Scaling Fast with Paid Ads: 10 Must – Haves

Paid ads are your best bet for generating exclusive homeowner leads. But that doesn’t mean you’re necessarily off the hook once campaigns launch.

… unless you’re content with mediocre results. To each their own, we won’t judge.

But if you’re looking to fuel serious revenue and profitability from your online ads strategy, there are a few things you can do to significantly improve results.

Sure, other ‘one and done’ marketing channels would be a lot less effort. But they also likely won’t unlock the true potential your contracting business has to become a market leader.

Ready to turn the heat up on your ad campaigns?

We’re sharing the 10 must-haves we drive home to our contractors in order to see the best results and returns from their paid ads investment.

A sound reputation is like the foundation of a house. It’s a crucial aspect to the integrity of your business, and without it, things can head downhill, fast.

At the end of the day, no flashy marketing campaign or outrageous promotion can truly fix a poor product or service. Particularly if leads search online reviews before visiting your website or landing page, which is common before submitting a form or picking up the phone. 90% of consumers say they trust online reviews – so bad reviews, or no reviews at all, are a red flag that could cost you the lead.

Our top performing clients recognize that a good reputation can go a long way when it comes to paid ads. Positive online social proof, reviews, and ratings help create buzz around your brand. By prioritizing the reputation of your brand online, you’ll be more successful at winning leads.

A strong brand is paramount if you have your eyes set on becoming a market leader. Similarly to having a solid reputation, a recognizable brand sets the stage for highly engaged and profitable marketing campaigns.

Brands that present consistently across multiple platforms (ie. Google, Bing, and Facebook) can see a revenue increase upwards to 23%.

Investing in serving online ads to your local market will further strengthen your brand. People will become more familiar with your name, improving referrals and word of mouth marketing. This is particularly important as strong brands are also more likely to close warm leads – folks who shop around a bit before deciding on a service provider.

Without a predictable lead flow, scaling your business is going to be a tall order. One of the best ways to accumulate traffic through paid ads, generating a healthy influx of leads, is to launch your paid ad campaigns in a liberal sized market.

Contractors who serve multiple and/or surrounding states perform very well. It’s important to consider factors such as population size, competitors, and household incomes. We’re not saying you should launch campaigns country wide, but the greater the scope of operations, the more likely your paid ads will attract exclusive leads.

We hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but the ‘’perfect lead’’ doesn’t necessarily translate into the perfect lead gen approach.

Contractors who hold out for their ideal lead often turn down lower ticket or less lucrative projects in the process. At the same time, other contractors see this as an opportunity to turn those same leads into more profitable projects by upselling or cross-selling during the sales process.

The reality is only can a very, very small percentage of the market be considered a ‘’perfect lead’’. Whether that be characterized by the ability to pay cash, has high disposable income, wants top of the line products, etc.

Contractors who see the most success with paid ads recognize that working strictly with ‘’perfect leads’’ greatly limits their ability to scale. Instead, they cast a wider lead net and develop strategies to increase the return of a lead once they are acquired.

Similarly to contractors who operate in several locations, offering more than one service increases the likelihood of clicks on paid ads. More keywords being searched by more leads who are clicking on more ad results.

Leveraging more lead opportunities, some contractors also use it as a chance to upsell – increasing ticket size and revenue of a job. Plus, the more services, the more ad experimentation. This means you can experiment with all sorts of copy, headline, and image combinations and continuously discover new ads, as well as track ongoing ad campaigns to uncover which resonate with homeowners best.

There are other aspects within your business that can help facilitate a powerhouse paid ads strategy. One of the most important is having a substantial ticket price for your product or service. We’re not saying you should rob homeowners blind, but ensure your ticket price can cover the costs of your marketing investment.

In fact, ticket price is one of the first things we discuss on calls with contractors. And it can give you a leg up with competition as well. Ultimately, the contractor that can pay the most to acquire a customer will win. And those contractors who try to acquire the same lead at a lower cost, will lose out. The higher the ticket price, the more funds you can use to invest into paid ads, since you’re literally paying to acquire new customers.

Higher ticket prices is the simplest way to make sure you remain competitive.

Did you know that 64% of consumers purchase a product or service after watching a branded video on social networks?

Leveraging video to communicate your company’s values and offerings is an effective way to brand your business and a great compliment to paid ads. On average, it takes consumers a whopping 10 seconds to form an opinion about your brand, making videos the perfect bite-size piece of content to create a great first impression.

Video is also a powerful tool for reinforcing brand presence and recognition online, which are known to have a positive impact on long term success and profitability

The same volume of leads, the same lead quality, but one contractor closes 4 out of 10 while the other struggles to close 1 out of 10. Why?

Because the first contractor has a solid lead handling process and the second one doesn’t. 50% of leads choose to work with the contractor who reaches out first, so we recommend that contractors follow up within 5 minutes. This has proven to be 21x more effective than waiting 30 minutes.

It’s equally important to be persistent with leads, since 50% of sales happen after an initial touchpoint.

Since optimizing these processes, we’ve had contractors go from, ‘’The leads aren’t great’’ to ‘’Let’s spend as much as we can on ads this month!’’ without making a single change to their marketing campaigns.

Becoming a market leader isn’t a sprint. It’s a marathon.

Campaigns are rarely profitable out the gate. It can take days, weeks, and sometimes months before the right mix of ad, messaging and landing page is found. Once that occurs, growth can happen quickly.

Lead flow from online ads can vary month by month based on seasonality, algorithm, new competition, and more. Contractors who have hit 8 figures accept that in order to see long term profitability, short term fluctuations come with the territory.

As data and insights are collected over time, you’re better equipped to tweak and optimize campaigns (not to mention your marketing budget). Leaving a mark in the industry takes time and dollars. But trust the process, and you’ll start to see the impact real, actionable change has on your business.

Everyone needs a good partner in crime – or rather, campaigns. Some marketing agencies will launch paid ads for clients, send their invoice, and circle back with results only when asked.

We’ve heard this exact narrative far too many times. That’s why we approach online marketing differently – and for the better.

We collaborate with our clients to truly understand their goals and aspirations. Then we deploy targeted ads and design high-converting landing pages to control lead flow and scale their business profitability.

Instead of sending confusing reports to our clients, we only report on what matters so they know their marketing is working; revenue, profit, and growth. Plus, our team of ad specialists continuously optimize and update campaigns for consistent growth and optimal results.

With a proven system and data-backed approach to online marketing, you can scale your contracting business faster and smarter.