Tuesday, 21 January 2014

How To Create Click to Call Campaigns in Google AdWords Enhanced Campaigns

By now I’m sure you’ve noticed that the world has gone mobile. Smartphones are at the center of our everyday lives—helping us communicate, search, shop, navigate and avoid eye-contact with strangers while riding public transportation.
More importantly, as a business owner, mobile devices are where your customers go for answers to their problems. If it’s 97 degrees (and feels more like 120) and my air conditioner breaks, I’m going to want to get it fixed as quickly and as efficiently as possible – as a Blue Corona Charlottean, I know how this feels. In this moment of desperation I have a few options:
  1. Go grab my phone book from the attic where it is being stored with my cassette player, or
  2. Search “air conditioner repair” on my smartphone (which is probably already in my sweaty hand) and click on an eye-catching “call” button to contact a local HVAC company.
This added convenience for users is one of many reasons why implementing a click-to-call extension in your pay per click campaign is extremely effective for generating leads from the web.

What Is a Call Button on AdWords?

This “call” button (read: lead generation machine) is known to AdWords campaign managers as a “Call Extension.” It’s one of many ad extensions that can enhance your campaign and drive more leads for your business. The user searches for a product or service you offer, sees the Call Extension and voila!
On a desktop or laptop, your phone number appears next to the headline of your PPC ad. On a smartphone, it allows the searcher to click the “call” button and have their smartphone immediately dial your business. This is called “click-to-call” and, yes, it really is that simple to make your phones ring.

How Do I Get Click-to-Call for My AdWords Ads?

With “click-to-call” Call Extensions, you literally can’t make it any easier for a new customer to contact you. You simply add your company’s phone number under the “Ad Extensions” tab in your AdWords account.
But there are a few catches to succeeding with click-to-call:
  • Position of your PPC ad - you have to bid in a top ad position to appear above Google Maps and Google’s organic listings in a mobile environment. As seen in the above screenshot, ads in the third or fourth spot will require the user to scroll and may not feature the call extension at all.
  • Phone number used – if you use a unique phone number, you are able to track the effectiveness of your call extension.
  • Mobile website - you should have a mobile-friendly site ready for the more investigative searcher who wants to learn more about your services or promotions before calling.
  • Setting preferred in AdWords - by setting up “mobile-preferred” ads in your AdWords account you can make sure mobile searchers are directed to the right place.
If you’re unsure of how to accomplish the above, I know of a fantastic online marketing company with a couple of pay-per-click specialists who can help you out.

Do Customers Search for My Services on Smartphones?

The value of a Call Extension should be a no-brainer by now, but in the spirit of making data-driven decisions, Google helps us make a pretty good case with a recent research study they conducted. What they found should be a game-changer if you’re a local business that is not taking advantage of call extensions, mobile-optimized ads/sites, or AdWords altogether.
Google found that 76 percent of consumers looking to schedule an appointment for local professional services would use click-to-call features.
That’s right….76 percent. So, whether you’re an HVAC company, plumbing company, remodeling business, or doctor’s office – if you aren’t advertising on AdWords (and bidding on a top-two spot with a call extension), you are giving up a huge opportunity to generate more leads and grow your business.
Google’s study also concluded that the majority of these calls happen when these customers are in the research or purchase phase of the buying process, and that makes them very well-qualified leads.

More Benefits to Using Call Extensions

By now you should be aware that advertising online for local professional services with AdWords click-to-call extensions is of serious value to your business. But it gets even better:
  • When your call extension shows up on a desktop or laptop, the searcher sees your number instead of a click-to-call button. This means they could potentially dial your phone number without clicking on your ad. If you do the math, that is a free lead. You simply can’t go wrong.
  • The call button has an influence on your brand perception. According to Google’s study, consumers will view you as a credible authority for their search query.
  • It’s a built-in call-to-action. Since AdWords limits the number of characters in your ad text, call extensions provide you with an “online salesperson” that can make your phone ring. You get ad text AND a giant button that says “call.” Bonus! The call button also makes your ad appear larger.

Service businesses are experiencing a great increase in advertising costs and this is creating the necessity of maximizing the conversion rate in order to reduce the overall cost per lead.
Just think about lawyers. Their cost per click (CPC) on AdWords can be of up to $100 (or even more) and this is constantly increasing. Lawyers need new advertising solutions to increase the amount of leads and decrease the cost per conversion.
Generating a new lead generation system does not necessarily require a new advertising tool. Service businesses would love to receive phone calls because they are generally easy to convert and enable personal contact with customers.
Before the launch of enhanced campaigns, Google AdWords gave you the opportunity to create a click to call campaign for mobile devices only. Setting it up was easy:
  • Create a new campaign targeting mobile devices only (excluding desktop and tablet devices)
  • Set up a call extension enabling only the clicks on the phone number and not the headline
You were ready to go!
Google recently launched enhanced campaigns. Among other changes, Google does not allow you to target mobile devices without targeting desktop and tablet devices. This means that you cannot create mobile campaigns only.
How will all of these small business owners set up click to call campaigns without wasting money into desktop and tablet devices?
There is a smart solution that enables you to do just that. First of all, let’s think about the following key points that we will leverage on to build our click to call campaign:
  • Desktop clicks cost more than mobile clicks: Every industry is likely to have a much higher CPC cost on desktop devices. Mobile clicks are usually cheaper by a good 30% to 40%.
  • Enhanced campaigns have custom mobile devices bid variation: You have the possibility to modify your mobile bid between a -100%  and a +300% . For instance, a $10 desktop bid could generate a mobile bid ranging anywhere between $0 (-100%) and $40 (+300%)
  • A low CPC bid on desktop and tablet devices is not likely to generate many impressions. Still, you will be able to shape the mobile bid starting from a low desktop bid and get a great amount of mobile impressions.
Based on the 3 points above, we can move forward with the following strategy:
  • Create a new campaign, go into settings, and exclude the display network
  • Set up a mobile bid of +300%
click to call campaigns How To Create Click to Call Campaigns in Google AdWords Enhanced Campaigns
  • What is the CPC you want to bid for mobile devices? Divide it by 4 and use this number to set up your basic desktop bid (which can vary based on the ad group or set of keywords you are working on)Desktop Bid = Mobile Bid / 4
  • Make sure to not have custom keyword bids to start with (this is particularly relevant in case you created the new campaign copying an old one which is targeting desktop devices and might have custom keyword bids).
  • Set up a call extension that enables clicks only on the phone number. Make sure to exclude headline clicks.
show my ad with How To Create Click to Call Campaigns in Google AdWords Enhanced Campaigns
  • Monitor the campaign every 7 days to tune up the desktop bid and maximize the mobile exposure while minimizing the desktop one
Just keep in mind that the call extension is most likely to show up if you are among the first positions on a mobile device and that it could appear next to the headline of an ad. If a customer clicks the call extension, Google will consider that a headline click even though users are actually clicking on the phone number. If the call extension does not appear, your headline becomes clickable and will direct to the landing page and therefore not enabling the customer to call you.
Once the setup is complete, you will have put in place a system that maximizes the number of calls you can generate for your service business.
Conclusion
Many businesses are struggling to get extra and cheaper leads. Generating phone calls is fundamental to maximize the effectiveness of an advertising budget. As long as you know how to, Google AdWords gives you the opportunity to create click to call campaigns that will be worth it for all service businesses.

Read more at http://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-to-create-click-to-call-campaigns-in-google-adwords-enhanced-campaigns/65427/#HS6iMMZoiyL1A8oF.99

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