Search Page Dominance
Assuming that your company’s website is well optimized and frequently re-optimized, what an investment in PPC does is to allow you to appear in both the organic search results and among the paid links on the top and to the right. It thus assures you a place on page one of search results. Appearing in both organic and paid search results, many experts assert, is best of all.
Multiple links on paid and organic search “double the chances that the homeowner is going to click on you,” says Paul Baudisch, co-owner of Keyword Advisors. “It makes sense that when you increase the links, you increase the number of clicks. Some you pay for, some you don’t. But you should be doing both.”
George Faerber, co-owner of Bee Window, in Indianapolis, who two years ago founded an Internet marketing consulting company called BringMeMyLeads, points out that investing in both SEO and PPC is similar to owning the four fast-food franchises at the four corners of a busy intersection. “I want to get their business no matter what they want to eat,” Faerber says. Right now, about 35% of Bee Window business comes from Internet leads.
Different Type of Lead
Buying sponsored links lets contractors “level the playing field,” says Adam Bressler, marketing director for Builders & Remodelers Inc., a siding and window company in Minneapolis. Builders and Remodelers launched its first PPC campaign this spring. Three Deep Marketing, a Twin Cities marketing firm that works with home improvement companies, created and manages the campaign. Tom Audette, of Three Deep Marketing, says that the cost of PPC marketing is about $70 per inquiry. He compares that with direct-mail results, where “if you send out 5,000 pieces, you’re lucky to get 10 calls.”
What’s critical, however, is how those warm-call responses to PPC campaigns are handled, since callers are all over the place in the buying cycle for windows, siding, or other products. (For consumers researching roofing companies, the need may be more urgent.) Some may want to talk to a window company representative right away. Some may merely be feeling the market out, to get a sense of who’s there and what products they carry ? and, of course, their prices.
The advantage of the PPC campaign is that even if the homeowner is not immediately interested in buying, you have established communication and can periodically market to them.
What Brawler found is that proper handling of the call and caller made a huge difference in the number of inquiries that ultimately became set appointments. When Builders & Remodelers started, he estimates that 20% of callers ultimately converted to appointments. Once scripted, that rose and is now 50% to 60%. The important part, he says, was “to gauge where they are ? whether they’re gathering information or looking to get a quote.” Leads that are not set go immediately to a contact management system for future marketing.
A swift response is also critical. “The Internet customer measures things in minutes, not days,” Faerber says. “If there’s something on his or her mind, they want to know now.”
Where the Eyeballs Go
Having a marketer who knows the Internet managing the account can help make a PPC investment pay off. For instance, Three Deep Marketing checks keyword responses to Builders & Remodelers PPC campaign several times a day. “We’re testing ads, making sure you’re showing up in the top-three positions, monitoring your landing page,” Audette says.
Faerber makes the point that with universal Internet use in U.S. households, home improvement company owners ignore this kind of marketing at their own peril. If you can only afford SEO or PPC, choose one or the other, he says. The important thing is to have an Internet presence. “Where are the customer’s eyeballs? That’s where I want my marketing dollars to go. This is the one marketing medium that is growing audience.”
?Jim Cory, editor, REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR.
This is a longer version of an article that appeared in the Fall 2009 issue of REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR magazine.
