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Plumber Advertising

Today, we will talk about how you can advertise your plumbing business and set yourself up for success.

We’re going to share three advertising rules and then six platforms where plumbers can advertise successfully.

1. Track your ad conversions

You need to know what’s working and what’s not.

Use a unique call tracking phone number for each ad.

If you don’t want to spend the money on call tracking – first ask yourself why you would spend the money on the ad but not on knowing if the ad is working and delivering leads to your business.

If you’re still too budget-minded to do so, either don’t waste your money on the ad or use a promo code that the caller must mention to get whatever special is offered. This way, you can track ad conversions with the promo codes.

2. Use a unique landing page on your website for each ad campaign.

Whether you’re placing online ads on Google, Bing, Facebook, Youtube, or elsewhere, have those ads send people to a unique landing page so you can track the traffic each ad produces.

3. Use both a tracking phone number on the landing page and a unique contact form they can fill out that will take them to a unique thank you page so you can track both calls and form conversions.

Where can you advertise your plumbing business?

Now that you have tracking systems to know which ads are working and which ones to stop wasting your money on, the next step is WHERE to advertise and what platforms to use.

#1 Google Search Ads (PPC)

Most people search for local businesses using Google, so running search ads is a natural fit for your business.

Plus, the INTENT of someone searching Google for leak detection, water heater repair, or a plumber near them in Google means they are ready to do business.

These are the best advertising leads you can get.

For a more in-depth guide on how best to run Google search ads, check out our podcast episode #12 – which provides 15 rules for running high-performance Google ad campaigns.

#2 Google Local Service ads

These are pay-per-lead ads that show at the very top of local searches.

These ads show up above the PPC search ads and offer the consumer a Google Guarantee insurance on your work up to $2,000, which builds trust in the consumer.

These ads cannot be purchased; instead, you must apply to become a Google Guaranteed service provider.

Your license and insurance will be checked and a background check on everyone in the company is required.

You can get more info at support.google.com/localservices/

#3 Facebook Ads

While people mostly go to Facebook to connect with friends, family, and cat videos, not to mention complain about politics. It can also be a successful platform to run ads and generate leads from.

The audience targeting options Facebook offers lets you zero in on your ideal prospects.

You can target ads by location, age, gender, as well as to those showing in topics related to your service, and so much more. There are thousands of potential targeting options.

You can run lead forms, video ads, and ads that direct people to your website.

You can direct traffic to land pages or use inexpensive ads to direct traffic to key service pages to gain additional ranking power in Google searches because referral traffic can improve organic search rankings.

You can run inexpensive video ads and then run retargeting ads only to those who watched a certain percentage of that video ad.

Installing the Facebook pixel on your site will allow you to track traffic and conversions.

Running ads that offer a consumer’s guide to [your service] can work well too.

Once again, you’ll want to use call tracking phone numbers and form tracking in addition to Facebook’s conversion analytics to see what’s working and what’s not.

Plumber Advertising

#4 Direct Mail

This can still be a very powerful advertising tool for plumbers.

Here again, you can target only your service area with postcard mailings.

You can customize your postcard message to promote your best, high-margin services like leak detection, water heaters, drain cleaning, or water softeners.

Once again, you’ll want to use unique call tracking numbers, website landings pages, and custom thank you pages to see what’s working and what’s not.

We go into more detail on two very powerful direct mail strategies in our podcast episode #16. You may want to give that a listen if you’re thinking about using the power of direct mail to advertise your plumbing company.

#5 – Advertise on Yelp

Yelp ads can often generate leads at lower costs than search ads on Google sometimes. It depends on your local market and the competition there.

Before you run Yelp ads, make sure your Yelp listing is fully completed with accurate and up-to-date information and has plenty of photos of your team, trucks, office, and job photos.

#6 – Advertise on the Nextdoor app.

You can advertise in your local service area on Nextdoor.

You can claim and create a free business page on Nextdoor.

You can make free posts on the app, which get seen by everyone in your local area.

Then if you like, take it a step further by running “Local Deals” ads to your local market on the app.

Nearly 1 in 3 households are in Nextdoor.

It’s a local word-of-mouth app that can certainly be used to generate leads successfully.

Once again, use call and form tracking to identify what’s working and what’s not.

Now, separate from advertising, your plumbing company should also be running an automated reputation management system.

People will look for reviews of your company, and they’ll usually do so BEFORE calling your company.

They want social proof that you’re a good company to do business with.

So get a system in place if you don’t have one already and start consistently building your online reputation.

Other Places to Generate Plumbing Leads

You can also generate a steady flow of free leads by optimizing your Google My Business listing, which shows up in Google Maps for local service searches.

That listing is free and if you get yourself optimized to show up in the top 3 listings for searches for your services, you can potentially generate a ton of free leads.

Check out the learning center on our website for a free guide on optimizing your Google My Business listing.

The same holds for your Bing Places and Yelp listings.

In addition, your plumbing company should have a great, mobile-ready website that’s optimized for search engines (SEO) as well as consumers.

Your website should be working hard 24/7 to educate consumers and turn visitors into leads.

You should have a separate page for each service you offer.

You should have Google Search Console and Google Analytics installed to see where traffic is coming from, what search terms they’re using to find your pages, and how well each page is converting.

See our podcast episode #17 or our blog post on the 15 essential elements of a lead generation website.

Alright, I hope that helped some of you. Thanks for sharing your time and attention with us today.

Good luck out there and create a great day!

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Founder & CEO of Battle Plan Marketing, LLC. We customize marketing strategies and solutions for home service companies. Mark has over 30 years experience in sales and marketing, 20 years as a business owner or partner, and over a decade in digital marketing and website design. We offer analysis, strategy, project implementation and management, and marketing coaching. Mark is also host of the new Battle Plan Marketing® Podcast.
Mark Ambrose
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