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I use Google Adwords fo both my business's with great success, I a target radius of 8 miles. I recommend using it but be sure to read and watch as much as you can. Googles videos are great as a starting point. If you've never done this before you must make sure you understand how it works as it is very easy to spend your CPC (cost per click) on the wrong subject matter or area.
'Negative' keywords are equally as important as 'positive'. For example, you sell lawnmowers but do not service them, if someone searches 'service my lawnmower' your ad will be shown and if clicked it will cost you. To prevent this behaviour add 'service' as a negative keyword- clear as mud!
Yes we use, but it's tricky to get right. It's a complex system with lots of nuances around campaigns, keyworks, max bid etc etc. I used to be in complex embedded SW engineering so pride myself on being fairly savy with computers etc, but I looked at it initially and thought long learning curve with lots of potential for wasted money. I decided to find an expert and get them to setup, monitor and refine into a workable system for us. Cost me £100 pcm for his fees for 9 months, but then I avoided potential mistakes with big costs.
Beware though, there are lots of companies out there looking to fleece you for adwords management.
We now have a good system and I limit to £20 total click cost per day, so yes, for many months, it £600. But, we're in lawn care, so looking for more customers. For us, it's very cost effective compared to leaflets and magazines, but it took a good six months to refine the keywords to suit us.
Have a think about how savy you are likely to be with the set-up and how much time you'll spend refining it - lots of info out there. Then it's a simple do vs buy comparison for the set-up and managment.
I'd say go for it either way.
What's your return on investment on Adwords?
Hi Mitchel,
thats a BOG/private discussion. Suffice to say, our return is very good relative to other methods. For us, Adwords is the most cost effective way to get a new customer, around 60% of the cost say for a leaflet customer and 50% for a magazine source.
The issue is scallability. 1st season we limited to £10/day, 2nd season doubled that to £20, and did see pretty much a doubling of enquiries. For 2016 haven't decided what to budget for yet. For 2015 we got just over half our new customers from the web.
The great thing is that once set-up, it's pretty low maintenance if you wish, just trundles along in the background giving a steady stream of enquiries.
Are you landscaping or lawn care?
I'm landscaping and doing commercial maintenance. See when I went on Adwords to have a play it just said put your keyword phrases here and how much you would pay for a bid? What's a bid? .
Also read on a website that you have to set it up so it ignores certain phrases to?
Thanks
Mitch
And thats why I went and found a chap to do it for me - it's complex and a lot of novice people have wasted time and money trying to get it correct- but well done if you've diy'ed it - respect. For me, it looked too much of a time investment to get right.
have texted you the details of the chap i used.