However, much businesses might like to avoid online feedback, it is impossible to do so in the current way in which the online world is used. No online reviews means no reputation, and because of customers using feedback to ultimately on where and from whom they are going to make purchases, no reviews ultimately means fewer customers and less business traffic to your sites.

The Importance of Online Reviews

Online reviews management is important because of the role they play in the overall health of the company being reviewed. When the internet and the online world as a whole did not exist, businesses, both small and large, depended on word of mouth to spread knowledge about their products, as well as the usual marketing methods which would have existed. Online reviews are almost an exact replacement for that word of mouth since they are used by customers in almost exactly the same way. Where word of mouth stood for opinions and advice, people online use reviews for opinions and advice, looking through most or all of the various review sites which exist in order to truly get a picture of what they are buying.

It has also been found that customers trust the online reviews that they see to a great degree, to the point where nearly all self-reported customers would be hesitant to buy a product if there were no feedback for it. Review management is vitally important for this reason, because if a review is what can tip 97% percent of people into buying a product over not buying it, then the issue of whether or not reviews can be ultimately trusted becomes even more important. Three quarters of all customers who have been interviewed over the years say that it isn’t so much the star ratings which lead to them to buy or pass over a product, but the review itself, and what it says.

As well as this, there are several things that should be remembered by every business which relies on reviews, to whatever extent: review sites have a lot of traffic to them every day. Having your name attached to them will boost traffic to your sites and social media platforms, and this goes double for having good feedback. The type of review matters as well – marketing is increasingly moving to social media platforms, so Facebook reviews are gaining in importance, particularly if you also have a Facebook presence. Finally, remember that customers have shown that they are willing to pay good money for products which have good feedback, and high numbers of good reviews at that.

Truthful Reviews as a Way to Understand your Customers

There has been a lot of research done into why customers act the way they do when it comes to shopping, but the underlying factors which go into that behavior and what caused it have so far not been the focus. Those underlying factors – the reasons for review management being as important as it is – are most likely a combination of adapting to changing circumstances with shopping habits which have not changed from before the advent of the internet.

The modern shopping experience takes the form of the three ‘r’s’ – research, recommendations, and returns, each one of which requires good online review services.

Research

The rise of digital technology has, in some ways, completely changed the way in which people shop. Before the rise of the internet, there was a limit to a number of information people had access to – they could speak to people they knew about the products and services which they were thinking about buying. Moreover, they could perhaps compare products and services from various retailers, if they had the time to spend going between shops. Also, of course, they can see the marketing for the various products and services. Digitalisation and the ways in which people use the internet (particularly the increasing portion of them who use mobile devices) are changing the information that is available – vastly increasing it. People can now access multiple reviews and multiple retailers from the comfort of their own home, and compare notes to see what different products are selling for, and what people think of them.

Recommendations

Before the rise of digitalisation, companies and businesses of all sizes held most of the power when it came to the client-retailer relationship. This, however, is changing due to the increasing use of Google business reviews and online feedback of all kinds, a fact which is changing the balance in the favor of customers and clients. As has been discussed above, before the internet, people were limited in their options when it came to discussing what they wanted to buy.

The internet gives people a space to talk about the purchases they have made and so provides a way for other people to find those recommendations. Recommendations are a powerful thing – if a product is good, and people say it’s good, then it is likely that people will buy it more often.

Returns

It is not something which is immediately apparent, even when taking into account the huge explosion in internet usage, but the more expansive returns policies which are a necessary part of the online shopping experience is changing the way in which shopping and shopping in person, happens. Returns can happen for many reasons – the customer could have wanted to try something on to see for sure if it was what they thought it was, only to ultimately decide that they didn’t like it as much as they had; they could be suffering from buyer’s remorse; or, and this is the worst from the perspective of the retailer, they could have found that the product did not live up to the reviews which they had read.

What can you do to Build Truthful Reviews?

Building truthful reviews is something which can be done in a variety of ways, especially considering that companies have access to the same digital devices and information hubs that their customers do. Businesses and individuals with an online shop should encourage everyone who visits their site (even if it is just a visit) to leave positive reviews about their experience, and also to recommend the site to other people. An extension of this (and of managing online reviews as a whole) is reaching out to bloggers who write about the area you work in, and asking them to write about your site. Sweeten the deal by offering them discounts or free products with their next purchase from your site.

Monitor your social media – these platforms are becoming increasingly popular with people for sharing reviews and information about products which can be found online. The platforms are also helpful in tracking down fake reviews, and problematic ones. An email list can be helpful in a number of ways: when it comes to cultivating an online reputation, as it allows for emails to be sent out to everyone at once asking for reviews of your site, or you can simply use it to send out surveys to everyone who has come to the site. However, it is important that you do not use any kind of platform to either coerce fake reviews out of other people or write them yourself.

In Case of Negative Feedback

Negative feedback is something which happens to every company, but there are ways to deal with it that will mitigate the effect it has on your company. Getting management feedback on these reviews, and what to do about them is the first step to dealing with negative reviews, and managing reputation.

First of all, try to understand why the review is negative; maybe get in contact with the customer to get a clearer picture of the issues. Don’t try and hide any negative news behind the positive reviews you may have had. Focus on fixing the problem.

Follow the following steps when faced with a negative review:

• • Apology to the customer.
• • Explain what went wrong as far you are able and give a clear idea of how you intend to fix things.
• • Ask them to give the company another chance with their time and money, with an assurance that what happened will not happen again.
• • Finally, make sure to own the problem by signing your name to the reply.

In Case of Fake Reviews

Sadly, fake reviews are also part of the job when you are on the internet. There are only a few things you can do to manage your reputation in these circumstances. Always be polite when responding to fake feedback, and make a logical argument which takes down the fake review point by point.

The Pros of Having More Reviews

Online reputation management reviews in most cases only make the brand you are offering stronger, as they are concrete proof that you can deliver on your promises. Reviews also act as a means of advertising your business – they improve search engine ratings, allowing businesses to appear higher up in searches, meaning that they will be more easily noticed.

Don’t you need help?

Adwords and PPC marketing campaigns are useful for any business which has a significant online, presence, but it can be particularly useful for plumbing services in terms of giving them entirely new markets to work with. AdWords for a plumbing company is useful on several levels: it can widen the potential sphere of influence that the company has, it can draw in new clients who may not have been aware of the company beforehand, and it can introduce them to an entirely new method of marketing.

Using PPC as an essential part of internet marketing for plumbers will help the plumbing company come up an entirely new flow of leads (a lead will cost $10), one which will hopefully remain constant until the business either comes to an end or switches marketing tactics. These tactics can benefit the customer as well – googling for an emergency plumber can mean that the AdWords advert comes up, and gives them the contact details they need. The tips which are given in the following article all concern AdWords for plumbing services, and are all based on existing campaigns.

How to Manage a Campaign Properly?

More Details

An AdWords campaign is something which tries to give more information to the customer than would be possible with another marketing campaign. Now it is much easier to do with ad extensions which are offered by Google for free. However, about 90 % of companies do not take benefits of this.

When deciding how to grow a plumbing business, the basic information in your ad is a necessity. Here come obvious reasons – customers need to know the name of the service, how to get in contact with them, and where they are located.

For instance, a plumbing company offers a number of services:

• Pressure reducing valves
• Domestic water system balancing
• Domestic booster pump installation and repair
• Domestic hot water boiler system installation and repair
• Piping repair and replacement
• Cold and hot water pipe isolation freezing

Here comes the question how to advertise a plumbing business correctly and present these services properly.

Any and all services which are highlighted in your advert needs to be grouped in such a way as to be immediately visible and identifiable. They can be further identified by the type of service which they are part of, which in a plumbing company would most likely be: install, repair, replace, upgrade.

It can be also done in another way: plumbing, heating repair, emergency services.

Another vital part of an advertisement for plumbing services is the headlines, as these are what people see first. There can be several headlines in any given advert, but the first headline should be treated with the most importance for two separate reasons: one, the first headline is used to grab people’s attention, so it needs to be direct and to the point; and two, the first headline is the only one which Google AdWords PPC management will allow any direct control over.

Brand Identification

In terms of marketing for plumbers, branded terms and modified broad keywords are both useful parts of the PPC campaign, as they can both act to direct more customers to the advert and then to the site itself.

Brand identity is so important when it comes to PPC for plumbing services because brands are often the first and only thing people remember about the various adverts they are inundated with throughout the day. The brand of a company is the defining way in which they are seen, so brand identifiers are highly important additions to adverts. It is important to remember that brand identity (something which shows how a company wants to be seen) is different from brand image (how the company is actually seen).

Brand identification in an AdWords campaign for plumbing services is important precisely because the method of marketing which uses AdWords depends so much on what is seen. A marketing campaign which uses keywords can focus slightly less on who sees the message (more on keywords below), and therefore slightly more on what message is sent. Even if people who see the advert do not click on it, they have still seen it – this means that in the future when they do need the goods or services which were offered in the advert, there is the chance that the plumbing business might have a new customer.

Because brand identity is so important when it comes to managing PPC campaigns, many businesses take the step of using their own name as a keyword, essentially bidding on their own name.

• For example, “Canadian Plumber plumbing service” where Canadian Plumber is a brand name and plumbing service is a non-branded term.

Though at first, it does seem illogical to pay money for people who are actively searching for your own company, there are a number of reasons for doing this:

It’s cheap. Having a high search return lowers the price a plumbing business has to pay for all the keywords it uses.

You are the right answer. Customers and prospects are more likely to click on an advert if they see the name repeated more than once.

Take over search results. Bidding on brand names means that more searches are taken up with the results that you want.

Avoid competition. Sometimes rival businesses can bid on the brand names of their competitors in a bid to keep them from using it and gain an edge. Bidding on the brand name keeps rivals from doing this.

Geo-Targeting

Geo-targeting is useful for plumbing services which are located in a very strict geographical area. Companies which do not rely on their clients being close by may be content with Google AdWords Canada being as specific as they care to get, but other companies are more limited.

Geo-targeting can be done in two separate ways: the first way is by using the location tracker which is coded into every search engine that supports AdWords campaigns. By turning the location tracker to a specific location, a plumbing business can ensure that their adverts only turn up on searches which are made by people in the same geographical area as they are, therefore saving money on potential clicks which will go nowhere.

The second way to use geo-targeting is in the keywords of the search itself: if the plumbing business which is running the campaign has entered specific locations into the keywords that they want their adverts to show up with, then anybody who runs a search using that location will see the advert.

• E.g. Plumbing company in Vancouver

Negative Keywords

Negative keywords are just as important as positive ones when it comes to setting up a marketing campaign to be the best it can be. Negative keywords refer to the keywords which are to be excluded from searches.

PPC for a plumbing company has to take the content of the adverts into account – if the advert is not advertising free services or discounts for users, for example, then it makes no sense to have the adverts show up on searches which are done purely for free or discount services. This is where negative keywords come in – using them to block the words free and discount can prevent disappointment in potential clients, and the need to pay for failed advertising in the business.

Adding to the control over keywords which comes with using negative keywords, plumbing businesses may find it useful to group keywords together with similar ones used to describe similar services.

• Piping: Piping repair, pipe replacement, pipe installation, etc.

Sitelinks

Sitelinks are a specific feature within an AdWords campaign which allows the business behind that campaign to include more than one landing page on each advert, thus giving customers and prospects more choice in where they choose to go when they click on an advert.

Normally, an advert is something which is clicked on, and the takes the client to a specific page on the business website, but sitelinks allow for more freedom. The most basic form of sitelinks is an advert which has a number of hyperlinks in it for the customer, so that they can choose where they want to go.

Plumbing companies, when thinking about how to use sitelinks to their fullest extent, need to take two things into account – how they can best use this to show information about their site, and what parts of the site potential customers might want to go to.

• Thus, you can use a sitelink “Vancouver piping repair” as well as more informative sitelinks like “Hot water heaters” and “24/7 Emergency Plumbing.”

Review Extensions

The latest idea to come out of Google is review extensions – this is a way to give people who use advertising campaigns such as AdWords and PPC the means to share positive reviews for their potential customers to read. Using these types of extensions can help to bring in more business, as people find it easier to trust the company, and because the reviews automatically make adverts more visible.

Anybody who uses the internet knows that reviews and review sites are changing the way people shop. People can now look around online before they buy, to see what other people are saying about the goods and services. AdWords review extensions is an effective answer to the question of how to advertise plumbing services effectively. Adding a review extension onto the advert itself is a good idea for an AdWords campaign for a plumbing business for several reasons: it allows the business to show that it has good reviews, and it shows that it understands the needs of customers.

Call to Action

A call to action is, at its most basic, a sentence or slogan which entices the person looking at the advert to click on it.

Properly using a call to action within an advert is crucial for PPC for a plumbing business in terms of optimization. The best adverts promise clients and prospects great things if they click on the adverts – there is the possibility of even offering incentives to people who do follow through.

Below are three variants of effective calls to action:

1. Call-to-action words combined with targeted keywords

• Give a call to the best plumbing services now!

2. Call-to-action words combined with an offer

• Buy Our Services Today and Save 25%!

3. Call-to-action words combined with words that reveal urgency:

• Give Us a Call Now! Best Plumbing Offer Ending Soon.

Mobile Searches

Mobile devices are becoming more and more popular in recent years, and research has shown that people act differently when using them than they would on a desktop device. There is, of course, the option to simply create adverts which can change depending on what device they sense themselves to be on, but those are complicated to produce and can be expensive to boot. It is much easier to simply create a group of adverts (perhaps one for each keyword group) which are used specifically for mobile searches.

Mobile searches is a vital part of an AdWords campaign for a plumbing company because customers often need emergency plumbing services. Thus, using their devices they can instantly find your company.

Conversions and Call Tracking

Call tracking and conversions are useful for any AdWords campaign because they allow for the tracking of all adverts, to show how successful they are. Conversions are a reference to how many prospects became customers by following the adverts. Call tracking is similar, except it tracks the phone calls which are made as a result of AdWords plumbing services adverts.

Using both of these allows companies to keep an eye on their budget, as they can use both methods of tracking to determine if an advert is not performing as hoped. The fund for that advert can then be diverted to a more successful part of the advertising campaign.

Campaign Testing

Campaign testing is wildly important because it allows companies to see how their AdWords for plumbing business campaigns will fare in the wild before actually putting them into action. To truly test a campaign, run around five different advertising styles to see which is the most effective while testing out different headlines.

Campaign testing also allows businesses to check the overall look of their adverts, their sites, whether all connections are working, and whether everything is easy to navigate.

Information to Consider

Businesses which are looking for best advertising for plumbers, reviews and advice concerning their own AdWords campaign can come to Willbecoded.ca for free recommendations, or if they have not started the process yet, they can also begin working with our employees.

Free AdWords Audit

If you are looking for the best way to advertise a construction business, here comes Google AdWords. Generally speaking, AdWords campaigns are the same no matter what company is making use of them – such a campaign consists of several advertising groups which exist within the main campaign, though all of them differ slightly to correlate with slightly different audiences. However, while the basics may be the same for any company, the specifics of each campaign differ based on the differences in each company’s needs and wants. The reasons for having such a campaign in the first place may also be different.

For example, someone who is looking for building and construction services will most likely have some very simple needs in terms of what they are actually looking for, so they will have some correspondingly simple search terms. AdWords for a local construction company, from the other side of the coin, will need to emphasize that they are trustworthy, and so will have different needs based on that. So, if you need more information about how to advertise a small construction company via AdWords, you can find it below.

Consider Seasons

Having different advertising campaigns for different seasons is quite a common thing, particularly for companies which offer goods that change on a seasonal basis (think of clothing, for example), but AdWords for a construction company is something which particularly needs to take this into account because of the nature of the services they offer. Google AdWords PPC management should ideally have separate advertising campaigns for at least spring/summer and autumn\winter, simply due to the differences in weather conditions which can make it impossible to carry out certain tasks.

Provide Details

Providing as many details as possible is necessary for bringing customers in via the construction company advertisements. Details do not only cover the basics of when and where a company can work – they also include details of the work which can be done, (going back to the last section) what type of work can be done in which season, and so on.

More detailed adverts can also act to bring customers in because the larger amount of information in this type of AdWords for a local construction business can help them to truly decide whether they want to engage services or not. This is a win for the customer because then they do not need to go to a site before they can find out if the service would be a good fit, and also a win for the company, as they do not need to spend money on a lead which will inevitably go nowhere. Moreover, it’s important (when managing AdWords for a building company) to use ad extensions which are free; meanwhile, just 10% of sites use this additional possibilities.

• Headline – Best Construction Company in Vancouver
• Description Line 1 – Licensed Agency. Since 2001.
• Description Line 2 – Call Us Now to Get a Discount
• Display URL – www.site.com/vancouver-construction-company

The above is a good example of how to advertise a local construction company with such an advert. The headline conveys where the construction company is based, perhaps working in conjunction with the location services in Google AdWords Canada, while the two lines of text give additional information which can help people to make a decision on whether or not to click the link below.

Proper Keyword Use

Using keywords properly is a must for managing this kind of PPC campaign, as it is the keywords which make the advertising campaigns work. Using the right keywords in the first place is useful for PPC for a construction company as it will allow the adverts to appear on the most appropriate searches. Negative keywords are also useful here, as this will keep the adverts from appearing in searches which would not be ultimately profitable for either side.

Using proper keywords in PPC for a local construction business is important because most companies will be looking for a very specific audience. PPC for construction services will be no different. The use of single keyword groups (using one keyword for a variety of adverts), and grouping keywords properly so that adverts for the company will all form a coherent group within the search results is all part of managing PPC campaigns.

Here are some examples of negative keywords for a local construction company:

• construction company names
• construction company business plan
• construction company logo
• construction

Location Targeting and Geo Keywords

It depends on the company, but sometimes a company either doesn’t want to or can’t move beyond a certain boundary. An AdWords campaign for a local construction company can do one of two things: it can be set within the campaign itself to only appear on certain searches done within a specific geographical area, or it can be set to only respond to keywords which include geographical terms, such as Vancouver, or Toronto.

• Construction company Vancouver

Bidding on Brand Names

Companies bidding on their brand names is important for a variety of reasons. The main one is that combining PPC and SEO is something which is greater than the sum of its parts and is therefore extremely useful for whatever company tries it. Bidding on brand names is also useful because it is cheap to do, it makes the other advertising campaigns you have running cheaper, and it keeps competitors from stealing your work.

Add Social Proof

It is becoming increasingly important to include what is known as social proof. Review sites are becoming more and more popular, meaning that people can go to a site such as Yelp or Google Reviews, or even Facebook nowadays, and leave reviews of the site and how they found it. PPC for local construction companies will do well, and attract more business if they include some of those reviews in their adverts. This will show that they are trustworthy, and also pre-empt people going to review sites, therefore increasing the chances that they will click on the advert.

Tracking Progress: Conversions\Calls

PPC for a building company is all very well, but it is important to keep track of which adverts lead to conversions and calls for services. There are ways to track which adverts led to work, and this tracking can help companies to save money.

Being able to track which conversions are attached to which adverts means that particular advert group is functioning well. On the flip side, knowing which adverts are not performing well means that money can be redirected away from them, and put into more profitable campaigns.

Checking Step

It is important to check that AdWords for a building company actually works as you would expect it to before you launch a campaign. Checking that everything works as it should, that the proper adverts turn up when the associated keywords are used in a search, will lead to an optimized campaign that works as planned.

Landing Page Strategy

Having an appropriate landing page is necessary for the audience that is expected during a campaign. Adwords campaigns for local construction businesses will have a different landing page than one which is perhaps used for construction companies that can travel.

It is also important to remember that different landing pages can be used for different advert groups. One landing page could be an order page, while another can be the homepage of the site.

Your Own Site

It is equally important to make sure that your own site is functioning properly when it comes to advertising campaigns. The best campaign in the world will not help if your site is a mess which does not load, is confusing to the eye, and is not intuitive. Make sure that it is also optimized for use on mobile devices.

Remarketing

Remarketing is a way to bring repeat custom to the site. How it works is by having cookies put onto the computers of people who have visited the site, but have not gone through with ordering anything. The cookies mean that specific adverts will show up on sites which support them, therefore hopefully convincing the potential customers to come back and order.

Additional Information

The tips presented in this article for AdWords for a local construction business (local and otherwise), are all from Willbecoded.ca. People who have read the article are welcome to take a free consultation and review concerning their own AdWords campaign, or they can also order a full campaign as run by WBC.

Free AdWords Audit

Correlation between PPC and Brand Building

There is a lot of evidence to suggest that branding – so long as it is consistent and well-thought out across the entire business structure, is something which truly works across the entire marketing spectrum. Brand indeed matters when it comes to everything about a business, from its reputation to its staying power in people’s minds.

When it comes to PPC marketing, branding, therefore, becomes double important. If a PPC campaign works by making adverts pop up on relevant searches done by an appropriate target market, how much more effective would it be if there was an associated brand with which to trigger people’s memories.

Similarly, PPC can function as a means of expanding a brand by ensuring that it appears on the front page of search engines and social media platforms, allowing it to grow, and to act as a reassurance to its customers that it is easy to come back to. It could also be argued that having a brand appear in adverts makes it easier to be a loyal customer in the first place.

The biggest company brands got to their position by understanding their target audience and their customer base very well indeed. When building brand identity, they relied on some form of marketing to do so; now, PPC marketing offers them a means to maintain that brand in the minds of their customers and prospects.

As far as businesses which do not hold the top position in terms of branding, they can still utilise PPC marketing for the same purposes: online brand reputation management is something to which PPC is well suited, and using it will not only bring the business in, but will serve the two-fold purpose of building their brand, and associating that brand with the product which is being sought after.

Finally, there is one more aspect of PPC marketing which could make it useful for brand building: while a business might not be a number on the list of companies which people would buy from, there is no reason to suggest that people will have no use for your services.

Marketing is not solely involved in gaining new customers, although that is its primary goal for many businesses. PPC and brands can work together to make a business seem competent through its ability to provide information and answers to those who need it. And, of course, once those people have gone to that business for information, then they are more likely to return to it when they have more concrete needs, the brand at this point having been ingrained in their minds as something to trust.

Basics

PPC is primarily known for its marketing abilities, and not so much its ability to build a brand or assist in its online brand reputation management, but it can be used for both of these things. PPC, as has been seen, is something which makes adverts appear on certain search engines. It can be used to build a brand because, even if people running searches don’t click on the advert, they have still been made aware of it. This is part of how to build a brand; make people aware that it exists first and foremost.

There is a specific tool called Core Paid Search which runs in both Google and Bing, which can help to raise awareness while also hopefully working to increase the number of conversions to the site itself. Core Paid Search works by moving your adverts to strategic segments of the search, allowing for a greater degree of awareness to be built around the presence of the brand itself. The tool also has another use, this time a more active one than simply building awareness by allowing brands to pop up on search engines in the form of PPC marketing when the right keywords were entered into the search platform. Using Core Paid Search along with other associated PPC marketing tools allows for the brand to be made interesting by only showing it at certain times. This could also tie in with using the brand to pique people’s interest through the use of blog posts and other means to discuss problems and how to fix them.

To build interest in a brand, it is important to know who and what the target audience is for developing a strategy. Investigate all keywords thoroughly, and investigate the audience to see what keywords they might use in the future. Being able to predict which keywords will be used is extremely useful in terms of knowing where to go next to draw the most attention with your campaign.

PPC experts will tell any business that works with them that a PPC campaign mixed with branding is something which requires immediate action if it is to succeed. The Core Paid Search tool was only part of the overall program – PPC marketing allows businesses and individuals both to take action in bringing themselves into greater prominence.

Consider a flower shop which is trying to get more publicity. It can do this in two different ways: it can build up its brand by having various adverts and landing pages appear in response to specific keywords being used: at this point, it could be blog posts on how to properly care for or arrange flowers. Once a brand has been established, the next step is to change the adverts into ones which are more specifically adverts aimed at paying customers, rather than curious visitors.

Two Types of PPC: Brand-focused and Sales-focused

As shown above, there are two types of PPC available for use, and PPC experts would be able to tell you which are the most applicable to your situation, and how they can be combined.

In order to truly combine brand-focused and sales-focused PPC, make sure that you have thoroughly researched the customer base – those people who want help and advice may be different from those who wish to buy a product on sale, but both are useful for branding and advertising purposes. To properly do this, make sure the brand is recognizable, and make sure to try different tactics for building a brand because what works for one campaign won’t work for another.

Conclusion

The question of whether or not PPC is an effective tool when it comes to brand building is a complicated one. PPC management services would no doubt say that PPC marketing could be very useful in brand building, so long as the proper approach was taken. One advantage to PPC marketing as a whole, however, is that the setup allows for experiments – if you and your business want to try specifically building your brand by using PPC, then it is worth giving it a shot.

Free PPC Audit

How you got a constant issue of how to grow a cleaning business fast? Google AdWords is one of the best choices for this purpose when you need advertisement for cleaning services and other small businesses. The way such campaigns are set up means that restrictions can be set on them to limit any potential wastage. These restrictions can include setting parameters to strictly local searches, or to global ones, depending on the needs of the business which is paying for the advertising. The main benefit that AdWords campaigns (as a part of marketing a cleaning business) can offer to cleaning companies is that it is $10 for a lead, if the settings are put up correctly.

Make Detailed Adverts

The advertising space offered in Google AdWords PPC management is very small, as we have seen, but it is nonetheless important to make them as detailed as possible. The restrictions which can be placed on the adverts themselves are useful in this respect – rather than having to waste advertising space on establishing where the business is established, it can get on with its appointed task of persuading people to click on it, and be taken to the website proper.

• Headline – Professional Cleaning Service Description
• Line 1 – Trusted Licensed Agency. Since 2005.
• Description Line 2 –Visit Us Now For a Free Cleaning Quote
• Display URL – www.site.com/creaning-services

The above example is an illustration of how to advertise cleaning services using AdWords extensions. This advert gives the URL, a hook for the interested customer to follow up on, and an assurance of competency. Adverts could also include details of special offers, or details about services in general. Google offers many different extensions which are completely free to use, something which 90% of the sites and software out there do not do.

Focus on Headlines

• Top-notch Cleaning Services Whenever You Need Them!

The headline is something which should be eye-catching, and which should, if handled correctly, give out necessary information about the company. This is why different adverts may need to have different headlines – because they are highlighting different aspects of the company.

The small space available on the adverts, and the way in which advertising for a cleaning company means that headlines are generally best for focusing on. Not only does this mean that important information is what is first seen in the advert – therefore acting to grab the attention of anybody who is potentially looking at it. For this reason, the first headline to appear in the advert is the most important and should have the most attention paid to it. Before any advert is used, it should be previewed to see how the headlines look.

Branded Terms vs. Keywords

Regardless of a type of the business, your purpose of advertising house cleaning or marketing an office cleaning business, using a mix of both branded terms and keywords is useful for adverts. It both widens the scope they are capable of and cuts down on any unnecessary words. Branded terms can be used as a means of narrowing the search terms down, as they are themselves recognizable as search terms, while keywords work themselves into the adverts very naturally due to the fact that they are themselves how the particular sites are chosen for adverts to show up on.

Keywords are what will initially be used to determine what sites and searches the adverts should appear in – the keywords tell businesses what words their target audience are using in their searches, and in the sites they visit. Keywords could be ‘cleaning services’ or even ‘Toronto professional cleaners!!’, and are what people use to search when they are not looking for a specific product. Using keywords very strictly is necessary, otherwise, anybody running the campaign will need to work in a variety of negative keywords to try and avoid bad searches. Using keywords which have not been vetted will result in wasted money, as the company will end up paying money for adverts which are never followed up on. Branded terms, on the other hand, are terms which already refer to a specific good or service, and are used when the person running the search is already sure of what they want.

Use Negative Keywords

Negative keywords are keywords which businesses and individuals search for specifically to avoid them. For example, a business which is not offering free services can use negative keywords to stop their advert from appearing on searches for free services, even if all the other keywords they have approved for use have appeared.

Call to Action

• Call Today for a Clean Home!

If you are thinking on how to advertise your cleaning business effectively, there is no other way but to use a call to action. AdWords for a cleaning company should involve a clear call to action to let the audience\potential customer base know what they need to do – to use the example given on the previous page, customers are told to visit for a cleaning quote, and given the URL they need. Managing PPC campaigns in this way keeps things clear and concise, and makes it more likely that prospects will turn into clients. A clear call to action is a great tool when you need to decide how to get clients for a cleaning business.

SiteLinks and Review Extensions

Every advert comes with a specific landing page that interested parties are taken to. SiteLinks extends this capability, allowing for a variety of landing pages to be used. This can extend the ability of the AdWords campaign for a cleaning business to bring in customers, as it broadens the amount of material they can be exposed to. Rather than simply being directed to one page, specific adverts can take people to either the service description page (for those who are unsure) or they can choose to go directly to the ordering page if the advert has convinced them that they need the good or service being advertised.

Review extensions are a way of sharing positive reviews of your company – they allow reviews to be shared at the bottom of adverts. AdWords campaign for cleaning services would find this helpful as it is a way of showing people that they are reliable and trustworthy. Say, for example, that the adverts were appearing on a particular search. The people who had run the search would then not only have an advert directing them to the site, they would also have a review about that company’s efficiency at their fingertips. For added confidence, allow customers the means to access even more reviews where that one came from.

Geo Keywords

Geo Keywords can be used when adverts need some location information added to them. Google AdWords Canada can use this to good effect in the PPC for cleaning businesses they create by adding a further dimension to the region-specific search parameters. The keyword can be added onto the end of the search terms, so, for example, cleaning services Toronto will allow the advert to appear on searches of that nature.

Location Settings

As said in the previous section, location settings exist for advertising campaigns. This comes in handy for a cleaning company, because they are most often very local. Setting location settings means that adverts will not appear to people who are without a certain geographical area, thus saving the company money. For example, say a company is located in Lothian; if the company wants to keep any potential customers within Lothian itself, they can set the location settings to ‘local’ and perhaps take the additional step of using negative keywords to avoid potential customers from Edinburgh and the Borders from seeing the advert. Alternatively, if the company can travel, it could take steps to ensure that customers from a wider base can see their advert.

Conversions and Calls

Conversions tracking is how AdWords for a cleaning business is shown to have worked – it lets the company behind the campaign see just how many people are seeing their adverts, and then going on to become customers. Call conversions act the same way, allowing companies to track the phone calls which have been made as a result of seeing adverts.

Both forms of tracking act as a way for the advertising campaign to constantly pay for itself; if conversion tracking (of either kind) shows that one particular advert is not bringing in that many customers, then it can be scrapped, and the money which was previously put into it can be rerouted into other adverts which are more profitable.

Mobile Searches

Mobile searches as distinct from ordinary searches are useful if the target audience for the PPC for cleaning services is one which uses mobile devices. Having a separate advert for mobile devices may seem like a waste of time, but having one specifically for those devices saves the need to design an advert which can convert to different formats when the need arises.

Testing a Campaign

Testing a campaign should happen in various ways, from the initial use of keywords
to determine which might work better and achieve better results in terms of PPC for a cleaning company. Ideally, you should use at least five different versions of the same text, to see which performs the best.

For example, a good way to test a campaign is by using different forms of keywords in an attempt to see which ones will bring in the most conversions. Will a long-tailed keyword work best, or a short-tailed keyword? A long-tailed keyword might allow for more information, but a short-tailed one will load more quickly. Additionally, cleaners could drop the keywords altogether in favor of simply having longer headlines in the adverts.

Remarketing

In a question how to promote your cleaning business, remarketing is a highly effective answer. Remarketing is a process where a site places cookies on the computers of visitors. This allowed them to have adverts appear to them on sites which supported them, keeping the AdWords cleaning services campaign in their conscious minds. Doing this is a way of keeping customers, and of potentially persuading people to become customers.

Moreover, Yelp is a good resource for remarketing – it can be used to show potential customers that the company is reliable, and since it is a well-known site for leaving reviews, having it turn up in an advert will only add to the reviews truthfulness.

How to Promote Your Cleaning Business: Additional Information

Before starting an AdWords campaign you need to check your site for having a clear navigation, all needed information, and whether everything works correctly. AdWords is a perfect solution of how to get cleaning clients fast, but without a proper site prospects will not turn into your clients.

All of the tips on AdWords campaigns for a cleaning business have been taken from real cases which were handled by our company, and we are offering anyone who would like to take advantage of our services a free review of their own AdWords accounts in order to gain some recommendations for how to improve it. If that doesn’t suit, then customers can set up and manage their own account using Willbecoded.ca.

Free AdWords Audit