When was the last time you uttered the words, “Let me look it up in the phone book.” Instead, you’ve probably replaced them with “Let me Google it.” The phone book has gone the way of the typewriter and rotary phone. Yellow Pages even has distanced themselves from their own product by going with their updated brand: “YP.”
In this post, we’ll take a short walk down memory lane, followed by a ride on the digital highway. Many times, it’s easier to see the future by taking a glance at the past. By the end of the post, we’ll answer the question many moving companies ask themselves daily, “How can we consistently get more leads in today’s market?”
Getting the phone book every year used to be a big event. Business owners and managers would quickly flip the Yellow Pages open to their category and see how their ad looked and how it fared against the competition. Then they waited for the phone to ring with incoming calls from all of the potential customers that saw their ad. Some businesses had a positive return on investment (ROI), but many didn’t.
As the years passed and the Internet grew in prominence, the Yellow Pages was being used more often to prop a door open than as a resource to meet the needs of people looking for a particular product or service.
But, Yellow Pages kept their sales force out in the field, trying to renew existing customers and have them take out more prominent ads, or soliciting companies that declined to advertise with them the previous year. The cycle continued for many years, and still does in a very limited fashion.
What was Yellow Pages promising that kept moving companies advertising in “The Book?” Some of the advantages they touted were:
The Yellow Pages were the number one resource for finding just about any type of product or service in town, including moving companies. As the advertising industry grew, demand for ads skyrocketed, along with the price of Yellow Pages ads.
As time passed, competition for Yellow Pages also grew. Their market share dropped as local and national companies printed and distributed competing directories, promising the same exposure for significantly lower prices. However, the thickness of every printed directory began to suffer as the Internet expanded its audience of regular users.
Right about 2005, companies began to spring up that promised a better mousetrap. At that time, people were increasingly relying on the Internet to pull up companies’ names and contact information that could meet their needs. Early search engine pioneers built their market share, including companies like WebCrawler and Archie.
As consumers began relying primarily on their cell phones, many canceled the traditional “landline” phone number they’d had for years because they “never used it.” As the home phone began to disappear, so did people’s phone books. Forward-thinking companies recognized that their future customers were now searching online.
According to a survey by Brightlocal, 97% of consumers have used the Internet to find local businesses in the past year and MSN has reported that over 70% of Americans don’t even open their phone books (only 11% use the white pages).
If you want to be found today, you need to be visible on people’s smartphones, pads, and laptops. The demographic that movers need to reach isn’t still using the Yellow Pages; they’re online looking at different companies and tapping their screen to place a phone call to them.
For moving companies, the people you’re looking for are Internet savvy. Most millennials have never even used a phone book. They cut their teeth on a desktop, eventually added a laptop to their data gathering arsenal, and have now graduated to smartphones and pads as their primary sources for finding who can serve them.
Have you ever performed a search on Google and clicked on one of the ads because it looked like the advertiser had just what you were looking for? Clicking on that ad is known as Pay-Per-Click, or PPC for short. The advertiser is charged every time someone clicks on their ad placed on a search engine, social media site, YouTube channel, etc.
Even if you don’t click on the ads, do you want to reach the 63% of people who do click on them? If you’re not placed at the top of the search engines results page where the paid ads are, you’re missing out on over half of the people looking for a moving company.
Did you know that Google has three primary networks to advertise on? They are:
We’ll focus specifically on this one for the sake of this article…
Moving companies must have a constant source of qualified moving leads to survive. Typically their services are one-time and not recurring. One of the best ways for moving companies to get a constant flow of in-market moving leads is through running a successful Google Ads campaign.
PPC for moving companies will help keep your phones ringing. We currently manage Google Ads for over 30+ moving companies across the country. We know the ins and outs
Over the last 5+ years we’ve managed millions of dollars on Google Ads for moving companies. We’ve helped these companies get qualified leads, book jobs and make profit.
We’re mentioning Google as much as we are because they account for around 70% of all searches conducted on the Internet (Yahoo and Bing are key players, as well). Google’s Search Network built Google into the media giant they are today, and it continues to be the cornerstone of their business.
If you’re not using PPC to grow your moving business, here are five benefits and specifically how they can help your moving company experience record growth.
>> You may also enjoy this article on saving time and money on Google Ads.
PPC makes the most sense of any type of advertising because you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Even if they see it and don’t click on it, they’ve seen your company name, which makes them seven times more likely to take action the next time they see it.
With PPC, you can be at the top of page one regardless of how big or how established your company is. And you can get there the same day you tell the company managing your PPC campaign to start running your ads.
>> You may be interested, I’ve outlined our PPC management process in this article.
I bolded the two most important metrics. We track each and every lead that comes from your PPC advertising efforts. We use a lead tracking and reporting tool called WhatConverts to show you specifically what keyword drove which phone call, form submission or live chat.
Have you ever received that much information concerning the return on your investment from an ad that you ran in any other form of advertising?
If you’ve seen the light and want to start using PPC advertising to grow your revenue, or if you already are using PPC and would like to see better results, you need to align yourself with a company that:
Let’s look at all three of these requirements and see how your existing, or soon-to-be, PPC manager stacks up:
Are they experienced with PPC campaign management. How long have they been working with Google ads? Who are some other moving companies that have worked with them? What were there results? These are three questions that should be answered to your satisfaction when you’re evaluating a company to manage your PPC campaign.
Know the moving industry. When it comes to PPC, every industry is different. Your campaign manager should have experience designing and running PPC campaigns for movers.
PPC campaign managers often talk about “keywords.” These are words or phrases that people typically enter into the search box. There are many obvious keywords for the moving industry: “moving companies,” “movers,” “local moving companies,” etc.
But there is also something called “long tail keywords” that your PPC manager should know about. Long tail keywords are search phrases with longer word counts, making them more specific than searches with fewer words. You’ll get fewer clicks on your long tail keywords, but they’ll convert to new customers at a higher rate than the more obvious keywords.
For example, “experienced local moving companies” and “reputable long distance movers” are just two examples of long tail keywords. People who enter those keywords into the search box are serious prospects looking for the best moving company. Wouldn’t you want them to call you first? Being in the paid ads gets you calls like that.
Your PPC management company should also factor in “negative keywords,” which are search terms you don’t want costly clicks from, like “U-Haul,” “moving trucks,” “moving truck rentals,” etc.
Will they provide transparency about your results and ROI. The best PPC campaign managers aren’t afraid to show you performance numbers because they know your business and have a history of performing. You should know how much you’re spending per keyword, which keywords are converting into calls or form fills, which aren’t, etc.
We know PPC, we know your industry, and we know how to get you a steady stream of leads. We don’t just get you clicks like so many PPC campaign managers can do – we bring you clicks that convert into prospects and paying customers. We’ve been doing this for just about a decade, and we have this down to a science.
We don’t shoot from the hip. We’ll start with a no-cost discovery call, get to know you and your objectives, and put a plan together with a budget that you can stick with because your ROI will be exceptional. We don’t have contracts – you pay by the month and only continue if your campaign is performing to your satisfaction.
Have questions? Call us today at (646) 419-5496 or contact us online. We know what it takes to succeed with a moving campaign; let us show you how we deliver.
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