Use paid ads to get more visitors to your website and attract your ideal clients.
Everybody wants to be at the top of Google’s search results when a potential client goes looking for a bookkeeper. With Google Ads you CAN appear at the TOP of Google (in the paid ads section) but it may cost you a LOT of money.
When you work in a competitive industry it’s important to launch an ad that will differentiate your offering and help you to stand out from the crowd.
Is Google Ads a viable option for a self-employed bookkeeper operating on a limited advertising budget? How will you make sure that your ad is attracting the right type of clients for your business?
Advertising on Google can seem complicated at first but when you understand how the process is structured, it becomes much easier. In this article we’ll explain the difference between Campaigns, Ad Groups and Ads, and how you can use them to test your ads and get the best results.
Landing Pages & Call-To-Action
After clicking the link in your ad, visitors will be taken to a landing page on your website. In this example the landing page is a Digital Profile of a graduate of the Premium Short Courses in MYOB & Xero from National Bookkeeping. A Digital Profile is included in selected packages to help graduates get discovered for bookkeeping work by local small business owners.
Your Landing Page might be a simple welcome page with links to selected services, or it might include an invitation to:
- download a free sample
- get a free 30 minute consultation
- enter a competition
- subscribe to your blog
When visitors enter their details into a lead capture form the information can be added to your sales pipeline in your CRM software. The type of information you collect will depend on your ad objectives and campaign, but at a minimum, visitors will be required to supply their name, email address and/or phone number to receive the advertised offer.
In simple terms, your objective is to drive more traffic to your website and convert visitors into sales leads.
A critical component of advertising success is the need to follow up each lead as soon as it is received. If you are considering a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system to help you manage your sales opportunities then you will save time by choosing one with an integration that:
- Copies information automatically from the online form and creates a client record.
- Adds the lead to your sales pipeline.
- Allows you to set follow up reminders.
Google Ads Account Hierarchy
Each of your account’s campaigns consists of one or more ad groups. An ad group contains one or more ads, which share a set target of keywords and bids. Let’s take a look at what these mean for your bookkeeping business.
Campaigns
Campaigns help you to control your:
- Strategies
- Goals
- Budget
They are often used to organise categories of products or services that you offer. For example, you may have different campaigns set up for:
- Xero Bookkeeping
- Xero Tutoring and Training
- Virtual Assistant
Having separate campaigns for each type of work means that you can test the effectiveness of different types of ads on audiences with different needs.
Deciding which campaigns should be prioritised and how much of your advertising budget to spend on each of them will depend on your business objectives, your expected return on investment (ROI) and the speed to conversion.
Ad Groups
Campaigns contain a set of ad groups that share similar targets including:
- Bids – A bid represents the amount of money you are willing to spend for a single click on a given keyword in Google Ads. These bids will dictate where your ads show up in search results. The bidding cost will increase for popular keywords and at peak times of the day.
You can maintain complete control by submitting your bids manually, or you can choose automatic bidding and allow Google to choose the best options that fit within your budget.
- Audience targeting – Define the types of people who will see your ad. You can profile them by location, age and interests.
- Placements – Choose which Google apps can display your ads, for example YouTube or on websites where your clients spend time. You’ll still have to compete with other advertisers for popular placements.
For example, let’s say you have a campaign called ‘Xero Bookkeeping’. Within that campaign you have a number of service categories, or ad groups:
By advertising to different subsets within the same campaign, you can compare the number and the quality of leads that you generate for each service category. Again, a good CRM can help you to capture and identify lead sources for future comparison.
There is no set limit to the number of ads and ad groups you can have within each campaign, but as a guideline you should limit them to:
- 6-10 ad groups per campaign
- 20 keywords per ad group
- Around two or three ads per ad group
Google Ads
A Google ad targets your potential customers with your chosen keywords.
You can target potential clients by using keywords that are focused and specific, such as ‘xero bookkeeping services in maitland nsw’. These types of keywords usually perform better when the customer knows what they want, and it’s why it’s so important to define your ideal client before you start advertising.
A typical text ad will include:
- Heading
- Description
- Call To Action (CTA) e.g. ‘Click Here to Register’
- URL (Note: Ads from within the same ad group must all point to the same website.)
For example:
Training and Tutoring Ad Heading: MYOB & Xero Payroll Tutoring with FREE Written Manual
Ad Description: Xero payroll setup • Managing employees • Payroll processing • Payroll dashboard • Payroll reporting • Employer obligations
Call-To-Action: Includes BONUS 40-page training manual. Call Trevor today.
Landing Page: Clicking on the link to this ad will take the prospect to Trevor’s Tutoring Profile on our website.
Bookkeeping Services Ad Heading: MYOB & Xero Bookkeeper Springvale, VIC
Google Ads Description: All your accounts and bank reconciliations up-to-date, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, GST & BAS, Payroll and Reporting. Reliable and Affordable bookkeeping from CPA qualified bookkeeper.
Call-To-Action: FREE Initial Consultation
Landing Page: Digital Profile
What are your Competitors Advertising?
Some of your competitors will be accounting firms, Bookkeeping Contractors and even Marketing Sites who want you to pay them for leads, like Bark.
Knowing what your competitors are offering on their landing page and the keywords they use in their headings and Descriptions will help you understand what is going on in the “bookkeeping market” as well as give you inspiration about what to put in your own ads.
Testing and Review
Evaluating the performance of your ads will help you to decide which variables are working well and which of them should change:
- Run ads with varying keywords, landing pages and offers within each ad group to find out which ads resonate the most with your ideal client.
- Evaluate the click rate and cost per click (CPC) for each of your ads to find out the optimum bidding rates you can expect to pay for each type of campaign.
- Extract reports from your CRM to measure the number of leads generated by each campaign, ad group and ad.
- Logon to Google Analytics to find out how much time visitors are spending on your website (bounce rate), where they are from, and what time and day they are visiting.
Summary
With the ability to fine tune your ads to a targeted audience and a budget that you can change depending on your ad results, it’s possible to see that even small businesses can get results with Google Ads.
The trick is to maximise the value of each sales lead by managing incoming enquiries effectively and following them up promptly.
By having a clear idea of who your ideal client is and knowing which questions to ask them, you can target ads that speak directly to the problems they are trying to solve. This approach, combined with the right CRM to manage your client communications and sales leads, will deliver substantially better results from your ad spend.
Enrol into the Google Ads Courses
Case Study: Is This Your Ideal Bookkeeping Client?
Choose the best bookkeeping clients according to their needs and your ability to deliver.
https://workface.com.au/2022/08/case-study-is-this-your-ideal-bookkeeping-client/
Stay Relevant and Competitive By Refreshing Your Bookkeeping Ad
Talking to your prospects and listening to their business problems allows you to gain insights into the key issues that need addressing. With this knowledge, you can change your ads and tailor them to capture the attention of your ‘ideal client’ and make them more relatable to business owners.
https://workface.com.au/2022/04/stay-relevant-and-competitive-by-refreshing-your-xero-bookkeeping-ad/
