Google Ads(AdWords) is Scary

Google Ads, formerly known as “AdWords,” can be freakin’ scary. If you self-manage, it’s easy to sink hundreds or thousands of dollars into Google Ads with little to show for it . Until we were a few years into AdWords at Junk Doctors, we self-managed our campaign too. When we finally got wise and brought in a professional company to manage our AdWords campaign, we discovered that we had $300,000 in wasted Ad-spend! That’s an extra $300k that ended up in Google’s pocket instead of in ours. Unreal! Still, by using Google Ads/AdWords, we were able to grow into a $2 million-a-year business by year 5.

We started AdWords almost immediately after starting our business. I always thought of myself as a pretty smart guy and decent with technology, so I studied and learned a lot about AdWords. With that knowledge, we self-managed our campaign and had pretty good and profitable results with it, especially at the start. When we first started, our Cost Per Click (CPC) was around $3. Now, CPCs above $10 are not uncommon.

When CPC was at $3, we could get a lot of wasted clicks and still be profitable. Over time, however, that cost per click started inching up. I was busy running a business and wasn’t staying on top of the constant changes Google makes (like changing “AdWords” to “Google Ads”). I’d make some changes from time to time, but then Google would make another change and I’d miss out on it.

Eventually, instead of AdWords being very profitable for each job, we started to just break even on many of them, and finally we started losing money on AdWords jobs. When AdWords was just breaking even, I started looking at it as a long-term play. I figured we’d do a great job and these customers would use us again and refer business to us. Soon, however, we started losing money on AdWords at a pretty impressive clip. I knew it was time to make a change – either stop using AdWords or bring someone on board who knew what they were doing. Never being someone to back down from a challenge or accept defeat, I chose the latter.

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Getting Professional Google Ads/AdWords Management

Partnering with another company to manage your AdWords campaign is a nerve-wracking endeavor. Are they really doing anything? Are they going to do a better job than me? Are they going to be cost-sensitive and initiate changes to save me money wherever possible? All of those were questions going through my head.

I knew I didn’t want to partner with one of these companies that charges a percentage of ad spend. That’s like a stock broker – the broker only makes money when you buy or sell. So guess what he is going to recommend?

Instead, I chose a local company I had worked with in the past. Over the next six months, we spoke daily about developing the ultimate AdWords campaign for a junk removal business. I’ve invested heavily in working with them that closely, in terms of both money and time. Because of our joint effort, we now have a campaign that yields an average profit of about $60 per AdWords job. Before, we were losing about $30 per AdWords job, and we average somewhere around 150 AdWords jobs a month. This gives us a profit of around $9,000 per month from AdWords jobs, or a swing of $13,500 per month from when I was self-managing. Crazy!

Taking Our Google Ads (AdWords) Game to the Next Level

With the AdWords management company, we started running tests and gathering data about our campaign and its results. After months of study, we realized what needed to be done. Instead of taking the typical route and easing into changes, we suddenly implemented our new problem in just a day. We had months of concrete data. We knew what needed to be done and we did it without hesitation.

We began to see results immediately. We booked just as many jobs as we had been booking, but with 35% lower costs. The day after we implemented the change, Google called us and said they needed to speak with us immediately. There were some changes to our campaign, they warned, that were going to negatively affect our results! In truth, the only negative effect was going to be in Google’s pocketbook. I must say I felt like a badass when Google called and tried to convince us to revert to our old system (and pay them more). Just like a stock broker, right? We’d set off an alert at Google. Badass.

Why a Good Website Matters for Google Ads (AdWords)

Direct changes to our AdWords campaign saved us thousands of dollars every month while increasing the number of jobs we booked. However, we also invested in a new website. Much of your success in Google Ads/AdWords depends on the quality of your website (and how that affects your placement and ad-spend).

There are a few angles to cover in terms of website quality, the first being keyword quality score. Your keyword quality score determines your ad placement and spend. The higher the quality score, the less you have to pay for a particular ad placement. Keyword quality score is measured on a scale of 1-10. Just a one point increase in quality score can reduce your ad spend by hundreds or thousands of dollars. It’s common to discover that much of your wasted ad-spend comes from a poor quality score. You either need to improve the quality of your ad and landing pages to increase quality score, or you need to get rid of those keywords.

The second angle that determines your Google Ads success is conversion rate (jobs booked). Your mobile website should utilize “click to call” buttons and have your phone number prominently featured. It should be easily seen without having to scroll up or down. Don’t just list your number on a “contact us” page – put it in a very visible place on your home page. Better yet, plaster it all over your site. Make it easy for  people to call you and schedule.

We also like directing people to book online and even offer a $20 discount if they do so. Online bookings are less expensive on our end, as we don’t have to field the call. Additionally, many people simply prefer booking online to making phone calls. I’m that way with Pizza. I talk on the phone many hours every day, but when I order a pizza I’d rather just do it online instead of talking with someone. You need to have a “book online function.” A simple book online platform can be found at youcanbook.me.

If you don’t have a great website – a site that looks, feels, and is professional but still screams that you are locally owned – then you can have a great AdWords campaign, attract site visitors, and still not convert those visits to bookings. If you’re in that boat, you’re throwing your money away.

JRA offers two website options to fit your needs. These sites are constantly updated and optimized for performance with Google Ads and responsiveness to SEO, and are proven to convert site visitors into paying customers. Give us a call at 919-617-1975 for assistance with your site.

Google Ads (Adwords) is an Investment, not an Expense

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: don’t confuse investments with expenses. In fact, the best business move we ever made was viewing AdWords as an investment and not an expense. Most junk removal and service business owners are spending around $1,000 or so a month on Google Ads. That’s wrong! Google Ads is an investment.

Act like Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger do with Berkshire Hathaway. They research the hell out of something, make sure they know the industry, and know it is a good business. Then they pour money into it. They build up their coffers and sink billions of dollars into one company. They understand it and know it will make money. They know the more money they put into it, the more ownership they get, and the more profits Berkshire makes. Approach Google Ads the same way. Once your campaign is profitable, pour as much money as you can into it. Raise your budget so high that there is no way you will hit it in one day. Then get ready for your bank account to blow up. I wish we were investing $10,000 a day in AdWords because I know that we would bring in many times that amount in profits.

The bottom line is, you MUST be doing Google Ads now. It isn’t an option. It used to be the case that 80% of people skipped the ads in Google search results and went straight to the organic results. Now, however, 70% of clicks come from ads. Whether you are looking to start a junk removal business, or if you have been in business for one year, five years, or ten years, you must be on Google Ads! If not, some hotshot is gonna hook up with JRA, come into your market, and kick ass.

You wanna be a player in the junk removal game? You gotta get on the court. What is the court? Google Ads. It’s so tempting to self-manage your campaign, thinking that you’re gonna save money. That move cost me $300k, hundreds if not thousands of hours of time, and hundreds of customers. I wish I’d hired the pros when I first started. Fortunately, you have the opportunity to do it! We founded JRA with the same people who helped us design our kick-ass junk removal Ads campaign. We’ve got the expertise you need to send your profits soaring.

I am 100 percent confident we can bring you immediate, profitable business with our Ad-words management. We do offer free consultations where we can review your existing Ad-words campaign, let you know how it stacks up, and if we can help you.

-Lee Godbold

[email protected]

919-617-1975