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Ultimate Guide to PPC Remarketing: Bring Users Back When They Don’t Convert

Samuel Edwards
|
March 22, 2021

Remarking and retargeting are useful components of Google Ads and a crucial part of any PPC marketing campaign, that is if you understand and use it correctly. Before we break down how best to use PPC remarketing campaigns, banner ads to increase the return rates of online advertising customers, we’ll explain exactly what it is, how it works, and ways to use it.

Marketers may know what remarketing campaigns is, but even experts may find they don’t know everything about it. This guide will help to plug those gaps and become the ultimate resource for people using PPC remarketing Campaigns.

What is Remarketing?

Remarketing Campaigns is essentially targeting ads to existing customers based on customer data. The types and variety of ads will differ based on customer preferences, market data, and a number of other factors.

This type of marketing is highly effective at getting existing shoppers to return to a site once they have already visited. It works by showing them things they may be interested in. This can be sales, new products, add-ons to existing products and services, new content on the site, and other types of marketing material or promotions.

The purpose is to increase the rate of repeat customer traffic through highly specific targeted ads marketing.

The one thing to note about remarketing campaigns or strategies is that they rely on existing customer data to perform well. Remarketing compaigns is not a customer acquisition strategy so the distinction should be made. You can’t collect customer preference data on people who aren’t your customers yet right?

So basically, before you even create remarketing campaigns you need customers who are already interested in your site (which means past visitors), and who have at least visited your site before or past visitors). That’s step one, remember it.

How Remarketing Data is Acquired

How Remarketing Data is Acquired, banner ads

The reason customer data is needed for remarketing  Campaign(besides the fact that it targets customers’ interests) is that the primary way that remarketing data is collected is through everyone’s favorite internet snack food, cookies. In this case, we’re talking about specific tracking cookies that are stored on users’ browsers and then used to follow them around the web and show them remarketing ads, ok maybe it’s not that specific but you get a general idea.

This can be done with the click of a button in Google Ads, it’s a button labeled remarketing. It allows you to set the tracking cookie requirements based on several different factors, duration of stay, pages visited, etc.

Every time a customer visits your site, cookies are collected which store a variety of user data that is relevant to your marketing work. Part of that data allows you to target customers with ads so that they will be more likely to visit your site and shop again. This is essentially why it’s called PPC remarketing, you’re performing targeted marketing/targeted ads marketing to existing customers or interested parties, hence you’re remarketing to them.

This doesn’t always mean that you’re targeting people you’ve already converted, but people who may have visited your site and not yet converted. In a sense, you’re marketing to existing customers and potential customers who’ve shown interest enough to visit but haven’t actually made that purchase yet. If you think of it as shopping, they’ve clicked add to cart, but haven’t yet pressed that checkout button. You’re giving them that last little push to come back and checkout with their cart full of goodies (or whatever else it is you’re trying to get them to do).

Remarketing Strategy: How it Works

Now that you know a bit about remarketing Campaign and how the data is gathered as well as what it’s used for, you can begin to formulate a remarketing Campaign strategy to get those customers and potential customers returning and converting, hopefully again and again. To facilitate easier understand of the strategizing process, we’ll break down the process into pieces that’ll be more digestible, even for the marketing novice (we realize some of you reading this may already have a great deal of marketing space, but we like to cover our bases, this is the ultimate guide after all).

Separate Your Website Visitors Into Difference Audiences

Also called segmenting, this basically means dividing your potential remarketing audience into different groups or ad-target types. This should be fairly straightforward and based on the data acquired.

Segmenting your audience ensures you’re not targeting the wrong type of ads to the wrong people. You want your remarketing ad usage to be as highly targeted as possible with remarketing Campaign and dividing up your audience helps to facilitate that.

Deciding What Types of Remarketing Ads to Run

There are numerous types of ads and deciding which type of ads to run for your target audience will be based on the data you have available and what works best for that particular audience.

There are enough ad types to create an entirely separate section, so we’ll break down the ad types and their uses elsewhere. One thing to note about picking your ad types is that Google allows you to create lists based on your ad type preferences for the audience.

Additionally, you can filter data and sort targets based on many factors, this helps you to decide what types of ads may work best. After all, different types of people have different search habits, such as how prone they are to search on mobile, how likely they are to watch video ads, and other things.

Test and Retest Your When Remarketing

As with anything in marketing, before you know what really works, you’ll have to test it first. In the case of PPC retargeting ads, you may have lots of customer data, but that doesn’t mean you can always account for individual taste.

That’s why it’s important to test your marketing efforts and allow the data to coalesce until you’re sure of what is and isn’t working. Like any other marketing strategy, pulling the plug too early on a campaign means wasted efforts, but by the same token, letting a bad campaign run too long is wasted money and effort as well.

Test your methods and figure out what works, what kinda works, and what doesn’t work at all.

Optimization is Key

Like every other ad you’ll ever run, search engine optimization is key. Once you have a good idea of what works, you can begin to optimize for search engines. This is pretty much the same process as regular ads, just more specified to your target audience.

This includes optimizing for conversions too. Sale ads, special features and other types of ads that show customers what they’re missing out on is a great example of ways to optimize conversion when remarketing.

Getting the Audience Together

Before we talk any more about Remarketing Campaigns ad types and getting your specific strategy together, let’s talk about narrowing down and filtering your audience so that you know you’re targeting the right people. No matter the strategy, if you’re targeting the wrong audience, it’s likely wasted effort.

Imagine folks wanting to see a comedy show arriving at a talk on timeshares, you’d instantly lose your audience and nobody would buy a timeshare.

You can honestly target an audience in any number of ways. You can eliminate targets on the same basis as well. But essentially you’ll want to break your groups of targets down into manageable groups.

Beyond the basic demographic targeting options, which serve to narrow down audience gender, age-range, and other factors, there are a number of other things to look out for when trying to decide who to target.

For instance, one strategy is to target customers who hover on particular product pages. You could assume they are looking for a particular style of product or looking to see which one is cheapest or has the fastest delivery, factors such as that.

Knowing these possibilities you can create an audience category and then select ads that will target their interest.

As we said earlier, there is an endless number of ways to target a potential audience. Think about what you’re trying to do, what customers you’re trying to increase, and target according to those metrics.

It’s just as important who you don’t target in some sense. If you already have a segment of your market that regular ads are working for, then you don’t want to waste time and money remarketing to them.

One last tip on audience targeting is to narrow things down as much as possible. Target particular customers for particular URLs and make that a separate list. Say you want an audience to target sneakers, you can select the audience and target the ads to get them to shop specifically on your sneaker product pages.

In many cases, the more precise the targeting, the better.

Google Ads to Set Up Lists and Remarketing Targets

Once you have all of your data, or before if you prefer, all of the setup to create lists of audiences and to target them for tracking and data collection can be done from the admin tab of your Google Ads account.

From the admin tab, you can set audience definitions based on a wide array of factors. This lets you customize your target audience to a great degree and gives you control over data tracking.

You can then create lists of those audiences and name them whatever you choose or even sub-divide them even more so that you can keep track of them even better. You’ll need to agree to some terms and conditions and be an active Google Ads Remarketing user, but once the “paperwork” is complete you’ll have access to create lists and also to determine how long you’d like your tracking cookies to stay stored on a user’s computer. This helps you set the targets for short-term or long-term campaigns or for whatever duration you’d like.

You can even set the frequency at which any given user will be shown your ads. It’s a good idea to set reasonable limits on these as too many ads can turn users off entirely. Remember, the idea is to nudge them into conversion, not scream at them until they convert.

Remarketing Options and How to Use Them

Remarketing Options and How to Use Them

There are a number of remarketing campaigns options that Google Ads allows you to choose from. Rather than just list them for you, we’ll discuss the main ones and ways they can be used to target an audience.

Standard Remarketing

You can think of this as baseline marketing. This feature shows ads to browsers as they search the web or use apps on Google display  network/display ad network. These are the conventional ad type and are best targeted towards the “browsing” type of users. Those people that go from page to page and typically like to look at lots of different things.

Dynamic Remarketing

This type of remarketing shows ads to users of products that they’ve looked at before. This is good for those users that “shop” a lot (perhaps on an ecommerce site) but leave the cart full without checking out with it. This works on window shoppers too, the ones that don’t add to the cart but like to view product pages.

Mobile App Remarketing

This is targeted remarketing optimized for your mobile website visitors or mobile app. As we said at the beginning, all that data allows you to know what users are browsing on and how often. If you know that your audience is frequent mobile browsers, then this option will help you target them.

Remarketing Lists for Search Ads

This is just what it sounds like. It targets audiences and shows them search ads as they search Google. This display ads in their search results. This type of marketing works best on those users that just need a subtle reminder of what you sell or do. Those users that are on the doorstep of converting and just need a nudge are good for these ads.

Video Remarketing

Just as it sounds, this shows video ads to users as part of the Google display ad/ads network or for users of Youtube. This is great if you know that users are constantly watching videos. A short impactful ad can grab attention and make people want to traffic your site again and hopefully convert.

Email List Remarketing

The most specific of the marketing types, if you correspond with customers via email, you can upload these to your Google Ads account and it will serve up ads as long as customers are signed into Google services.

Optimize to Improve Success

Now that you know all about the ad types and how to use them, the last thing to worry about is SEO. Just like any other Digital marketing campaign, you’ll want to optimize all the elements of these ads to maximize rank and conversion chance.

We’ll break it down into sections so that you understand the different optimization strategies to make your ad campaigns work best.

Test the Ads

This sounds simple, but you want to make sure your ads will work to drive traffic and convert. This can be a long process as you test and retest to ensure accurate results but this is key to the whole campaign.

Test Your Settings

As we talked about, you can adjust your audience settings and frequency of ads on the fly. You should be routinely checking and testing these to ensure your target market is correct and that you have the ad density correct.

The wrong audience target can mean wasted ads. Too much ad saturation for users can make users less prone to revisit instead of more prone. Finding the balance is tricky but worth putting the time into to get it right.

Monitor Your Bids

This should be self-explanatory but you’re looking at three things in particular. ROI, CTR, and IS. That’s the return on investment, how much money you’re getting for every ad dollar spent, click-through rate, how many times customers follow through and click to your site, and impression share, basically how much recognition your ads are getting. One quick note on impression share, if this is too high, you’re likely upsetting some customers.

Landing Page Optimization

Just as tricky as with standard Digital marketing campaigns, making sure the page is relevant, the text is useful and the page is able to tell potential customers what they want to know about the product or service is key.

You should be used to optimizing your landing pages for keywords and user experience. The process here is the same, make sure the users are getting what they want out of the landing page and continuing on to convert.

A Few Final Tips

There’s no magic formula for remarketing but the general rule of the thumb is to target customers who have the potential to revisit and convert. You’re not mass marketing to everybody who’s ever visited your site. Some of them can’t be converted and others will return on their own.

That’s why we said to make your audiences as specific as possible. This lets you target just the niches of customers that are useful to you and eliminates a lot of the non-contenders.

Our other tip is to stay focused on whatever it is you do. You might call it brand focus. You want to draw in people who’ve visited your site. They likely already know a bit about you, so stay on brand and on point. In this way remarketing and PPC can help to do nothing more than improve your brand online.

Lastly, accept what you can and let go of what you can’t. You won’t win every target audience, not everyone you remarket to will convert and some campaigns may have more success than others. Particularly during sales or the holidays, you may see more from your remarketing than during other periods. Accept it and limit your risk or change your strategy so that you don’t waste ad dollars. Once you find your own rhythm, you’ll likely be winning more conversions and spending less.

Final Thoughts

There you have it, our ultimate guide to PPC remarketing. Hopefully, it’s taught you everything you ever needed to know about run remarketing campaigns’ target selection and everything in between to make your campaign a success & up on Digital marketing.

Author
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Samuel Edwards

Chief Marketing Officer

Throughout his extensive 10+ year journey as a digital marketer, Sam has left an indelible mark on both small businesses and Fortune 500 enterprises alike. His portfolio boasts collaborations with esteemed entities such as NASDAQ OMX, eBay, Duncan Hines, Drew Barrymore, Price Benowitz LLP, a prominent law firm based in Washington, DC, and the esteemed human rights organization Amnesty International. In his role as a technical SEO and digital marketing strategist, Sam takes the helm of all paid and organic operations teams, steering client SEO services, link building initiatives, and white label digital marketing partnerships to unparalleled success. An esteemed thought leader in the industry, Sam is a recurring speaker at the esteemed Search Marketing Expo conference series and has graced the TEDx stage with his insights. Today, he channels his expertise into direct collaboration with high-end clients spanning diverse verticals, where he meticulously crafts strategies to optimize on and off-site SEO ROI through the seamless integration of content marketing and link building.

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Author

Samuel Edwards

Chief Marketing Officer

Throughout his extensive 10+ year journey as a digital marketer, Sam has left an indelible mark on both small businesses and Fortune 500 enterprises alike. His portfolio boasts collaborations with esteemed entities such as NASDAQ OMX, eBay, Duncan Hines, Drew Barrymore, Price Benowitz LLP, a prominent law firm based in Washington, DC, and the esteemed human rights organization Amnesty International. In his role as a technical SEO and digital marketing strategist, Sam takes the helm of all paid and organic operations teams, steering client SEO services, link building initiatives, and white label digital marketing partnerships to unparalleled success. An esteemed thought leader in the industry, Sam is a recurring speaker at the esteemed Search Marketing Expo conference series and has graced the TEDx stage with his insights. Today, he channels his expertise into direct collaboration with high-end clients spanning diverse verticals, where he meticulously crafts strategies to optimize on and off-site SEO ROI through the seamless integration of content marketing and link building.

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The Electrician’s Guide to Running PPC Ads That Actually Bring In Paying Customers

Staying profitable as an electrician requires generating a steady stream of hot leads you can turn into paying customers, but being a highly skilled electrician isn’t enough. You need a strategy to put your services in front of potential customers precisely when they need electrical work, and that’s what pay-per-click (PPC) ads are for.

Pay-per-click advertising gives you a direct route to the top of search results, ensuring visibility exactly when potential clients are actively seeking your services. And unlike traditional advertising, PPC ads can use precision targeting to reach leads that are most likely to convert.

As of 2024, the average conversion rate for Google Ads was 6.96%, which is considered above average. With a high conversion rate and plenty of users, it makes sense to run ads on Google. It’s also worth looking at other platforms, like Facebook and Bing (Microsoft Ads).

Although many businesses get results, success is not automatic. Running a PPC ad campaign can be a great source of leads, but it can also become a money pit if you don’t do it correctly. Here’s what you need to know when your goal is to generate paying customers through PPC without wasting your marketing budget.

Pay-Per-Click advertising basics

Before diving into specific strategies, it’s important to understand the basics of PPC ads. PPC is an advertising model where you pay a fee every time someone clicks on your ad. It’s a quick way to get traffic to your website. And unlike search engine optimization (SEO), you’ll start seeing results immediately. Generally speaking, the system will display your ads for users who search for phrases related to the keywords you designate. If they click, you pay.

Why is PPC effective for electricians?

Electrical work is a competitive market, and unless you have a huge marketing budget for SEO, it’s hard to get visibility in the search results. Running paid ads on Google and social media platforms bypasses the need to pay for SEO to start getting traffic. Since ads show up at the top of the search results, leads looking for electrical services will see your ad right away. And when you target the right keywords and phrases, you’ll catch leads who need your services now.

Now let’s get into how to build a successful PPC campaign.

Set clear goals for your PPC campaign

Clear objectives are the foundation of every PPC campaign, so set advertising goals that align with your business goals. For example, it could be as simple as figuring out how many new customers you want each month and then setting goals to acquire that many new customers through PPC ads.

Research keywords to target the right search queries

Targeting the right search queries is arguably one of the most important aspects of running a PPC ad campaign. Not all keywords related to electrical work will generate paying clients. You want to focus on phrases that indicate a strong intent to hire, like “emergency electrician near me” or “licensed electrician in [city].” Some other examples include:

·  “Residential electrician”

·  “Commercial electrician”

·  “24 hour electrician”

·  “Electrical contractor”

·  “Electrician services”

·  “Same day electrician”

·  “House rewire”

·  “Electrical inspection”

·  “Electrical maintenance”

You can create variations of these phrases with other phrases like “near me” or using zip codes, counties, and cities.

Once you have a list of keywords and phrases to target, you’ll also want to build a list of negative keywords. Negative keywords are terms you want to exclude so your ads don’t show up for those searches. These are terms that are going to waste your ad spend if you get clicks. Some examples include:

·  “DIY”

·  “How to”

·  “Free”

·  “Discount”

·  Other services, like “HVAC,” “handyman,” “plumbing,” and “drywall”

·  Informational queries, like “how to wire an outlet” or “wiring diagrams”

It also helps to add negative keywords for cities, zip codes, or neighborhoods you don’t service, especially if they’re within your general area.

Craft compelling ad copy

Your ads need to resonate with your ideal lead, so your copy matters. You need a strong headline to capture attention and a compelling call-to-action (CTA) that gets them to click. A strong CTA can increase your click-through rate by 2.8%.

You already know your best leads need electrical work, but you still need to write convincing copy that creates a sense of urgency. For example, you could emphasize what sets your services apart, like having 24/7 availability. Your CTA should encourage immediate action, and the following phrases are a great place to start:

·   Call now for a free estimate

·   Call now to schedule your service

·   Book now

·   Get a free quote

·   Call now for immediate service

Well-crafted copy will get you more clicks from customers who will actually sign up for your services and become paying customers.

An example of good ad copy that will generate clicks from people who need your services:

“Need fast, reliable electrical repairs? Licensed electricians. Same-day service available. No hidden fees. Call now for a free quote!”

An example of ad copy that may attract casual interest:

“Fast, affordable service. Licensed and insured electricians. Call us today.”

Use the right visuals

The images you use with your ads matter just as much as the copy, but don’t go overboard trying to capture attention with chaotic or random images. Sometimes the best imagery is just bold text with a simple visual. If you aren’t sure what images to use, test some out and see for yourself.

Use retargeting to reengage leads

Retargeting, also called remarketing, is when you show ads only to people who have previously interacted with your ads or visited your website. Remarketing will keep warm leads aware of your services and can eventually get them to convert. Sometimes people need to see ads from the same company or advertising the same service a handful of times before they’ll convert.

The best part about retargeting is being able to craft your ads with different messages that only retargeting leads will see. This allows you to employ some advanced marketing strategies that utilize highly specific copy.

Use social proof in your ads

Trust is one of the top factors that a homeowner uses to hire an electrician. According to a Podium study, 93% of customers say online reviews impact their decision to buy. Take advantage of this and include customer testimonials in your ads. It will show prospects that other people have had positive experiences with your company and are satisfied with your services. Give people a reason to feel good about clicking your ad or calling you right away.

Get activity on your Facebook ads

We just covered the importance of social proof, and getting activity on your Facebook ads can be an extension of that. This works best for local companies that have an active presence in their community, so if you don’t already have a following, you’ll need to create one first.

If you have a decent amount of followers on Facebook, and you interact with people in your community through your business page, engage with people on posts about your services and then boost those posts to turn them into ads. Boosted posts work a little differently than ads, but the result is the same – locals will see them, and the more positive engagement you have on those posts, the better it makes you look.

Design effective landing pages

Strong, compelling ad copy is important, but once people click on your ad, your landing page is responsible for converting them into a phone call. An effective landing page has the following elements and qualities:

·  The content matches the ad’s message and offer, creating a seamless experience

·  It’s not your homepage (homepages are too general)

·  Specific copy that speaks directly to your customer’s needs

·  A clear CTA that instructs the user to act now

·  A clearly visible phone number

·  Trust signals, like badges and certifications, testimonials, and customer reviews

Target local customers

Your services are location specific, so make sure your ads reach the right geographic audience. Whatever platforms you advertise on, set your ads to reach people in your service area, whether it’s done by zip codes, specific cities, or a set radius around your main address.

Set a realistic budget

You don’t need to spend a fortune, but you do need to set a decent daily budget to get seen. By fine-tuning your keywords and phrases, you can ensure you don’t waste your ad spend. Begin by setting your daily budget to at least $50 per day, if not $100. If you go lower than $50, your ads won’t show up as often (because you’ll be outbid by other electricians) and that will mean fewer clicks.

Employ the right bidding strategies

When you’re new to PPC, you’ll need time to play with your bidding strategies to see what works. Your options include manual CPC, enhanced CPC, and automated bidding strategies like target CPA.

·  Manual CPC: You set the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for each click. This seems easy at first, but it limits you in the end. You’ll need to babysit your bids constantly or you risk overpaying or underbidding and never getting seen. This method works best if you know the exact worth of a click.

·  Enhanced CPC: With this method, you still set your bids manually, but the ad platform will nudge your bids up or down depending on whether the system thinks a click is more or less likely to convert. The system uses past conversion data to make these decisions, but it’s not perfect.

·  Automated bidding: This method gives the system total control over your cost per click. You basically tell the ad platform what you want to pay for each lead and it will increase your bids up to that amount if it thinks a user is highly likely to convert. If a particular user is less likely to convert, the system will either lowball the bid or skip the auction altogether. This method saves time and scales better, but can waste your budget if you don’t have proper tracking and keywords.

If you’re still new to PPC, stick to manual CPC. However if you’ve been using PPC for a while then enhanced PPC might make sense. And unless you’re a PPC pro, it’s best to skip the automated bidding or hire a marketing agency.

Monitor your ad performance

You can’t improve what you aren’t tracking. A successful PPC campaign rests on how well you track your efforts. From the start, monitor your click-through rate (CTR), conversion rates, and cost per conversion to know how your ads are performing. It’s equally important to split test your ads to test different ad headlines, images, copy, CTAs, and even landing pages.

Use ad extensions

Ad extensions are extra bits of information you can add that make them more enticing without paying more per click. For example, on some platforms, you can add a phone number, your location, a list of services, or special offers without having to cram everything into your main ad text. One big benefit of this feature is that Google rewards ads that it thinks are more useful with better positions and a lower cost per click.

Types of PPC ad extensions include:

·  Sitelink extensions. Adds extra clickable links under your main ad that can be used to direct leads to your highest-converting landing pages.

For example:

“Electrical Repairs | Panel Upgrades | Emergency Services | Free Estimates”

·  Call extensions. Adds your phone number to your ad. On mobile, users can click to call you. These ads should only be run during business hours since it will generate phone calls.

·  Location extensions. Shows your business address and a map link. It will boost your credibility if you link your Google Business Profile in this type of ad.

·  Callout extensions. This adds short, non-clickable text snippets that highlight features.

For example:

“Licensed & Insured” | “Same-Day Service” | “No Hidden Fees”

·  Structured snippet extensions. These are similar to callouts, but are grouped under a main header like “Services.” This is great to show leads the variety of services you offer. For example, a “Services” header might list “Wiring, Rewiring, Electrical Inspections, Smart Home Installation”

·  Price extensions. This will show the price of a specific package or service. For example: “Electrical Inspection – Starting at $99”

·  Promotion extensions. This highlights sales or special deals, like limited-time offers or holiday discounts. Promotions are great when you include a deadline to create a sense of urgency.

Ad extensions can help you get more clicks, boost your ad rank, reduce your cost per click, filter your traffic, and boost your trustworthiness. At the very least, you should be using sitelinks, call extensions, and callouts.

Already running a PPC ad campaign? Get an audit

Getting a PPC audit will help you get better results. If you’re unsure about your strategy, experimenting, or you aren’t getting good results, an audit from a professional PPC agency can help you pinpoint exactly what isn’t working and offer a more effective strategy.

Dominate your local market with PPC.co

Generating leads with PPC doesn’t require throwing mountains of cash at Google and hoping for the best. It’s about reaching the right people at the right time – people who need electrical work now – with a message that gets them to call you. Done right, paid ads will bring you a steady stream of hot leads, booked jobs, and predictable cash flow.

At PPC.co, we specialize in building high-performing PPC campaigns for electricians who want to grow their business. When you work with us, we’ll craft ads that attract people ready to hire you today.

Ready to see how it works? Contact us today to request a free proposal. You don’t need more clicks – you need more calls. Let’s make it happen. 

Samuel Edwards
|
April 25, 2025
High-Performance PPC for Roofing Contractors: A Tactical Guide to Lead Generation

Roofing is competitive, and if you want to scale your business, you need high visibility. Word-of-mouth will only get you so far – to get big results, you need to actively market your services.

The majority of your potential customers aren’t just casually browsing around – they need your services now. While some people will be looking for a new roof before there’s an emergency, those people aren’t feeling any sense of urgency and are less likely to buy. Your ideal, most profitable customers are dealing with urgent problems like shingles ripped off in a storm, water leaks or stains on the ceiling, and damage from trees. To capture these customers, your roofing business needs to show up in a Google search, and that’s where pay-per-click ads (PPC) come into play.

When you use PPC ads, you’ll show up at the very top of the page above organic search results. That means your customers don’t have to scroll to find you. All you need is a compelling ad that leads to a landing page that converts clicks into cash.

PPC advertising is the easiest way to get visibility in Google search results, but only if you do it right. Done wrong, PPC ads are a money pit. Done correctly, PPC ads can become a lead-generating machine.

This guide will walk you through a proven, high-performance PPC strategy tailored for roofing contractors ready to scale.

Understand the true value of PPC

PPC ads are a roofing contractor’s best online advertising method. While search engine optimization (SEO) is powerful – especially with local SEO – it takes time to see results. PPC gets you results (clicks, paying customers) now, putting your roofing business in front of hot leads the moment they search for your services.

Just like local SEO, you can use local-intent keywords with your PPC ad campaigns to create a higher conversion rate. Since roofing services are local, you’ll want to target specific zip codes or service areas to make sure your ads reach the right people in the areas you serve.

Successful PPC begins with search intent

Search intent consists of two things: keywords and urgency. Let’s break these down:

·  Commercial v. informational intent. The keywords people use will tell you everything you need to know about their intent. While some people are only looking for information, others are searching for services. For example, phrases like “roof leak repair near me” is gold. “How to fix a leaky roof” is not. Focus your ad budget on high-converting, purchase-intent queries. Another good phrase to bid on is “[your company] reviews.”

·  How to use match types. When running paid ads, you can choose broad match or phrase and exact match. Broad match will waste your budget because it will include a ton of unrelated queries. Stick to phrase match and exact match to zero in on qualified traffic, and then refine your campaign through negative keywords.

High-intent keyword examples

If you aren’t sure what phrases are considered high-intent, here’s a simple list you can use as a starting point:

·  Emergency roof repair near me

·  Roof repair [city or zip code]

·  Roofing companies in [city or zip code]

·  Licensed roofers near me

·  Storm damage roof repair

·  Roof leak repair services

·  Hail damage roofing contractor

·  Roof replacement [city or zip code]

There are also a handful of service-specific keywords you can target, including:

·  Metal roofing installation

·  Shingle roof repair

·  Flat roof replacement

·  Tile roofing contractor

·  Commercial roofing company

·  Residential roofing services

Don’t forget the comparison/estimate phrases:

·  Roof repair cost [city]

·  How much does a new roof cost

·  Roof replacement cost calculator

·  Compare roofing contractors [city]

Suggested negative keywords:

·  DIY

·  How to

·  Free

·  Tutorial

·  Home Dept

·  Jobs

·  Careers

·  Courses

·  Trainings

·  Rent

·  Rentals

By adding these to your negative keywords list, you’ll avoid having your ads show up for people who are looking for DIY solutions who are not likely to hire a professional roofer.

You should also bid on your own company name since there’s a possibility people will be searching for your company specifically, either to research or compare prices. Google allows you to bid on your competitors’ brands, but make sure you don’t violate Google’s trademark rules. You can bid on a competitor’s brand name even if it’s trademarked, but you can’t use it in the ad text unless you are the trademark owner, an official reseller, or providing informational content about the trademark.

If you’re running paid ads and not getting good results, it’s possibly because you’re targeting queries that indicate curiosity rather than urgency and need (purchase intent).

Build a high-converting landing page

When you run an ad, clicking will take users to the web page of your choice. Many people send traffic to their home page by default, but that’s a bad idea. Home pages don’t convert well because there is no targeted message.

You want to give people every reason possible to call you immediately and request a consultation, inspection, or buy your services. To do this, you need a dedicated sales page with copy that speaks directly to your leads and matches your ad. For example, if you’re running an ad that uses the phrase “fix a leaky roof,” your sales page should be written to get people with a leaky roof to call you for an emergency tarp, free inspection, or whatever you offer.

It will take time to test and adjust your sales pages to get them to convert optimally, but you can start by clearly stating what you offer (e.g., “24-hour emergency roof repair”), using trust signals, like Google reviews, Home Advisor ratings and reviews, badges, partnerships with financing companies, and warranties offered. Once you have a solid, basic sales page, you can start running ads and then use split-testing to fine-tune the elements one-by-one to increase conversions.

Focus on geo-targeting

Targeting local areas is the key to running a successful PPC ad campaign. Target your audience by zip code or a specific radius around your service area. Combine this with custom ad copy (“Serving the Greater Houston area!”) to boost your click-through rate (CTR).

When running PPC ads, it’s crucial to avoid overreach. Unless you are a statewide business with multiple teams and a huge budget, don’t waste your money on markets you can’t effectively service. Keep your ads confined to the service areas you can support while staying profitable.

Use call extensions and call tracking

Your best leads want to talk to you – they don’t want to send emails back and forth. When you can generate calls from your ads, those leads will convert better than clicks. The good news is that Google Ads offers the ability to run ads that will generate calls instead of clicks. It’s called call extensions, and this feature uses tracking numbers to monitor and optimize conversations with leads.

Once you run and track these ads for a while, you’ll see a pattern emerge regarding which ads are driving the most calls. Take that data and invest more of your ad budget into what is working best and cut what is not.

Don’t just focus on Google Ads

Google is the king of search, but your customers are on other platforms, too. Don’t just stick with Google. If all your leads come from a single source, you’re one algorithm update away from a slow season. Winter is already tough for the roofing industry, so you can’t afford to risk slowing down in peak season. Having a high-performing PPC campaign means running ads on multiple platforms.

Facebook is a powerhouse for roofing companies to generate leads. You can advertise your services to locals, post in local community groups, and have people share your sponsored ads. You might be surprised at how much positive activity reputable local roofers get on their Facebook ads. That activity feeds the algorithm and gets your ads shown to more people. With Facebook Ads, you can target by zip code, homeowner status, and even income level.

Already running a PPC ad campaign? Get an audit

Getting a PPC audit is one of the best ways to get better results. If you’re winging it, experimenting, or you aren’t sure why you’re not getting good results, a simple audit from a professional PPC marketing agency can help you pinpoint exactly what isn’t working and offer a more effective strategy.

Set a budget and bid smart

Depending on what platform you advertise on, you might be required to invest a minimum amount of money to get in the game. In any case, you’ll need to set a daily budget. Most roofers start with at least $50-$100 per day. If you go any lower, you risk not getting enough impressions to get results. Businesses willing to spend more money will get the most ad placements. A higher daily limit makes it possible for the system to bid higher to get your ads seen more often.

When you first run a campaign, start with manual cost per click (CPC) to see what works. Once you have enough information, test Google’s Smart Bidding feature to scale. For instance, test the Target CPA or Maximize Conversions features.

Use retargeting (remarketing)

Never let a hot lead go cold. Even though leads might need your services immediately, not everyone converts on the first visit. Some people take their time to research competitors, price compare, and think about their needs. When you use retargeting, your ads will display for people who have already visited your website, reminding them that you exist and nudging them to act.

Since retargeting ads can be run independently from your main campaign, you can tailor the ad copy to speak directly to people who have clicked on your ads previously. For example, you can run a headline that reads, “Still need a roof repair?” or “Storm damage? Book before the next rain!” These types of headlines work really well with remarketing.

Optimize your ads for mobile

Since 90% of local roofing searches happen on phones, it’s crucial that you optimize your ads for mobile. Don’t lose leads because of a clunky, difficult website. One of the most important things to do is use click-to-call buttons. This is a must for roofing contractors. It’s a simple HTML button that will bring up your phone number in a user’s dial pad when they click.

Track ROI diligently

If you aren’t tracking your ROI, you’re flying blind. To know your ROI, you’ll need to know your cost per leads (CPL). To get this, track your cost per call, per form fill, and per booked job. It also helps to use a customer relationship management application (CRM) to track sales attributions. For instance, when you sync your PPC data with your CRM, you can see the entire customer journey for every lead that turns into a contract.

Hire a professional PPC agency

While it’s possible to run your own pay-per-click ads, there are many reasons not to go down that path. The learning curve is extremely steep, and the consequences of making a mistake are costly.

If you don’t have the time to learn from scratch, or the money to waste experimenting, hire a pro. But make sure they have real world experience running ads for roofing contractors. You’ll want a company that knows your market, how and where to reach them, and what keywords and phrases get them to convert.

When you find a marketing agency that does PPC, ask about their experience with roofing contractors or other home service businesses. If they have the right experience, ask for their fees and minimum ad budget recommendations or requirements to make sure it’s within your budget.

Dominate your local market with PPC.co

High-performance PPC for roofing isn’t about throwing money at google and hoping for the best. It’s about targeting your ideal customers with the right message that gets them interested in your services. Done right, PPC can bring you a predictable, steady flow of leads, jobs, and revenue. Done wrong, it’s a fast way to burn through your marketing budget.

At PPC.co, we specialize in creating high-performance PPC campaigns for roofing contractors who are serious about scaling their business. We build razor-sharp strategies that bring in high-intent leads, cut wasteful ad spend, and turn Google Ads into a lead generating engine. Our team of PPC specialists understand the roofing industry and we know how to target leads ready to book with you now.

Stop gambling with your marketing budget. Let’s work together to build a system that delivers high-value leads. Contact us today to request a proposal or to learn more about the advertising services we offer. You don’t need more clicks – you need more conversions. Let’s make it happen.  

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