To better understand PPC advertising, you should first become familiar with its basic features. This article covers everything in relation to Google AdWords, but most of these principles also apply to other marketing channels. We’ll cover the following topics:
- Campaigns and Ad Groups
- Types of Ads
- CPC Bid
- Quality Score
- Ad Rank
- Keywords
- Reaching Your Audience
- Landing Page
Campaigns and Ad Groups
You can have multiple ad campaigns, and multiple ad groups within those campaigns. There is a hierarchy where a campaign could be something like “Office Building Real Estate,” and the ad groups within that campaign could be something like “Medical Offices and Traditional Office Suites,” with each ad group containing its own specific ads. If you do both home and commercial property inspections, you could have two separate campaigns labeled “Home Inspections” and “Commercial Property Inspections.”
All campaigns are created with a goal, such as to sell something, increase brand awareness, increase job leads, etc. Within that campaign, you set things like the budget, location, and targeting. So, if you had more than one campaign, each one could have different locations it targets. The ad groups are how you define your keywords and separate and organize each theme or product. As a general rule, you want to have no more than six to 10 ad groups per campaign, +/- 20 keywords per ad group, and two to three ads per ad group.
Hierarchy of AdWords Account
Types of Ads
There are various types of ads you can display within your campaign. Text ads are some of the most common, such as those seen at the top of a Google search query, but there are also image ads and video ads, like those seen on YouTube, and product shopping ads. The different ad types are displayed on other sites that partner with Google. Depending on the audience you are trying to target, one type of ad could be more beneficial than the other. If your main goal is clicks and visits to your website, then “Search and Display” ads are typically the best option.
Types of AdWords Ads
CPC Bid
A CPC bid is a bid that you set to determine the highest amount that you’re willing to pay for a click on your ad. So, if you set a maximum bid of $2 per click, you will never pay more than that. However, it will almost always be lower than your maximum cost.
Quality Score
This is a calculation that Google makes that is used to inform advertisers of the likelihood that their campaign will perform well. Google calculates this using three main areas: keywords, ads, and landing pages. Your quality score has a rank from 1 to 10.
Ad Rank
Simply put, Ad Rank is Google’s way of determining the ordering of competing ads on a search engine results page. It’s easy for people to think that whoever spends the most money gets to the top, but that’s untrue. There is a formula used to determine your Ad Ranks. According to Google:
“Ad Rank is calculated using your bid amount, your auction-time ad quality (including expected click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience), the Ad Rank thresholds, the competitiveness of an auction, the context of the person’s search (for example, the person’s location, device, time of search, the nature of the search terms, the other ads and search results that show on the page, and other user signals and attributes), and the expected impact of extensions and other ad formats.”
A simple formula for this would be: Ad Rank = CPC Bid x Quality Score
Keywords
This is the foundation of your ads; keyword are what you bid on. Different keywords have different average costs per click, and this should inform your bidding strategy. It’s important to select keywords that are relevant to your business and are top-performing.
There are also negative keywords, which let you exclude search terms from your campaigns and help you focus only on the keywords that matter to your customers.
Some examples of keywords would be:
- “certified commercial inspector”
- “best home inspection”
- “find commercial inspector”
- “commercial inspector in Florida”
- “Miami commercial inspector”
Reaching Your Audience
There are various targeting options you can use within your campaign to reach your audience, such as:
- Location
- Demographics
- Interests
- Time of Day
- Device
This allows you to really hone in on your target audience and increase ad performance. Commercial property inspectors should target the service areas that will land them the most commercial inspection jobs. Consider sub-regions, satellite cities, and metro areas. If you’re in a rural area, it may be best to include the nearest city where business parks and retail districts are located.
Landing Page
We’ve gone over some of the basics of PPC and AdWords, but one of the most crucial aspects is where you send those clicks. While you could just send them to your website’s homepage, having a landing page that is made to convert the user into a sale/client is very important. Paid traffic pointed to generic web pages (like a website homepage) sometimes doesn’t convert well and can actually drive up the cost-per-click.
Your landing page should be optimized with relevant keywords, a headline and sub-headline, strong contextual images, and clearly outlined with the features and benefits you offer. Having a good landing page will drive down your cost-per-click, achieve a higher AdWords Quality Score, and increase conversions.
Takeaway for Commercial Property Inspectors
PPC advertising is an efficient way for commercial property inspectors to drum up new business. AdWords organize different ad criteria in Campaigns and Ad Groups. It provides an opportunity to attract a specific type of client, attract jobs for a specific type of building, and even attract business in a very specific area. Commercial property inspectors who offer other services like residential inspections, accessibility assessments, fire door inspections, or other ancillary services can also use different Campaigns and Ad Groups to increase the success and accuracy of their advertisements. PPC advertising is a cost-effective marketing approach. Inspectors are able to set a budget that works for them and are only charged when someone clicks on their ads, contrary to something like magazine ad and billboard marketing, where advertisers buy for views.
Additional Commercial Property Inspection Resources: