HVAC PPC is very crucial to any HVAC company’s lead generation and marketing efforts. Lead generation is, without a doubt, the top method of finding customers in the digital age. The acronym stands for “pay per click.” This is a very cost-effective method of gaining traffic to your HVAC company’s website and for closing sales.
How Does PPC Work?
PPC is a method of advertising where the ad appears only as often as the marketer’s budget allows. The campaign ends whenever the advertiser’s preset budget is consumed. Let’s take a look at the example below.
For instance, you post ads on Google AdWords with a budget of $100. Let’s say Google charges you $0.25 for every impression or the instance where your ad appears beside relevant search queries. With $1 equal to four impressions, this budget gives you 400 impressions. This means your ad will only appear 400 times in the SERPs before it is taken down by Google.
You have the option to renew the HVAC marketing campaign. If you do, you can also revise its parameters. You can change the keywords or tweak the way you’re charged by the service. You can also choose to end the campaign with finality in favor of a new one.
Why is PPC Very Advantageous For HVAC Companies?
Like most service-oriented companies, HVAC cleaning firms need to build a huge database of leads to sell their services to. Word of mouth is not enough to secure clients in numbers that can sustain cash flow. With PPC, HVAC companies can easily build a sizable lead database that they can bring further down the sales funnel.
Aside from driving traffic to your service pages through the SERPs, HVAC entrepreneurs can build a dedicated HVAC landing page to capture leads’ contact information. They have to develop free downloadable content to offer in exchange. Last, they need to create compelling copy to convince the prospect to provide their contact details.
The next logical step is to create a series of marketing emails that will keep the company within the sights of the lead. Nearly everyone in the city has a heater or air-conditioner in their home. Every commercial property will definitely have HVAC units needing service. These are potential clients that can be converted with a well-planned email marketing campaign and an effective HVAC ad copy.
Why Choose PPC Over Traditional Advertising?
Traditional marketing has demonstrated its value over time. However, the digital age has introduced many alternative advertising methods like pay-per-click and search engine optimization. Both of these digital marketing techniques for HVAC companies possess several advantages that you won’t find in traditional TV, print, or radio ads.
Benefits of HVAC PPC Marketing
This section will look at what sets digital marketing and PPC ads distinct from traditional advertising techniques. Here are some benefits that you can enjoy only from pay-per-click advertising:
Measurability
Traditional advertising is difficult and expensive to measure. PPC, however, is very easy to track. Whatever platform you choose to run ads in, there will always be a control panel or console from which you can access analytics. You can monitor in real-time how your advertising campaigns are doing, and plan accordingly. All you have to do is log in to your account anytime you want to, and you’ll see all pertinent information there.
PPC pre-qualifies leads
PPC ads are designed to appear whenever somebody searches for keywords that they are optimized for. SEO dictates that you choose only the phrases and terms that are relevant to your niche. In other words, PPC drives traffic that already has an interest in your services. A thoroughly-planned sales funnel will convert these leads into clients; it’s just a matter of time.
PPC enables any business to compete regardless of size
New businesses will have to spend a lot on traditional advertising if they want to catch up to their older competitors. Even search engine optimization takes some time and resources before the website enjoys organic traffic. PPC, however, allows them to enter the market at any time with targeted ads.
This form of advertising can serve any marketing goal
Pay-per-click is ideal in the context of HVAC because of lead generation. However, that’s not the only goal that PPC can attain for a business. You can launch a PPC business to compare the return of investment on your marketing campaigns versus the actual spending. For instance, you can determine if a $700 budget on Google Ads is justified by the number of leads and conversions that it generates.
PPC can help you understand your market better
Analytics in PPC do more than just record clicks and deduct credits from your budget. Analytics reveals a host of valuable information that you can use for marketing. They show where your clicks come from, what keywords they use to find your site, and how they behaved within your pages. You can even find information on demographics and time of visit, among others.
PPC is a budget-friendly method of digital marketing that every HVAC business owner should add to their investments. Pay-per-click allows you to preserve cash flow by limiting your campaigns only to amounts you’re able to spend. At the same time, it gives your business access to a sizable market that you can carry through the sales funnel until conversion.
10 Tips to Maximize Returns From PPC Campaigns
Keep the below tips in mind when planning your next PPC campaign. They’ll help you to maximize the gains you get from your online advertising.
Tip 1 – Be Specific With Your Keywords
You must avoid targeting broad keywords when planning your PPC campaign. While broad keywords increase the impressions of your ad, they’ll be targeting mostly the wrong people. Targeting HVAC, for instance, will also target people interested in the science but not your service. On the other hand, HVAC cleaning services or their local counterparts is a better keyword to target.
Tip 2 – Watch Out for Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are those that you consider irrelevant to your campaign, or those you think will bring non-qualified traffic. “HVAC” in the example above is a negative keyword. Other possible negative keywords include “DIY HVAC cleaning” or “DIY aircon cleaning.” People who want to do their own cleaning and not hire experts use these keywords to find self-help tips and not services.
Tip 3 – Be Specific With Your Geo-Targeting
Targeting a large area will eat up your budget quickly. Unless you are targeting multiple areas, it is best to limit your PPC campaigns to within your locale. Make use of the geo-targeting functionalities in your advertising platform’s dashboard. You can set up the zip codes to target specific cities, either local or abroad.
Tip 4 – Be Meticulous With Your Landing Pages
You want to make sure that your ad corresponds to the landing page it points to. If you’re running an ad for “air-conditioning cleaning services,” the landing page should be about that topic. This is important not only for converting traffic. Google and other services might flag your PPC ad for being irrelevant. You could get with a higher cost per click and force you to raise your advertising budget.
Tip 5 – Create Multiple Copies and Run Split Tests
Split testing allows you to run different copies for each ad to see which drives the most conversions. This is only possible if you write multiple versions of your ad copies and run them through the platform. The platform will rotate between each copy for each impression of your ad. You can then track and compare results through your advertiser’s analytics console.
Tip 6 – Regularly Track and Compare Results
You don’t have to wait until your budget has run out to measure the progress of your ad campaigns. You can do so while it is running. In split testing, for instance, you will want to see which copy is driving more conversions than the others within a specific period. You can choose to discontinue the other ad copies and drive more of your budget towards the performing version.
Tip 7 – Leverage the New Pay Per Conversion Feature in Google
Previously, Google only charged its customers for either impressions or clicks. None of these two actions guarantee a sale. What they do is divert traffic from the SERPs that you can try and convert to sales. However, there is still a difference between your PPC expenses and actual sales. With Google’s new “Pay Per Conversion feature, you can now maximize your budget by paying only for traffic that turns into sales.
Tip 8 – Include Long-tail Keywords
SEO strategies nowadays focus on using long-tail keywords. These are keyphrases longer than exact-match keywords but are also more specific. For instance, people looking for HVAC services in their area will type “HVAC services near me” rather than “HVAC services.” This means that targeting long-tail keywords in your PPC campaign can bring considerable traffic and conversion for your business.
Tip 9 – Make Use of Automated Rule Bidding
Google allows PPC accounts to put bidding rules on their accounts. There are four automated rules that you could try. In any case, these automatic bidding rules can help you to save money on your ads while maximizing conversion. For instance, you can tell Google to automatically pause a campaign if it is performing below your conversion goals. You can also program your PPC account to avoid bidding for keywords that cost more than your budget.
Tip 10 – Keep An Eye on Your Competitors
Just like SEO, competitor plays a vital role in PPC success. You can hijack their rankings by creating ads that appear alongside search results they appear in. This is akin to giving your audience an alternative choice. Creative copywriting, compelling title tags, and informative meta descriptions can help you convert more clients or customers using this tactic.
Take away the guesswork by following the above 10 tips. PPC planning is both a technical and creative endeavor. You could even improve on these tactics by thinking out of the box! In addition, it would be in your favor if you developed the habit of keeping up with improvements in Google’s PPC offerings.
Should You Hire the Experts?
Making the decision to hire PPC experts or not is one of your responsibilities as an entrepreneur. As mentioned before, planning a pay-per-click campaign requires technical knowledge. All the information you need to learn is on the Internet. However, you’d have to spend time and money experimenting until you master the art.
Your alternative is to bring in a specialist team to build and execute an effective PPC strategy for you. Hiring outside consultants is an investment on its own, but it provides you with several returns, including:
- Expertise
Specialists have extensive experience in handling PPC campaigns. They know how to convert your strategy into a working project. They can also improve on any shortcomings in your original plan and make it more robust.
- Instant results
Hiring an outside PPC team minimizes the time between setup and execution. You can see results instantly since your ads will appear right after Google approves your bids and campaigns.
- Periodic reports
You’d be busier managing your business than monitoring your online advertising campaigns. The downside is that you might spend more money on ineffective campaigns. Passing this task to third-party advertisers ensures that your advertising is continually monitored. You will also receive periodic updates from your consultants.
Key Takeaway
Pay-per-click advertising is a very cost-effective tool that every HVAC company’s marketing campaign should implement. Unlike search engine optimization, you can see results almost immediately. You can run an ad, monitor it, and tweak it to maximize results at any time during the campaign. Because of this, you can enter the market and compete effectively with bigger competitors despite your limited budget.
For HVAC PPC to be effective, however, you have to maximize its returns while minimizing the budget. There are various methods to maximize ROI, including split testing, specific area and keyword targeting, and landing page optimization. Every HVAC entrepreneur needs to consider adding PPC or pay-per-click advertising to their marketing efforts. If done right, PPC could mean a steady source of revenues for the company.
