Competition among home services businesses online is growing. Scorpion’s latest data shows a 20% increase in cost per lead metrics and a 32% increase in ad spend across all digital channels for the home services industry. More consumers are searching home services keywords, with impressions increasing by 231% and clicks increasing by 104% since 2021.
Outside of the cost of running digital ads, home services businesses are also competing on speed to lead. In fact, 90% of home services customers expect a response to their inquiries within 24 hours, and more than half (54%) decide on a home services provider in less than 4 hours. This means that not only are home services businesses competing to have their ad shown online – they’re also competing with each other to respond quickly to consumers.
With all this competition, how can your local home services business come out on top? Get focused on your customers’ needs and expectations, understand how to use ad dollars efficiently, and use organic channels, like email and your website, to boost your paid campaigns.
Tip: To expand your reach, try running targeted ads. You can focus on users by location, interests, and behaviors, making sure your ads reach the people most likely to need your services. Learn more.
How to Better Understand Your Target Audience as a Home Services Professional
Target a small group of consumers in your area based on their needs. For example, if you offer HVAC installations and want to increase your installs this quarter, you can target homes in your area that were built 15 years ago that may need their HVAC systems replaced.
How to Target Your Ideal Audience as a Home Services Business
Build target audiences based on demographic characteristics (like gender, age, household income level, etc.), geographic characteristics (like country, region, state, county, or zip code), and psychographic characteristics (like interests, hobbies, spending patterns, etc.). When building a local marketing program focus on building programs by zip code and household income.
Get more from your advertising efforts by tailoring your ads to the right audience with unique messaging. Generic ad copy isn’t going to resonate with your target audience just because you’ve limited who can see your ads. You need to make it clear that your business understands your consumers’ needs, wants, fears, and aspirations.
Where to Target Your Home Services Audience Online
Search engines, social media platforms, and online directory listings are the big three options for home services digital ads. And each one of those will have several options for how your ads are displayed.
Search engines, like Google, have display, search, and local service ads that use different kinds of media elements and targeting to reach your desired audience. Social media sites, like Facebook, have display, post, and video ads to target your ideal customers in different ways as they engage on social media.
Google Ads and Google Local Service Ads (LSAs) are two of the most popular and effective platforms for home services digital ad campaigns. 46% of Google searches have local intent, but you have to pay to run Google Ads on the relevant local search intent keywords to appear at the top of those search results.
Google LSAs are a strong alternative to traditional Google Ads. These paid advertisements collect leads through message requests and phone calls and only appear for relevant local businesses. Unlike traditional Google Ads where you pay per click, with Google LSAs you only pay when a potential lead contacts you.
But that doesn’t mean you should put all your eggs in one basket.
The best home services digital ad strategies diversify advertising spending to maximize impact. At Scorpion, we build campaigns on Google, Bing, Google LSA, Thumbtack, Angi, and more. Our team uses AI technology to deliver the strongest advertising mix for each client. Ensuring our clients’ spend their dollars smarter and generate the most leads for their business.
Looking to optimize your digital ad spend? By understanding your key metrics and exploring different channels, our team can help you maximize your ROI and effectively reach new customers. Contact us today.
How to Maximize Your Ad Dollars for Home Services Campaigns
When it comes to getting the most out of your ad spend on digital marketing campaigns, understanding your target audience is only half the battle. There are a variety of other tactics that boost campaign results too:
Shift Your Perspective From Cost to ROI
In digital advertising, there’s an emphasis on getting in front of potential customers through top placements and large campaign budgets. Paid ad platforms are so powerful because they provide options for what kinds of potential customers you want to reach and how you want those potential customers to spend their time engaging with your content.
But time in front of potential customers isn’t your end goal. You want bookings.
The first step to maximizing your ad dollars is shifting your perspective from throwing money at paid ad campaigns to aiming for the highest possible placement. This requires strategically investing your marketing dollars.
Get the most out of your marketing efforts with Scorpion’s ROI App, which offers a comprehensive view of your marketing performance. Our technology can monitor and optimize your marketing strategies to help your business thrive. Learn more.
Know Your Capacity Limits
If you’re spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on digital ad campaigns, you should also invest in a booking tool to capture lead conversions the quickest way possible. But with those booking tools, you could run into a capacity problem if you’re not careful. You need to be able to spin up your budget when capacity is low and dial it back when you’re close to your limits. Working with a partner that specializes in home services digital marketing can help you understand and adapt to your capacity limits.
Access the insights your business needs to succeed in lead conversion with Scorpion’s Leads AI. Our technology scores, analyzes, and rates your leads so you can get clear on where to focus your investments and how to drive more revenue. Learn more.
Amplify Your Digital Campaigns with Home Services SEO
Paid ad campaigns are great for filling your calendar with bookings, but they can get expensive. Combining these ads with home services SEO maximizes your visibility on the search engine results pages, allows you to meet your customers where they are, and takes the pressure off your budget to go all-in on paid campaigns. When you put paid ads and local SEO tactics together, over time you reduce the cost of leads by getting more of them through free channels, while keeping your books full with paid ad campaigns.
Build the Right Digital Ad Strategy to Maximize Ad Spend
Digital marketing works the best when you deeply understand who your customers are and how you show up for them every day. With that knowledge, you can build digital advertising campaigns that drive bookings, not just views, and make the most of your ad dollars.
Not sure how to get started? Work with a partner like Scorpion that understands your business, your audience, and how to manage your dials for the most effective and successful digital marketing strategy. Contact our team today.