What Alternatives are there to google adwords that work?

[bailey!!]

We have a website that promotes our services and provides contact numbers and email, no online shop for purchases so not websales just an advertising platform for our services. Been using google adwords and beginning to loose all faith in it, zero support since covid and its underperfoming but cant work out why.

What other online advertising would people recommend?

 

[zigojacko]

What is it you do? Provide lists of contact numbers and email addresses?

 

[bailey!!]

What is it you do? Provide lists of contact numbers and email addresses?

We provide Car Repairs and Auto Electrician Services to a select area near us

 

[zigojacko]

We provide Car Repairs and Auto Electrician Services to a select area near us

Oh I see, your original post means your website contains your email and contact number.

What you need is local search marketing. Optimise the hell out of your local area and map listings and it will just feed a constant stream of enquiries via Google searches alone.

 

[bailey!!]

Oh I see, your original post means your website contains your email and contact number.

What you need is local search marketing. Optimise the hell out of your local area and map listings and it will just feed a constant stream of enquiries via Google searches alone.

Yes sorry probably wasnt clear, local search marketing any tips on this ? ive been thrown in the deep end and still learning terminology lol!

 

[makeusvisible]

If you have a simple website, advertising your phone number, have you setup Call-Tracking?

This would allow you to see not only the clicks being generated but also the number of calls the campaign is generating. This would allow you to have a clear cost-per-conversion as to how many people are clicking an ad, and what percentage of those convert into an enquiry.

You might also want to put a contact form on there. People clicking an Ad out-of-hours often do want an immediate method to drop you a message.

The shifts in businesses models during covid might mean that some competitors have upped their game, and thus you're seeing a drop in performance.

 

[bailey!!]

If you have a simple website, advertising your phone number, have you setup Call-Tracking?

This would allow you to see not only the clicks being generated but also the number of calls the campaign is generating. This would allow you to have a clear cost-per-conversion as to how many people are clicking an ad, and what percentage of those convert into an enquiry.

You might also want to put a contact form on there. People clicking an Ad out-of-hours often do want an immediate method to drop you a message.

The shifts in businesses models during covid might mean that some competitors have upped their game, and thus you're seeing a drop in performance.

Not got call tracking but always find out if its a new customer how they found us, im the only person who takes calls so that works fine, we do have a contact form for out of hours enquiries and answer phone for out of hours calls.
You quite right this is the problem we are having along with google ads not working properly and showing our eligible ads but large corporate companies who outsource the same services who have large pockets are monopolising the top of google ads paid ads and we cannot compete so need to find other ways to beat them at their own game, I dont mind a bit of healthy competition with local businesses but when im competing with large nationwide companies who are a load of cowboys from first hand experience i mind especially when its affecting my business.

 

[makeusvisible]

Not got call tracking but always find out if its a new customer how they found us, im the only person who takes calls so that works fine, we do have a contact form for out of hours enquiries and answer phone for out of hours calls.
You quite right this is the problem we are having along with google ads not working properly and showing our eligible ads but large corporate companies who outsource the same services who have large pockets are monopolising the top of google ads paid ads and we cannot compete so need to find other ways to beat them at their own game, I dont mind a bit of healthy competition with local businesses but when im competing with large nationwide companies who are a load of cowboys from first hand experience i mind especially when its affecting my business.

Have the clicks through to your website drastically reduced?

 

[bailey!!]

Have the clicks through to your website drastically reduced?

yes almost completely and google arent helping, my guess is we are being out priced by the big guns

 

[makeusvisible]

Even as a Google Partner agency, with direct access to Google support, the support you will get for them is very often limited.

What kind of quality score are you getting on Google Ads? If the competition has stepped in with great quality landing pages with top-notch quality score, and highly optimised Ads, then you are naturally going to have improved your Ads to compete.... it might not be down to the CPC.

You can only really improve a campaign if you have a solid handle on the cost per click per campaign, and the conversion rate of each Ad, as well as the conversion rate of keywords. As you don't have call tracking setup, your not going to know which keywords triggered the phone calls, so thus you cant really push your budget to the keywords which have historically worked.

 

[fisicx]

You quite right this is the problem we are having along with google ads not working properly and showing our eligible ads but large corporate companies who outsource the same services who have large pockets are monopolising the top of google ads paid ads and we cannot compete so need to find other ways to beat them at their own game.

Then don't use adwords. Do as @zigojacko suggests and dominate GMB. If this all new, get help don't try to DIY.

 

[bailey!!]

Even as a Google Partner agency, with direct access to Google support, the support you will get for them is very often limited.

What kind of quality score are you getting on Google Ads? If the competition has stepped in with great quality landing pages with top-notch quality score, and highly optimised Ads, then you are naturally going to have improved your Ads to compete.... it might not be down to the CPC.

You can only really improve a campaign if you have a solid handle on the cost per click per campaign, and the conversion rate of each Ad, as well as the conversion rate of keywords. As you don't have call tracking setup, your not going to know which keywords triggered the phone calls, so thus you cant really push your budget to the keywords which have historically worked.

At present its saying all keywords eligible but when you right click its says non of them are showing and they dont know why, hence why im having such huge problems.

Quality score varies across keywords but here two examples:

Quality score 8/10 91.67% of search imp share, 8.33% loss is rank, 7.14% CTR 14 impressions 1 click over past month -

Quality score 7/10 100% of search imp share, 23.08 CTR 13 impressions 3 clicks over past month.

Both these keywords should be generating more impressions than they are so this and the fact that the eligible keywords say there not showing but dont know why im convinced are part of our problem.

 

[makeusvisible]

At present its saying all keywords eligible but when you right click its says non of them are showing and they dont know why, hence why im having such huge problems.

Quality score varies across keywords but here two examples:

Quality score 8/10 91.67% of search imp share, 8.33% loss is rank, 7.14% CTR 14 impressions 1 click over past month -

Quality score 7/10 100% of search imp share, 23.08 CTR 13 impressions 3 clicks over past month.

Both these keywords should be generating more impressions than they are so this and the fact that the eligible keywords say there not showing but dont know why im convinced are part of our problem.

This suggests your bids are not high enough. The way to improve that is to look at which keywords are performing well in terms of generating enquiries, and which arent, and push the budget towards the better performing keywords. But without tracking you just arent going to be able to properly optimise the campaign.

No matter which avenue you try, social media, paid ads on google, or bing ads, without the proper conversion tracking you arent going to be able to create anything scalable. If there are big players on the scene, you can guarantee they will have optimised their campaigns and analytics, which is why they are able to outbid you.

 

[fisicx]

Last adwords campaign I did started with just over 300 keywords. £200 later I'd got this down to just 4. Those 4 keywords were enough to turn a decent profit.

Like @makeusvisible said - you have to crunch the numbers. You have be reviewing your campaign almost hourly and constantly tweaking the keywords, adverts and landing pages. AdWords needs constant attention.

 

[Fagin2021]

This is getting confusing because on a different thread (to which I've been replying) the OP has said that his problem is that his ads aren't showing and Google can't tell him why (i.e. it's not down to bid or budget or any of the usual suspects).

Without being rude, I suspect that as a newcomer to Google Ads, the OP just doesn't know what he's doing and can't identify the problem.

I've offered to take a 'read-only' look at his account but no response.

Last adwords campaign I did started with just over 300 keywords. £200 later I'd got this down to just 4. Those 4 keywords were enough to turn a decent profit.

Like @makeusvisible said - you have to crunch the numbers. You have be reviewing your campaign almost hourly and constantly tweaking the keywords, adverts and landing pages. AdWords needs constant attention.

Yup - the old 80/20 rule (or in your case, the 98.5/1.5 rule) works for AdWords too.

 

[Fagin2021]

Quality score varies across keywords but here two examples:

Quality score 8/10 91.67% of search imp share, 8.33% loss is rank, 7.14% CTR 14 impressions 1 click over past month -

Quality score 7/10 100% of search imp share, 23.08 CTR 13 impressions 3 clicks over past month.

Both these keywords should be generating more impressions than they are so this and the fact that the eligible keywords say there not showing but dont know why im convinced are part of our problem.

Those are metrics that most Ads users would be pleased with!

Without boring you with details, it basically means your ads and bids are fine. I'm beginning to suspect that your ads aren't showing because the keywords you have chosen, the match type for those keywords, and the limited geographic area you are targeting means that there just aren't enough people searching on your keywords to trigger your ads.

You say the keywords should be generating more impressions. How do you know? It looks more like your ads are performing well but for a very restricted audience.

 

[fisicx]

I'm beginning to suspect that your ads aren't showing because the keywords you have chosen, the match type for those keywords, and the limited geographic area you are targeting means that there just aren't enough people searching on your keywords to trigger your ads.

Good spot! I had this a few years ago when I made my campaign very niche. I was only ever going to get a few impression each day so Google told me to clear orf. A bit of tweaking and the search volumes increased and my ads started showing.

@bailey!! - this is why you get expert help. My vote goes to @Fagin2021 ('cos he's got to pick a pocket or two).

 

[NooseLadder]

Good spot! I had this a few years ago when I made my campaign very niche. I was only ever going to get a few impression each day so Google told me to clear orf. A bit of tweaking and the search volumes increased and my ads started showing.

@bailey!! - this is why you get expert help. My vote goes to @Fagin2021 ('cos he's got to pick a pocket or two).

Fagin Pick Pocket - Hilarious.
I agree, I used to run Google Ads on Life Insurance. As you can imagine, very competitive and costly. I managed to get the CPC down to around £5 per click and it took constant monitoring. You could also try Microsoft (Bing) Ads.

 

[BeyondTheIllusion]

The best place to advertise is where your customers are going to look for people who have your services

 

[Fagin2021]

The best place to advertise is where your customers are going to look for people who have your services

Wish I'd thought of that!

 

[fisicx]

The best place to advertise is where your customers are going to look for people who have your services

Wow! Amazing insight, never though of doing this.

 

[AllUpHere]

Wish I'd thought of that!

You're not a psychic though are you.

 

[Peter Morris]

With all due respect, but you're maybe doing it the wrong way.

The problem could be the website itself, maybe the landing pages were not optimized. It could be your target keywords, campaign budget, or maybe your ads.

There are a lot of factors to look into here.