Check your Google Ads analytics. 96% of your traffic leaves without engaging. Not phone call, no email. When a business has stalled or looking for a bump in growth, it is common for a business owner to jump to the easiest method of driving more traffic. Every time you Google, you see those ads and you see your competitors listed there. Are you about to jump on the band wagon and join what 90% of businesses in that ad space are doing wrong? Step back!
In the image here, I'm not picking on the particular ads - I'm just showing an example of the ads I'm talking about.
If you're thinking about doing Google Ads (formerly Google Adwords and generically referred to as pay-per-click); put your money back in your pocket, just for a second. Let's make sure you've got your bases covered.
Website Check
While the first mistake that pay per click advertisers make is to send ad clicks to the home page, lets ignore that for a second. Put your visitor's hat on for a second and check for the following.
- Visual appeal - Be honest with yourself. If you have no design sense, get a professional opinion. Are the images clean and crisp? Do the images really match the content. Are they relevant? Do they tell a story? Consider doing this... print your page and block out all of the text and hand the print to someone who has never seen the page. Ask that person to tell you what you sell. You'll know intuitively the answer to this question.
- The presence of video - Does your page have video content? Videos of the owners, of employees and of customers (testimonials) provide extremely credible content.
- An offer - Free offers, discounts and offers for first time customers.
- Testimonials - Are you presenting your client testimonials on the page. Your page is attempting to answer "Why we should be your choice". Testimonials explain the experience of others and why your business was their choice.
- Awards and certificates that show your business standing in the community (BBB for example)
- Brief description of services.
- Local Signals - Contact information, Address and Phone number are prominent (top and bottom)
- Calls to action: Contact Form (don't make me change pages!), Get a coupon or discount, Free Request (forms) etc. The visitor should not have to leave the page to respond to the offer.
Web Technology Check
If you are planning on paying to drive traffic to your website, you really should be able to track all of the current activity.
- Google Analytics installed
- Google Webmaster setup
- Google My Business established
- Google My Business profile completed 100% AND claimed
- Directory Submissions completed and error free (Business name, address and phone numbers correct in all directories)
- Ranking reports, Google My Business Reports, Review Tracking
OK! If you've gotten this far, you're ready for paid advertising. Oh... one more thing (I'm picturing Columbo about to leave the room, turning around with one last question).
Are you retargeting?
Even if you have most of the above website checks in place, you will discover this one sad fact. 96-98 percent of your traffic leaves your site without ever engaging! So, ask yourself: "Do I want to waste 96% of my advertising dollars on patrons to my website that leave without calling or emailing my business? With this apparent non-intent to buy, why would you pay for MORE traffic to just leave your site?
FINALLY GETTING TO THE POINT!
Your first paid advertising campaign should be a retargeting campaign.
You've seen this working. Every time you shop on Amazon, you start seeing some of the products you were searching for ON OTHER SITES. Retargeting is a method that simply drops a snippet of code on the visitors browser and when that visitors goes to other websites that have advertising, ads for your business are presented.
Effective retargeting can double and even triple the conversions from your website. For visitors that are kicking the tires, checking competitive sites and pricing or otherwise just not ready to buy, retargeting keeps your business front and center and helps make sure that when the decision to buy happens, the visitor has not forgotten you. Not only is this the best, first paid advertising campaign for your business, it offers the following benefits:
- Clicks in retargeting campaigns are cheaper than clicks on paid Google ads (sometimes MUCH cheaper).
- As 10's of thousands of ads for your business are viewed, your visual branding is dramatically improved. Nobody remembers a text ad!
- Retargeting campaigns can nurture leads in ways that Google ads can't. Ads can change dynamically over time, can be targeted to specific audiences and specific messages and can be run in multiples. Google frowns on running multiple Google Ad campaigns that drive traffic to the same URL.
- Distinct retargeting campaigns can be setup for each page of your website. Your retargeting ads should represent the specific niche product relative to the page the visitor has left.
If you have successfully established an effective retargeting campaign, ONLY THEN should you consider adding to your budget and doing some Google text ads!
Just after writing this article, I navigated to MSN.com to see if my ad would show up. I was not disappointed!
You have a tremendous opportunity in the retargeting advertising space. This is one of the most valuable and under-utilized forms of advertising for small local businesses. In part this is because they are more difficult to setup. Don't just go for what looks easy! Yes, Google has made pay per click easy and painless - AND EXPENSIVE!
Call 50Bubbles today - 937-471-6277 - and we will help you execute one of the most effective paid online advertising campaigns you can do. Respond to this particular article by letting us know where you got the information and we will create a FREE Ad worth $500 just for talking to us. You can use that ad anywhere you like including your website, social media and of course your own retargeting campaign.