Optimize Pay Per Call Campaign

What’s the return on your online campaigns been like? Are you getting QUALITY leads?

Are you getting a significant number of inquiries from your latest campaign? Or do you feel like, no matter what you do, you haven’t been able to convert customers?

There are so many ways to reach potential customers and so many people trying. It used to be said that the best way to attract a person’s business online was to make your company standout.

I would argue though that it’s more about making your company relevant. More specifically, relevant to that potential customer’s current situation.

One of the ways that you can do that is to just make it easy to connect. You have to make sure that you’re providing them the best options for connecting with you. And sometimes all a person wants to do is talk.

Pay-Per-Call AdWords are available from Google specifically to fulfill this most basic human need. Connection.

If you’re unfamiliar, Pay-Per-Call AdWords are non-clickable AdWords that lead with your phone number in the heading. Their intent is to connect you with a customer right now.

The upside is that someone is on their phone, they need something, they search for it, your Pay-Per-Call AdWords ad comes up, they tap it and a second later you are making a sale. The downside is, the same with every ad campaign, it takes time and effort to get there.

Let’s look at 7 ways you can connect and convert potential customers by optimizing Pay-Per-Call AdWords.

1. The Return of YellowPages

Pay-Per-Call AdWords campaigns are like the marriage of the phone book and traditional ad campaigns. Just follow me on this…

In olden times, when you had to find someone to complete a task, you went to the YellowPages. You would never grab a phone book just to look something up, you had a purpose/a need and you were needed to have that filled.

Pay-Per-Call AdWords picks up on that concept by providing customers, and potential customers, a modern version of that YellowBook experience. When they need a service provided, the customer in need searches for a provider.

Where will your company be on that organically returned list? How can you get an advantage on the competition? And how can you make it as easy as possible to create that YellowPages moment for this (hopefully) new customer?

2. Stick to Your Base

Consider what your company does and who your true customers are. If you are selling a product you have a much wider potential customer base then if you are offering a physical service.

If you are service-based, you’ll most likely be pulling from a local customer base so that’s who your target audience with the Pay-Per-Call AdWords should be.

You can even focus your target range more tightly.

3. This House, Not That House

Use Pay-Per-Call AdWords to micro-target your customer base. This allows you to reach the people who need your service the moment that they need it.

For example, say a storm came through and grazed the western half of town. If you owned a roofing company it makes sense to shift your AdWords focus to only people living in the zip codes that were affected by the storm.

4. Pay-Per-Call AdWords: Message A or Message B

Test Your Message: This should be done in a practical, real-time way.

Put out two slightly different ads. Use different numbers if that’s a practical option.

You’ll then need to condition the employees answering the phone to track some information from each call. What you’re trying to do is see how each performs.

Is there a particular part of the campaign that resonates better with customers? Or is there an area that is more likely to call than any other area?

5. Answer the Phone

It seems like a simple request but how many times have you called a place only to be put through a series of prompts or placed into an endless hold cycle. If you have an option, you’ll hang up and call the next service provider on the list.

You are using a Pay-Per-Call AdWords campaign for action, not information. Where people will go to your website to learn who you are, people who act on these particular types of ads, just want to get something done.

So when they call, there has got to be a real live person on the other end. To that point, there are a couple of things you can do.

Set up your campaign so that it is only running when you have available staff to man the phones. Program your phone system so that if a call comes through and rings X number of times without an answer it is forwarded to someone who may be more accessible at the time.

6. Look Outside of the Obvious

If you’re having a hard time breaking into the upper echelon of companies that appear in search results, you have a couple of options. First up would be the simplest and most expensive.

Throw money at the problem. You could bid higher on the more popular keywords in the hope that you’ll be able to secure some of those key terms.

This won’t get you immediate business but it would help you to move up the list of results when a search is made. It also could move your competitors down.

The other option would be to focus outside of the obvious keywords and industries. If everyone is hovering around the same areas, then what direction can you go in that will give you more direct access to potential customers?

7. Capitalizing on a Missed Opportunity

Ok, you didn’t get a sale this time from a caller. There’s always a next time though right? Right?

Well, that’s up to you in some respects. You’ve had an interaction with a potential customer, now’s the time to build it up into something more fulfilling. For both of you.

By connecting your call information with your retargeting campaigns you’ll be able to target a potential customer more directly. And that message repetition is more likely to land a sale.

Optimizing Pay-Per-Call AdWords is a process. Like all processes, it must be continually reviewed and tweaked to see success.

It also has to be completely implemented. It’s not enough to do the online portions, if you’re not prepared for the calls to start arriving, you could seriously hamper your growth potential.

Are Pay-Per-Call AdWords right for you? Let’s talk.