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Once you know the basics, creating Google Ads for cleaning businesses is easier than you might think.
When you take advantage of the full power of Google Ads, you’ll have the ability to win more clients while simultaneously expanding your online presence.
Google Ads are a great tool to have under your belt because they provide you with:
Unlike social media advertising (where leads aren’t actively seeking a solution), Google Ads are non-intrusive because leads are actively using your keywords to find solutions.
As a result, Google Ads tend to be more effective than social media ads when it’s properly implemented. And so, if you’re looking for fast and effective results and you have the budget, then you should consider Google Ads for your cleaning business.
However, keep in mind that while they can yield instant results, Google Ads are generally more expensive than social media ads. Plus, it’s more difficult to navigate because of the additional setup.
For this reason, many cleaning business owners are intimidated, and they’re not maximizing its potential.
Use this complete and simple guide to simplify the process so you can start creating Google Ads for your cleaning business in no time!
Unlike your usual brick-and-mortar business where your clients visit you, in the cleaning business you’re visiting your clients.
In turn, it’s vital for you to focus on route optimization by increasing your route density to make your cleaning jobs as close together as possible.
By the way, you can instantly optimize your routes using Service Autopilot.
This means you need to choose which neighborhoods you’d like to dominate and target with your Google Ads in order to best increase your route density.
Additionally, the population size in your area will determine how quickly or slow you receive the data that helps you determine what is or isn’t working with your Google Ads.
In other words, the higher population your local area has, the more quickly you’ll get enough data to discover trends and identify your Google Ad’s effectiveness.
Though, keep in mind, Google Ads tend to be more expensive in highly populated areas due to increased competition.
If possible, it’s best to try to target a nearby neighborhood with low competition and high population.
Since it takes longer to get results from lower populations, it’s important you avoid low population areas. As a result, you’ll be able to optimize your cleaning business’ Google Ads faster.
Until you know the basics of Google Ads, you’ll need to be particularly cautious with your Google Ads spend.
After you’ve become better acquainted with it, you’ll be able to establish your Google Ads spend budget that’s needed to win new cleaning clients.
Unlike Facebook Ads where you can run it for as little as $5 a day, Google Ads will take up more of your cleaning marketing budget.
This is because Facebook Ads are targeting specific demographics that aren’t necessarily looking for a cleaning service solution.
Whereas, Google Ads for cleaning businesses are targeting specific people actively looking for a cleaning service solution in your desired area. In turn, these higher quality leads are going to cost you more.
The main goal here is to find your budget sweet spot where you’re not overspending, but you’re also seeing the best Return On Investment (ROI) possible.
On average, many cleaning businesses spend about $15-30 Cost Per Click (CPC) on Google Ads keywords. In addition, it’s generally recommended that you spend about $1,000 a month on Google Ads for cleaning businesses.
As leads come pouring in from your Google Ads, it’s critical that you implement a follow up system for them to contact you.
Based on your cleaning website’s primary Call-to-Action (CTA), you need a follow up system so that you don’t let valuable leads waste away.
For instance, if your website’s primary CTA is to call for a free estimate, then you need a dedicated executive assistant to answer the phone call the moment it rings to give an estimate over the phone.
By the way, you can easily give cleaning service estimates over the phone using Service Autopilot’s Smart Maps feature. Quick view and measure homes from anywhere to save time and money on over-the-phone estimates!
Additionally, you’ll have the power to instantly create and send new estimates from anywhere in less than 5 minutes using Service Autopilot’s estimate templates.
Instant invoicing
Better scheduling
Manage your clients and employees all in one system
If you have a basic understanding of how Google Ads work, then you might be able to skim over this part.
However, if you’re new to Google Ads, then this section is vital to choosing the perfect keywords to maximize your Google Ads’ effectiveness.
Before you can choose the best keywords to target for your cleaning business, you need to understand the different match types (i.e. types of Google keywords).
Google identifies these match types by placing symbols by the search terms to let you know when your Google Ads will be shown.
Take a quick look at this brief overview of match types, which will help you choose the best keywords for Google Ads for cleaning businesses:
Keyword: +cleaning +dallas
Essentially, a broad match modified Google keyword means that your Google Ads will only be shown when “cleaning” and “dallas” are present in the search terms.
This means that whenever someone inputs both of these keywords (or a close variation) in their search query, then your Google Ads will be shown.
Keyword: dallas cleaning
A broad match keyword is when you don’t use any symbols surrounding your keywords in Google.
Since broad match tells Google to show your ads to anyone searching anything remotely related to cleaning in Dallas, I don’t recommend using this match type.
In addition, this match type generates a generic ad. This limits what ads you can create and randomly shows your ads to anyone searching for anything related to cleaning in Dallas. This will quickly become diluted and take away from your desired message.
Typically, broad match keywords produce decreased Click-Through-Rates (CTR’s) and lower performance.
Keyword: “dallas cleaning”
Phrase match types are main keywords that can appear before or after the searched phrase, but it needs to be in the same order you’ve listed.
While there can be slight keyword variations, it won’t be as strict as the broad match modified match type.
Keyword: [cleaning in dallas]
An exact match keyword type means that your ads will only be shown when someone searches the exact keyphrase you’ve chosen.
In the past, Google only showed ads using the exact designated keyword. However, they’ve since begun allowing exceptions for slight variations.
For example, if I were to use the keyphrase [cleaning in dallas] and someone were to search “cleaning dallas” or “cleaning by dallas,” then my ad would appear.
In order to avoid targeting the wrong leads, your main goal is to choose keywords that are as specific as possible to find the best quality leads.
In order to maximize the results of Google Ads for cleaning businesses, many cleaning business owners only use broad match modified, phrase match, and exact match keyword types.
Create a list of the main cleaning services you provide, and then choose which ones you want to target in your Google Ads.
Next, list the subcategories for the cleaning services you listed.
For example:
Then, list all of the cleaning services you don’t offer so you can later define it as negative keywords.
For example, if you don’t provide commercial cleaning, then you don’t want your Google Ads appearing in those searches.
You can conduct your keyword research by utilizing the Google search engine.
To start, type a service you offer in Google’s search box. Then, Google will auto-suggest the most common keywords.
Use these suggested keywords to target and test the effectiveness of each keyword.
Fun Fact! You can use this strategy to discover negative keywords too.
At last, you know the basics of researching keywords for Google Ads for cleaning businesses. Now, you need to create a Google Ads account to access the free Google Keyword Planner tool.
You’ll use Google Keyword Planner to look up search terms native to your area to discover search volume, competition, ads spend, and so much more… Google even gives you alternate keyword suggestions!
Although, keep in mind that you likely won't have a high keyword volume for ads on a local level.
Instead, you’ll want to pay closer attention to categories where you can categorize keywords into groups to generate ads around it.
Next, test to see if any keywords have better performance so you can optimize.
Pro Tip! ALWAYS keep service intent at the top of your mind when choosing keywords.
This means you need to pay attention and ensure your keywords reflect the desired intention of targeting someone looking to hire a cleaner.
For example, you wouldn't want your ad being shown to other cleaning businesses looking to hire house cleaners.
Here are a few examples:
Maximize your optimization by properly managing and organizing your cleaning business’ Google Ads account.
Do this by creating separate campaigns for each of your high level categories for each of your cleaning services.
Next, split up the keywords within your high level categories into separate ad groups.
Pro Tip! You can also divide these categories by match types, which will help you to better track performance testing too.
Lastly, you can create specific ads for each keyword and include it in the search term.
When you include the search term in your Google Ads, you can lower the price of Cost-Per-Click (CPC) due to increased lead relevancy.
As a result, your Click-Through-Rates (CTR’s) will increase.
Radius targeting helps you to avoid breaking up each city like this. Although, when you split your campaigns by granularization, you can better generate data to discover where conversions are originating.
In contrast, you’ll also have the ability to pinpoint where you’re getting high clicks without conversions.
As a result, when you don’t split up your campaigns in this way, you can’t distinguish between these two areas.
Plus, when you split your campaigns by location for a year or two, then you can turn off ads in certain locations and raise your bids in others.
In turn, splitting your campaigns by location is one of the best ways to track your campaign ad spending.
Quick Side Note! Did you know you can do this with your ad schedule as well?
You can divide your Google Ads times into smaller increments and days to find out where you’re getting the highest performance to better optimize it.
Do you want to send your campaign traffic to your cleaning website or a landing page?
If you’re under a tight budget and want to send your campaign traffic to your website, then it’ll save you a bit of time and money.
Although, you’ll want to make sure your website looks professional and is compatible with mobile, tablet, and desktop devices.
Plus, you need to ensure your cleaning website has clear Calls-to-Actions (CTA’s) on your homepage.
For example, your CTA can be as simple as, “Call XXX-XXX-XXXX” or, “Fill out this form for a free estimate!”
Even though website designs are great, it’s more important to address your client’s needs and predict the next action they’re going to take.
Keep in mind, that the main difference between a landing page and a homepage is that a landing page doesn’t have a navigation bar like a homepage does.
Instead, a landing page includes only one clear CTA - without any other potential distractions.
Until you have the time and budget to create a landing page, you can make your homepage a hybrid between a homepage and landing page. Do this by creating a clickable navigation bar.
By doing this, your homepage won’t be too busy with a navigation bar, but you can still drive traffic to other places if need be.
Pro Tip! Check your top competitors’ homepages and landing pages to find out where they’re sending their campaign traffic. This is a great way to help generate ideas and discover how you can be better.
Since clicks average between $15-30 per click for Google Ads for cleaning businesses, it’s important you don’t click on your competitors’ ads.
As tempting as it may be, clicks are VERY EXPENSIVE and quickly add up.
To avoid charging your competitors for your clicks, right-click on their ad, click “copy link address,” and paste it into a new tab.
Keep in mind, that while you can charge your competition for your clicks, they can do the same right back to you. Plus, anyone can blacklist IP addresses in their Google Ads… just don’t do it.
By the way, don’t forget to check out HomeAdvisor and Thumbtack’s Google Ads to find out where their traffic is being sent.
Additionally, you’ll get a better grasp of what is or isn’t effective, so you can come up with additional ideas and implementations for your webpages.
The main core principle that makes a great copywriter is the ability to anticipate your audience’s needs.
If you want to effectively convert your leads into clients, you need to be able to elicit the desired emotions that make them convert.
In other words, you need to know what they’re thinking, feeling, and looking for on your webpage and Google Ads.
In order to better anticipate your clients’ thoughts and emotions, take a look at 2-4 star reviews of your cleaning business as well as your competition’s.
Fun Fact! Did you know that customers are 21% more likely to write a review about a negative experience than a positive one?
Additionally, 63.6% say they’re checking reviews before converting.
This is why oftentimes reviews seem so polarized.
In other words, your happiest clients will write your great reviews, while your angriest clients write you horrendous ones (not to mention, some of them are fake).
For this reason, the 2-4 star reviews tend to be less emotional and more objective since these reviews are more middle-of-the road.
As you look at the 2-4 star reviews, try to really zero in and get to the bottom of the clients’ concerns.
Read in between the lines to find out what they’re really saying.
For example, if a client says, “I didn’t like XYZ about my cleaning services,” what they’re really saying is, “I really value XYZ in my cleaning services.”
During your research, continue to think of ways you can distinguish yourself from your competitors.
For example, let’s say there’s a reviewer complaining about how your competitor didn’t return an estimate on time, and they feel like it’s because they’re a small and unimportant prospect.
In other words, you have a chance to outshine your competition by quickly returning estimates on time.
You can showcase this in your cleaning marketing strategies by saying something like, “Get FAST, free estimates in under 5 minutes!” In turn, you’ll likely get more clicks than your competitors.
Plus, as you get more clicks, Google rewards you with better bids and will place your ads higher up in the search results.
Plus, when you use Service Autopilot, you can create estimates over the phone from anywhere in less than 5 minutes using Smart Maps!
Earlier, we briefly talked about how you can use negative keywords to ensure you’re only paying for good clicks.
While this step isn’t particularly necessary, it can end up saving you quite a bit of money on bad clicks.
For this step, it’s pretty simple because you likely already know the negative keywords you don’t want.
For instance, you wouldn’t want your ads appearing to cleaner searching for a job or a cleaning business hiring new cleaners.
Also, if you have a tight budget, then you should consider adding your competitors’ cleaning business names to your negative keywords.
After all, when you’re trying to maximize your Google Ads spending, you don’t have the money to risk showing your ads to people searching for your competition.
However, if you have a looser budget, then you might consider targeting people searching for your competitors’ cleaning businesses.
One of the best ways to figure out the highest performing ads is to do split-testing.
Simply put, split-testing is when you change a single variable between two ads to find out which ad is outperforming the other.
For example, you could great two identical ads and swap out the headlines to discover which headline produces higher CTR and conversion rates.
However, keep in mind that you don’t want to change more than one variable between two ads when you’re split testing. This is because you need to be able to accurately pinpoint which variable is outperforming the other.
When you add multiple variables, you won’t be able to distinguish which variable caused which result, which defeats the whole purpose of split-testing.
A great method of getting better bids from Google is by using multiple Google Ads formats. In the long run, this will save you money and get your ads ranked higher in Google.
Plus, multiple ads formats makes your ads appear bigger, which can increase your CTR’s.
These are two Google Ads formats you can use:
When you measure your Google Ads performance with conversion tracking, you’re able to manage whatever you're measuring.
Without conversion tracking set up, you’re throwing your money at the wind on your Google Ads… it’s pointless. It’s VITAL to measure your Google Ads performance.
Here are a few conversion types you should be measuring:
Plus, to make your life easier and optimize even further, you can use a call tracking software to track and record all of your phone calls.
When you listen to the phone recordings, you can use what you hear the lead quality your Google Ads are attracting while also optimizing your sales process.
Pro Tip! When you use the best CRM cleaning software, Service Autopilot, you can save their name, address, and email in their profile for marketing opportunities. You can even tag them with Google AdWords.
Next, you’ll be able to export all of the leads you’ve acquired in Google Ads and calculate how much revenue you’ve gotten.
In order to calculate, divide the leads and clients you’ve gotten by the total amount you’ve spent on Google Ads for the month.
Instant invoicing
Better scheduling
Manage your clients and employees all in one system
Analyzing your Google Ads results takes time, but it’s well worth it.
Even though you'll typically see immediate results in Google Ads, it’s going to take several months before you’ll gather enough data to significantly improve and optimize your ads.
This is because ads that are run on a local level have less data to gather, so it’ll take while to gather enough of it to see any data trends.
Typically, most Google Ads for cleaning businesses run for at least 6 months in order to obtain a substantial enough amount of data to pinpoint trends and identify the Cost Per Lead.
The main goal is to keep your conversion rate steady while also decreasing your Cost Per Lead.
Generally, the longer you run your ads, the more data you’ll get, and the better you can optimize your ads.
If you’re completely new to Google Ads, or you just want to see how to set up a campaign, watch this quick tutorial on Google Ads creation.
When it’s done right, Google Ads for cleaning businesses can be a truly powerful weapon in stomping out your pesky competitors and winning more clients.
Even though there are a lot of elements involved in creating excellent Google Ads for cleaning businesses (especially if you’re new to marketing), this guide simplifies the process so you can start taking advantage of it NOW.
Use this guide so you can become a pro at creating Google Ads for cleaning businesses and start growing your business FAST!
Related: How Facebook Ads Work for Your Cleaning Business
Originally published May 20, 2021 12:12 PM
Tags: Featured Post, Marketing
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