Chances are, your plumbing business already ranks well in organic search results for your own brand name. You’re probably in the top organic position. So, why should you pay for ads when you’ve already secured the top spot on the search engine results page?
You want to grow your plumbing business and keep your appointment book full—and that means you need to be top-of-mind when local homeowners have an issue you can help them with. When prospects search for your brand name, you want to control your brand messaging, prime them for conversion, and send them to the right landing page. That’s where branded search can be your MVP.
Even though bidding on your branded terms might seem like a waste of time and money, optimizing your paid search strategy for branded terms can yield big results. The best part? It’s incredibly cost-effective—and your conversion rate will skyrocket. Our clients tell us that most clicks only cost a few dollars.
Ready to take your paid search strategy to the next level? Here’s how to maximize your return on ad spend and ignite your conversions with an effective branded search campaign.
Paid search is the key to growing your plumbing business. Why? Because it increases the number of impressions your plumbing business gets. When a local homeowner searches for relevant keywords, they’ll see your business at the top of the search results. When your ads show up for the right keywords, potential leads will start to recognize your brand name.
Paid search can convert your average Internet user into a prospect. When they’re ready to take the next step in the customer journey, they’ll already be familiar with your brand. Then, when they’re ready to pick up the phone and fix their leaky faucet, you’ll be the first one they think of.
So, where does branded search come into play? According to a meta-analysis by Google, paid search ads are an effective strategy to build top-of-mind awareness and unaided brand awareness. L’Oréal Paris, Intel, and Fiat are just a few of the global brands using branded paid search to build their brands and stay top of mind.
When done right, branded paid search can be a powerful, high-intent strategy for both middle- and bottom-of-the-funnel awareness campaigns. In fact, clicks on paid search are twice as common as organic clicks for keywords with search intent. Studies show that 64.6 percent of searchers click on Google Ads when they’re looking to buy something online.
Why does paid search work for contractors? Because it works for consumers. Your goal is to drive interest and get noticed by local homeowners—and paid search is your secret weapon to step out in front of the competition. It provides a unique opportunity to connect with the right people at the moments that really matter.
The most specific searches are brand searches, where someone knows what they’re looking for and the brand they prefer. For example, if they’re searching for Nike sneakers, they’re already in the purchase funnel. In this case, paid search closes the sale, connecting the consumer with the specific product they’re searching for.
“Why should I have paid ads on top of organic search results where I rank #1?”, you’re thinking. Sure, it might seem like a waste to bid on your brand name, especially if you’re already winning at SEO, but our clients tell us that branded search is well worth the investment.
Even if you’ve already mastered the art of SEO, branded search campaigns can take your marketing strategy to the next level. Here’s how.
Now that we’ve established why plumbers need brand awareness campaigns, it’s time to get started with branded search.
For the sake of this guide, we’re going to assume that you’ve created a Google Ads campaign before, but if you haven’t, you can check out our guide to Google Ads here.
To start, you’re going to set up a search campaign with Google Ads. On the first screen, create a campaign and select “search” as the campaign type.
Your campaign name can be whatever you like, but you’ll want to include the term “Brand Search” somewhere to keep everything organized. If you’re running multiple paid search campaigns, create separate campaigns for your branded and non-branded keywords.
Next, you’ll need to set your campaign settings:
Next, you’ll need to build out the ad groups for your branded search campaign. Your ad groups will depend on a few factors, including the volume of branded search traffic that your plumbing business gets and what kind of services you offer.
When it comes to branded search, the most common and easiest setup involves one ad group. In most cases, one ad group is the best option for businesses that offer one type of service or have limited branded search traffic.
To set up your ad group, all you need to do is add your branded search terms. You’ll want to use the exact, phrase, and broad match modified keyword types for your business name. Then, add a phrase match for different versions of your brand name.
The basic rules for writing Google Ads ad copy are also applicable to branded search campaigns—with one major caveat. With non-branded searches, you’re trying to convince searchers why they should choose your plumbing business over the competition. With branded search, those searchers are already considering your business.
These search queries are in the middle and bottom of the funnel, so your ad copy should reflect that. Here, your goal is to provide information that gives your lead the final push to convert.
For example, if someone is searching for your drain cleaning services, give them an offer they can’t refuse by offering a free quote within 24 hours. This is also a great opportunity to highlight your value proposition—whether you’re bringing decades of plumbing experience to the table or you offer a lifetime guarantee.
Just like any other paid search campaign, you’ll want to add extensions to your branded search ads. Searchers are already interested in your plumbing business, and you want to make it as easy as possible for them to get in touch.
Extensions expand your ad, giving searchers additional information. Beyond boosting your clickthrough rate, extensions make it easy for leads to contact your business with call buttons, location information, sitelinks, and more. You should leverage as many relevant ad extensions as you can, including:
While other ad extensions might also be relevant for your plumbing business, those three are relevant for almost every contractor. Ad extensions are especially helpful for branded search queries thanks to their unrivaled buyer intent.
Your Home page is important, but it’s not the best link for your branded search ads. When you’ve captured someone’s attention and want them to take the next step—whether that’s calling your business, signing up for your newsletter, or requesting a quote—you want to move them from point A to point B without any distractions. That’s what landing pages are for.
Even though you’re attracting searchers with high buyer intent, you still need to optimize your landing pages for conversions. Even the smallest errors, from unprofessional layouts to confusing CTAs, can send a qualified lead straight to the competition.
When searchers click your ad, you need to serve a highly relevant, personalized landing page that reinforces the promise of the ad. For the smoothest path to conversion, you should top off every landing page with a clear call-to-action that your prospects should take.
Before you start running branded search ads, make sure you’ve adjusted your non-branded campaigns. You’ll need to add your brand terms as negative keywords for your non-branded campaigns to avoid any overlap. Basically, adding negative keywords ensures your brand queries are only served against your branded search campaign.
When you pull your branded queries out of non-branded campaigns, you’ll notice a decrease in the performance for those campaigns. This is because branded searches typically offer the highest ROI.
This way, you’ll get a more accurate picture of the ROI of your non-branded search campaigns. Then, you can finetune your campaigns and maximize your search performance based on more accurate data.
Branded search is a great tool to level up your paid search strategy, but you’ll need to dedicate time, money, and resources to get it right. Generally, branded campaigns drive down your cost-per-click, since your URL and ads will be highly relevant to your searchers. At the same time, you’ll want to experiment with keyword match types and geo-targeting options for the most impactful ads.
Remember: Branded search isn’t a “set it and forget it” type of campaign. Sure, you can monitor your branded search campaigns less often than your other campaigns because your target keywords aren’t frequently changing, but you’ll still need to track your performance and continually update your strategy.
Most importantly, you’ll need to account for fluctuations in branded search traffic. Our clients typically notice seasonal fluctuations in branded search traffic, with spikes between September and December, where they adjust their bidding strategy. Although raising awareness in the peak season can help you keep the phone ringing, running brand awareness campaigns during shoulder season is key to keeping your brand top of mind.
With that said, if you’re new to search engine marketing, branded campaigns can be challenging to implement. If you’re not sure how to start (or if you’re having trouble driving clicks and conversions), a marketing partner can help you master branded search.
Branded search can be a powerful tool for building brand awareness, but it shouldn’t replace SEO or other elements of your paid search strategy. Instead, branded search drives the best results when it’s used to complement other strategies. It takes time and effort, but it’s something every contractor should invest in.
If you’re too busy running your plumbing business to worry about paid search, we’re here to help. Our marketing experts can take the marketing tasks off your plate so you can focus on answering phone calls, working in the field, and building your business. Reach out to our team to grow your plumbing business with an effective paid search strategy.
