In this article, I run through the positives and negatives of different marketing options available…
Does Google Ads work?
Google Ads Sales Conversion Rates
The average conversion rate in Google Ads on mobile across all industries is about 4%. A conversion can be anything from a page click, to a subscription, sign up, or a sale. This is very relevant as it is easier to convert someone as a clicker, or a subscriber than a buyer. So it is reasonable to deduce that sales conversion rates are lower than 4%. In this article our focus is on sales. Let’s continue. If each adwords click costs €1, you’ll pay €100 to generate 4 sales.
You must make a profit of €25 on each sale, just to break even! The more profitable a business is, the more Google Ads charge. The more profitable a business is the more competitive it is, the more competitive it is, the more bidding, the more bidding, the more Google charge. I would assume Google Ads charge at least 20% to 50%. Why is this relevant? Well, if you’re making €25 profit on each sale, Google will probably charge you €5 – €12 for that click. A far cry from €1. If you are charged €5 per click and you pay €500 for adwords, you’ll generate, drum roll… €100 in profit minus €500 adwords cost = -€400. I suggest you are better off staying in bed that day.
We’re assuming Google Ads conversion rates includes wasted ad budgets… Don’t get me started on that. Grrrr….
Wasted Ad Budgets
“Tradesmen Jobs Ireland”, “DIY Repair a leak”, “Free Web Design Company”. If you don’t know what you’re doing, by default, you will pay for these clicks. If you happen to be the best web designer, and you sell websites for €100, you don’t want to give websites away for free? This is known as a wasted ad budgets
This is where pay per lead comes in. It would be reasonable even to charge more for a lead, as someone has actively made contact looking for a local cleaning service, window installer or a painter near me, etc. Where as if someone googles “window installer prices”, you may be paying to allow someone to browse your website. However, if someone requests a price for new windows for a 3 bed semi detached house, surely that is worth more than a someone searching for “window installer prices”?
Facebook Ads
Here’s a thought, your a web designer and you want to run facebook ads to generate sales. Do you target people interested in website design? Well, no, they’re your competitors. You could target people interested in running a business, self employed, small business owner, etc… I have found it is quite easy to generate post likes. About 10%. You can invite these to like your page, probably about 10% of this. Facebook is great to get your website out there and to get people talking about it, but either google, pay per click or lead generation might generate a better ROI!