Google PPC costs

[Jack Grudgings]

townsendpestcontrol
North of Bristol (population 450 000) near two towns, populations of 14000 and probably 20000.
So in the sticks somewhat.
I pay a company £20PCM to get as high as possible an organic listing on google, probably second or third page for 'pest control Bristol'.
It could be £200 PA if I paid annually.
As google have recently changed the way they advertise it has been suggested that I need to spend £165PCM on PPC to get my ad near the top. Both on mobile and desktop. This is £4 per day plus analysis fee of £45.
I have done much PPC, only once last year when a freebie was offered from google.
As the wasp season will start soon I have to decide when to start advertising, hence the query.
Business primarily is generated from google searches and that there are front end pest control companies which employ subbies to actually do the work and so advertise nationally. Only the first two results are on the first page on the mobile search results.
We all do the same thing, should all be trained to the same standard so locality and price are the main differentials. Customer tend to throw money at pest control and they tend to be one offs, "I hope I never see you again," is a popular refrain.
This company does promote other pest companies in other towns in the UK as well as other tradesman such as locksmiths, so they should know what they are doing.
I have no idea if this is good value or not or if any one can do better.

Ta

 

[AllUpHere]

We can't tell you if it's good value or not based on how much you spend. We need to know what results you are getting.

Your business type is a cheap one to market, but I can't imagine 20 quid per month is doing a lot for you.

 

[Nochexman]

I pay a company £20PCM to get as high as possible an organic listing on google, probably second or third page for 'pest control Bristol'.
It could be £200 PA if I paid annually.
As google have recently changed the way they advertise it has been suggested that I need to spend £165PCM on PPC to get my ad near the top. Both on mobile and desktop. This is £4 per day plus analysis fee of £45.

So, are the amounts you are spending covering both the cost of a third-party agency AND your advertising budget with Google?

Does not seem very much if they are. What is your average PPC charge?

How many sales are you getting from PPC?

 

[david64]

Going off on a slight tangent, what are you getting for paying monthly for organic? I hope I am not inadvertently rousing suspicion, but I am always suspicious of such payment structures, especially for local.

There are a number of scoundrels out there who just make a few tweaks to sites and then charge X per month without doing any work.

 

[Jack Grudgings]

There are a number of scoundrels out there who just make a few tweaks to sites and then charge X per month without doing any work.

The £20 PCM fee is to try to get a high an organic listing as possible by using backlinks and anything else the company can do for me.
They took my DIY web site and replaced it with a fairly generic one that they probably use elsewhere, but I can add my own text and pics. It looks a lot better but pretty standard fare. The URL was changed to bristolpestcontrol instead of townsendpestcontrol to improve ranking.
This improved the ranking, but with no specific advertising.
I am not aware that they did anything else.

The PPC fee is £165 (PCM), which is £4 per click.
I took up a free google offering last summer which generated more business and when the advertising stopped then so did the enquiries.
I also had another google freebie in January which was dire, but pest control is quieter in winter for domestic work.

 

[andygambles]

You need to be looking at how much your average call out makes you in profit. From that work out how much you want to spend on marketing to gain each customer. This then becomes your Cost Per Acquisition you are willing to pay. This can then give you a better idea about what you could spend on Google Ads, if it is worth it or if you need to charge more!

 

[antp__]

Local SEO for search terms such as "pest control bristol" are fairly easy to rank for but £20 pcm seems ludicrous. I would agree with above, I doubt they're doing much to be honest with you as this sort of term you should be ranking quite highly, not page 2/3.

Also, your site has a few minor issues, I know you're not asking for this but the white text on yellow button on the homepage is hard to read. This goes against user experience.

On your pests page, I would have at least a page for each animal so you can click through. Not only that, get a proof read as some don't make sense.

We privide bird/ pigeon netting, bird / pigeon spikes and guano removal at very competitive prices.

If you home, business or pets have a flea infestation. Call us and we'll handle everything discreetly.

We privide one of the few pest control companeis providing humane deer control services through the Bristol region.

These let the site down as it removes the professionalism.

The PPC fee is £165 (PCM), which is £4 per click.

- This would not equal £4 per click unless you know how many clicks you're getting. I am guessing you mean £4 per day?

 

[webgeek]

If you're targeting Bristol and getting enquiries from Inverness, it's a pretty good sign someone didn't think to geotarget the campaigns.

This is just one example of what has happened to site owners when they bought into a cheap and cheerful PPC management service, only to find that the spend wasn't generating leads that convert at anywhere near the rate of their old campaigns.

I'm not saying all cheap and cheerful services are bad, but you should expect a higher risk of poor performance, particularly when they group 50 or 100 keywords into an ad group and point the ad at one of your existing general pages, without bothering to set up conversion/goal tracking.

Knowing what corners might get cut and the financial implications is a good first step in getting prepared. Have you considered pay per conversion/acquisition instead of per click?

The math should be boiling this down something like:

1. The average click is £4.00
2. 1 out of every 50 clicks converts, on average (2%)
3. The average lifetime value of a conversion is £______

If 50 x £4.00, or £200.00 cost per conversion is acceptable/profitable, then buy as many of those clicks as you can. But if it's a close call, then knowing the value of #3 is critical.
​

Never lose site of the goal conversion, which is why you're buying these clicks, not because you like heaping a load of visitors (who bounce nearly 100% of the time) in your analytics .