Google Ads for Painters: The Definitive Guide

Take a moment to consider how you find information online. Do you rely on what others share on social media, or are you like over 90% of the population that starts their search on Google?

If you’re like the majority of your customers you most likely type a few words into Google’s search bar and hit Enter. But which words do your customers enter to find your business? Why do they choose those words? How can you target those customers?

Here we will review how to use Google Ads for your painting business to reach your customers online.

Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is an advertising platform that works with Google’s search engine. Using Google Ads requires experience, judgment, and an understanding of the platform. Let’s start with the core questions: What is Google Ads and how does it work?

To start, it’s important to understand the difference between Search Ads, Display Ads, and Local Services Ads.

Given that we wrote an entire article about Google Local Services Ads and how to set them up (yes, you should be advertising on that channel) this article will focus on the PPC ad types.

Google Search Ads appear above the organic search results in the Google search results (SERPs). Most Painting Contractors are familiar with this ad type.

These help businesses like yours reach consumers who are actively searching for your services. Advertisers call this “intent marketing” as the buyer intent is at a peak. You are buying TODAY’S leads with this ad type. 

Google Display Ads appear on websites participating in the Google Display Network. This passive form of marketing called “interest marketing” which targets customers as they browse the web.

These ads acts as a reminder service, pushing them back to your website for when they’re interested in engaging. You are buying TOMORROW’S leads with this ad type.

While there are other types of Google Ads such as Video and Apps, Search and Display are the only two we recommend for the painting contractors. Why? Because they’re the only two that produce results for this industry.

To start, we recommend focusing 100% of your advertising budget on Search Ads (not to be confused with Dynamic Search Ads). After a few months, once you have sent some traffic to your website you can start incorporating Display Ads. This will help pull and push customers to your website.

Google Ads are based on a pay-per-click (PPC) model. In other words, you’re charged every time someone clicks on your ad. Advertisers enter their target demographics such as “homeowners interested in painting services” and bid on the keywords they believe their customers will use to find their business. The more popular the keywords, the more costly your advertising will be.

For Google, click-through rate (CTR) is a crucial metric. CTR means the proportion of an ad’s viewers that click on the ad. A high CTR means that the ad is relevant and that the ad copy is successfully drawing your audience to your web page. If your ads have a high CTR, their Quality Scores will increase, and you will pay less per conversion.

To make a profit off of Google Ads a user needs to click on your ad and contact your painting business. This is called a conversion. Conversion Rate reflects the number of users who click on your ad and “convert” into a painting lead by requesting an estimate, signing up for your newsletter, or taking other very specific buying behaviors that can bring in revenue for your painting business.

Google Ads provides reporting and analytics to track conversion rates. For best results, identify which ads convert best and replace those that are underperforming.

One of the most critical components of running a successful Google Ads campaign is your ability to place ads in front of the right people. How do you do this?

Simply, think like your customer. Keywords help Google determine search intent, which is correlated with buyer intent. What keywords do you think your customers are using to search for your painting services? Do they search for “residential painter” or “house painter”? Do they search for “painter near me” or “wall painter”?

These keywords and their synonyms are what you will target with your Google Ads. Thinking like your customer will help determine which keywords you should target, and which keywords can be ignored.

Think of your ideal customer profile (ICP) and ensure you use language they would use. Competition is high for common keywords. Think of specific keywords that differentiate your brand from your competition when they appear on the search results page.

For example, if you specialize in cabinet painting services, the key phrase “cabinet painters in INSERT CITY NAME” will help focus your ads. The more focused your advertising campaign is the better results you can expect.

For this, we recommend using Google Trends to compare search volume and evaluate terms that are most likely to generate new leads for your painting business. One common strategy is to use a core set of main keywords for the bulk of your painter advertising budget but constantly test new keywords each month. Use the reporting tools in Google Ads to evaluate the success of your advertising campaigns and your target keywords.

To complicate things slightly, you will also need to identify what keywords you DO NOT want to show up for.

For instance, job seekers can be difficult to mitigate and can eat up your budget if they’re not specifically excluded from your keyword list.

Your negative keyword list should be just as long, if not longer than your target keyword list.

You may also want to exclude bidding on your competitor’s brand terms. Yes, this sounds counter-intuitive, but bidding on your competitor’s name can actually cause confusion when the customer calls the wrong business.

Boost your conversion rate by understanding what your customer needs, wants, and expects from your painting business. Do they have an immediate need for a painter because they are selling their home? Which of your services are they most interested in?

Your customers’ keyword choice gives you insight into their state of mind and helps you tailor your Google Ads and your webpage to meet their needs. Don’t use cookie-cutter ads: Create separate ads for each keyword. For best results, link each ad to a different landing page on your website that matches the content in your advertisement.

If you are new to Google Ads, it can be easy to spend more than you plan to. Set a daily budget based on what you can afford. In the professional painting industry, a single click can cost between $2.00 – $50.00.  From our experience, we have found that $55/day is a sweet spot for target audiences with a population under 1 million.

For Google Search Ads there are only two options to attract more clicks — headings and descriptions. At the time of writing this article, this totals exactly 810 characters at your disposal.

Since we recommend using all available inputs, how would you describe your business in 810 characters? While you can probably spin the same service or CTA a few different ways, always include the following:

Once consumers have clicked on your ad it’s important you provide them with a familiar experience. Why? Because that’s what converts traffic into painting leads.

Thank about it. If you click on an ad for interior painting services which do you think will convert better: Landing on your homepage, or landing on a page about interior painting? Hint: If you guessed the former, you’re incorrect.

A landing page is simply a page on your website designed to convert traffic into leads. A well-optimized landing page is critical for a successful paid search campaign. We wrote an in-depth article detailing the features of a good landing page here.

The keywords you choose and the strategy you pursue when you run Google Ads should complement your existing marketing strategies, such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Email Marketing. For best results, incorporate the same keywords you’re using in your Google Ads campaigns into your blog posts, emails, and social media posts to increase the authority of your website.

Remember, running Google Ads should always be the starting point of your sales funnel, rather than a strategy in itself. When someone clicks on your advertisement they are starting a conversation with you. Getting immediate results from an ad campaign is satisfying, but sometimes consumers need time to evaluate and commit to your services.

When you run a Google Ads campaign, it’s important that you measure ROAS, or return on ad spend. Similar to ROI, ROAS measures the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns.

ROAS = Total Revenue Generated / Total Marketing Costs

A good target ROAS is anything over 5 — or for every $1 you spend you’ll receive $5 in return. We typically recommend waiting until your campaign has generated at least 30 conversions OR has been running for at least 60 days before measuring results. Keep an eye on CTR and ROAS (or “Conv. value/cost” in Google Ads).

PPC marketing might seem complicated at first, but it can be a relatively inexpensive way to grow your painting business. Understanding Google Ads is just the first step in a larger process of generating leads and laying the base coat for a long-term inbound marketing strategy.

Before you invest in online advertising schedule a free strategy call to learn how we can help your painting business dominate your local market with our bulletproof Google Ads campaigns.