Advertising Series Part 2.1: Pay Per Click Advertising
Advertising Series Part 2.1: The Five Laws of Pay Per Click Advertising
This is the second installment in a 10-part series on advertising for your junk removal business. Read Part One here!
Advertising, sales, and marketing are the three most important things for the survival of your business. Without them, it will be impossible for you to get customers. Without customers, you have no business. Correctly choosing the right media for your advertising is also very important. Choose wrong and you might be screaming without anyone hearing you. Or, perhaps worse, people WILL hear but it will be the wrong people. It’ll be people who are not willing to pay for your services, or worse yet, who will want YOU to pay THEM for picking up their crap. Junk removal might be the only business around where people expect you to work for free or pay them to hire you. Crazy, right?
One thing people always want to know is how quickly something will work, how much business they will get, and what kind of ROI they can expect. We will attempt to answer these questions to the best of our ability in part two of our series on advertising. Part two will encompass two sections on its own.
This first section of Part two (stay with me) will cover the five laws of PPC advertising. If you can’t follow these laws then don’t even think of doing PPC. You’ll get crushed and you’ll go around telling everybody PPC sucks. On second thought, feel free to do that. Because for those of us out there who have made a killing off PPC, we will simply smile. Less for you. More for us. 🙂
The Benefits of PPC
It’s as close to instant business as there is:
Google Ads (AdWords) will likely lead to immediate business in the short term. You get great customers quickly who are willing to pay for junk removal.
A brand new site can rank up top:
If the basic elements on your website are done well and you have strong landing pages, you can rank well immediately. Compare this to SEO, which takes months or years to rank.
You get quality customers:
There are people out there to whom price isn’t a factor. They just want the work done, done right, and done fast. If you aren’t on top, you are missing out on some of the best customers you can have.
You are building a base of customers:
There are people who will use you again, refer you to others, and post reviews online. Some customers, such as contractors, realtors, apartment managers, etc., might use you several times a year or several times a month.
You gain the potential to land massive jobs:
Your next big job could be just around the corner. It’s like playing the lottery and being guaranteed to win at some point if you are doing it right.
The Five Laws of PPC
1. It’s a long term thing:
This point actually runs counter to benefit number one. Though PPC will lead to short term work (and oftentimes a lot of it), it does not necessarily mean it is profitable work in the short term. The cost of customer acquisition can be so high that it’ll eat up the profits from your smaller jobs. You will generally operate at a loss for your smaller jobs, possibly even the majority of your jobs. You must be willing to accept law number one.
2. You must be committed:
Don’t do PPC if you can’t stick to a plan. Though it might require some shifts here and there, don’t be someone who darts from one strategy to the next. If you can’t keep your emotions in check do not do PPC. If you are doing it just to “try it out,” there is a good chance it won’t end well for you.
3. Dabblers get crushed:
This and law number two are similar. Again, if you are looking to just try out PPC for junk removal, it likely won’t end well. If you don’t have the commitment to see something through, you will retreat at the first sign of danger – and with none of your money.
4. If it was easy, everyone would do it:
Doing PPC right means spending lots of money. It means setting your business up for long term success at the expense of short term profits. The majority of people do not have the discipline and determination to see PPC through. Those who do will reap the rewards.
5. You must sell, not just be an order taker:
A well-run PPC campaign will bring you phone calls and leads. It is up to you to convert those leads into jobs. If you do not have some sales skills and are not willing to learn them, do not do PPC advertising. All you’ll do is help make Google richer.
These five laws of PPC are absolutely vital to the survival of your business should you decide to do PPC. If you cannot follow even one of the laws listed above, you should not do PPC. In section two of part two, we will cover tips to help make your PPC campaign successful.
-Lee Godbold
Lee Godbold is the co-founder of Junk Doctors, a $3 Million a year junk removal business in North Carolina, and Junk Removal Authority, the junk removal industry’s premier provider of information and support.