Best Landscaping PPC Strategies To Know

Chad Faith
Chad Faith

Director of Content

landscaping PPC

If you are planning to expand your landscaping business or secure more contracts, it is important to employ the right landscaping PPC strategies. For many companies in the landscaping industry, PPC advertising may seem like a significant investment. It can be challenging to get the right audience to click on your ads, convince them to become a lead, and close them as a client. Whether your specialty pertains to building pools, retaining walls, lawn care, outdoor kitchens, custom patios, or water features, you will need to utilize pay-per-click marketing to get noticed on the first page of the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and sell more landscaping jobs!

How does PPC for landscaping businesses work? Business owners bid for a space within a search engine’s sponsored links section. When a potential lead searches a keyword or key phrase that is related to the business offering, the advertiser pays a fee each time their ad is clicked. If you want to learn how to do landscaping PPC properly and attract qualified leads, there are several key rules to keep in mind:

Target the Correct Keywords

Although it is tempting to bid on every landscaping-related keyword that comes to mind, you should avoid targeting the wrong keywords when running Google AdWords campaigns. These mistakes can cause more problems than they solve. For example, targeting useless keywords can waste approximately ¾ of a company’s budget. In other words, your cost-per-conversion increases when you waste money on the wrong clicks. Why pay $200 to get a new lead when you do so with $150 instead?

To prevent your landscaping ads from showing up for the wrong searches, business owners should test and analyze their own keywords within a 3-month time frame. Generate a report of the keyword data and determine how much you are wasting on non-converting search terms. Keep in mind that these are all of the terms that visitors Googled before seeing your ads, clicking them, but did not convert on your landscaping website.

After you have the figures on hand, divide the wasted ad spend by your total spend before multiplying the results by 100%. This will be the percentage of your wasted ad spend on irrelevant search terms and keywords. Depending on the situation, you may need to eliminate poor performing keywords, rewrite landing pages and ads, or add negative keywords. These are potential search terms that prevent ads from being triggered by certain phrases or words. In most cases, you will need to go through several cycles of researching, testing, and eliminating keywords to improve your landscape PPC campaign performance.

In addition to using the right keywords, each ad group should have a single focus. Avoid cluttering one ad group with multiple groups and keywords that are dissimilar. Instead, create an organic keyword list and re-group keywords into different ad groups. By focusing on creating targeted ad groups and organizing your account conceptually, you will not overwhelm a potential lead. In fact, focused ad groups help landscaping companies tailor the message of their ads around the chosen keywords. This process helps increase ad relevance, as well as improves conversions and engagement.

Ensure Your Landing Pages Provide Value for Prospects

A landing page is a great place to explain what it is like to hire your landscaping company. For example, business owners can talk about the benefits of hiring them, how they can make their clients’ lawns look better, etc. The main goal here is to help prospects see the value you are bringing them. Can you design a landscape that requires minimal maintenance? How can you turn a mediocre lawn into simply mesmerizing?

Now that you have mentioned what you could do for potential clients, it is time to back up your claims with client testimonials. Because these testimonials come from unbiased sources, visitors tend to have more trust in them. This way, you also avoid overwhelming visitors with sales pitch after sales pitch.

When it comes to landing pages, showcase your landscaping company’s motto and slogan. In addition, your logo and core brand colors must be present as well. If you are currently running a promotion, e.g., 10% off for landscape care services in the month of July, be sure to include a promo code and some instructions on how to use it. Lastly, remember to leave your contact details and use a call-to-action to get potential leads to act.

Keep Track of New Contracts and Conversions

Tracking is an important part of any effective landscaping campaign in the PPC world. While it is recommended that you spend enough time in your AdWords account, you will need quality data to make the right decisions and changes. High-quality tracking does not only mean tracking click-through rates. Business owners should also track new contracts and conversions if they really want to acquire actionable data. Fortunately, it is not difficult to set up sales and conversion tracking. In most cases, a combination of Google AdWords, Google Analytics, and Google Tag Manager will suffice.

In addition to tracking conversion actions, such as chats, phone calls, and form submissions, find out how much revenue are new contracts generating. Once you are effectively tracking these elements, you and your partners can use that data to set the landscaping PPC campaign up for success. While it will take some trial and error, at least you will have proper data to learn from mistakes.

Be Proactive; Be Patient

Simply put, some business owners are not doing enough keyword research due to limited time spent in their PPC marketing accounts. They end up wasting money on the wrong search terms. Yes, you have a business to run and it is difficult to set aside time to check and manage your PPC account on a daily or weekly basis. If you are at your wits’ end, consider working with a professional landscaping PPC team.

Digital marketing agencies have the experience, time, and resources to manage your marketing accounts, providing the time and attention they need to perform at peak levels. To get the most out of one’s landscaping PPC marketing account, maintenance is required at least once a week. While advertisers do not have to make a lot of changes each round, the frequency of adjustments still depend on the budget. In some cases, advertisers have to tweak their accounts multiple times a week to get closer to desired results.

Adapt and Change

Do not put all of your eggs in one basket. Success in landscaping paid search advertising requires business owners and advertisers alike to keep up with all the latest features and strategies. If you are managing your accounts on a part-time basis, you might be missing out on opportunities to attract more leads. The most successful home care service campaigns require a manager who can keep up with new developments and take the business to the next level.

It is important to note that Google is not the only search engine / platform that can be used to run landscaping PPC ad campaigns. Other notable platforms include Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Bing, and much more. Remember, you do not need to cast the net in all of these areas, i.e., rolling out new ads every day and hoping to grab all the traffic with a variety of keywords. Chances are you will end up with cluttered campaigns and ad groups that are difficult to track.