6 PPC Tips to Convert Clicks into Painting Leads

Pay-per-click advertising is the most effective way to generate predictable leads for your painting business.

Here we will review six essential PPC tactics to generate consistent painting leads throughout the year.

We will discuss which platforms produce the best leads, what your target ROI and daily budget should be, and even how to optimize your landing pages to convert the most clicks into quality repaint leads.

Before you start advertising it’s important to select the best platform. While Facebook and Instagram can seem like attractive mediums due to their low CPC (cost-per-click) which will ultimately generate more leads at a lower price point, they can actually require more time and energy to close.

Why?

Over 90% of your customers who start their search online will start their search on Google. While Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) are still a great source of leads for residential painting companies, the quality of those leads requires immediate follow-ups to effectively close into a paying customer. Why? Because Google has established buyer intent.

Buyer Intent

When someone searches for your painting services on Google, it’s with the intent to obtain more information about your services. In contrast, when your customers are scrolling through Facebook they are generally shopping for a cute puppy videos, not your painting services.

How to advertise on social media

The most effective method of advertising on social media in the professional painting industry is called retargeting. Retargeting means you create an audience around those who have visited your website in the past.

Why is this effective?

Since they visited your website we have already established buyer intent. Retargeting with an ad on social media serves as a reminder to reengage and convert the website visitor into a lead.

Pro Tip: B2B business is difficult to secure on social media so if you’re a commercial painting company your best bet is to advertising on Google.

Before you invest a penny into PPC advertising you must optimize your landing page for conversions.

What is a landing page?

A landing page is simply where you send the traffic that clicks on your ad. This is typically a page on your website or a separate marketing funnel designed specifically to convert PPC traffic into painting leads.

Let’s review some essential landing page optimizations you can apply for your painting business:

It’s no secret that the professional painting industry is an extremely competitive market. In some areas just one click can cost over $35 and there is no guarantee that click will even convert into a paying customer.

The average paid search advertising budget in the professional painting industry is around $50 a day with an average CPA (cost per acquisition) between $35-$50.

Considering you may end up spending over $1500 in a single month it’s important to monitor your ROI and CAC (customer acquisition cost).

What is an acceptable ROI for PPC advertising?

An acceptable ROI in the professional painting industry is a 3-10x return.

Sounds great right? Now let’s set expectations. Unless you know exactly which keywords produce the best results there will be some trial and error in the beginning.

We recommend planning to breakeven the first month and aim for a 3x return months two and three. After the first 90 days you should continue optimizing your campaigns and landing pages until you reach the coveted 10x return.

Here are a few PPC ad campaign tips to get your painting business started:

We recommend monitoring advertising campaigns on a daily basis during the first 30 days. Watch for trends in the data. For example, if you notice a certain time of day or day of the week that is underperforming, turn off your ads for those days/times.

Google recommends creating at least three ads per an ad group. So at minimum you should be running two campaigns, each with ad groups for your profitable services, and each ad group should have at least three ads.

Why?

Because Google constantly tests and refines which ad it serves to increase the CTR (click through rate). The more options you provide, the better ROI you’ll receive.

In addition to ads, Google also provides several modifiers called Ad Extensions. These  provide snippets of important information that make your ads more clickable.

While there are several types of Ad Extensions, each with a unique goal. For your painting business we recommend focusing on the following:

Google recommends using as many Ad Extensions as is applicable for your business. Be sure to keep these current to avoid negatively impacting your Google Ads optimization score.

Pre-qualify your clicks

Try writing ad copy to deters clicks that would not qualify for your services.

For instance, if your commercial jobs require a minimum cost per sqft include “Warehouses starting at $4/sqft” as an ad heading. While this is likely reduce the number of clicks it will ensure you’re only paying for leads that can afford your services, thus increasing your ROI and decreasing your CPA.

One of the KPIs Google uses to measure the performance of your ads is CTR (click-through-rate).

CTR = Clicks / Impressions

Focusing on local, location-specific terms is an effective way to increase your CTR.

For instance, many refer to Minneapolis and St. Paul as the Twin Cities, but locals call it simply The Cities. When you use specialized language relevant to an area you make your ad more relatable to the audience. This increases trust and motivates your audience to click on your ad.

Use local phone numbers

If your painting business uses a toll-free phone number it’s recommended to hide it behind a local call tracking phone number on your ads. Why? Because your customers subconsciously relate to a phone number with the same area code as theirs. Making this one minor change can increase your direct ad calls by over 20%.

Incorporate zip codes

Over 65% your customers who search for your services on Google want ads that are customized to their city or zip code (Source: Think with Google). When you use a zip code in your ad copy and display URL it increases the relevance and trustworthiness of your ad. For example, you might use a heading like: Best Painters in Philadelphia, PA 19046 and then create a specific URL that includes the city name and zip code.

Google Local Services Ads (also known as LSAs) are a lessor know paid search option.

These ads are ideal for painting companies as you only pay for leads, not clicks. Unlike Google Ads which require bidding against your competitors for the terms you want to rank for, Google chooses which painting companies they display based on response times, reviews and overall lead conversion rate.

Google ensures you remain responsive by taking the time to spread out the frequency they show your ads. As a result, as long as you remain responsive and continue to take on jobs, you will be fed a regular amount of leads that are manageable and profitable.

Note that these ads are not available in all markets and there is an approval process. Click below to check if Google Local Service Ads are available in your area.