* Yes, Google Adwords can get you to the top FAST!

* Yes, Adwords if super flexible!

* Yes, Adwords can be VERY profitable.

But there are a few things you must avoid.

P.S.  Be sure to watch the video because it shows the mistakes I see in nearly every Adwords campaign.  These mistakes can cost you lots of $money$.

After the video, see the new Adwords Clinic

The Google Adwords Clinic is going on now!  Register right now and save $50.  This is the lowest priced training we’ve ever offered. 
Click Here for Details.

Starting now!  You can get exclusive training to get your Adwords campaign to bring you more clients.  I’ve just launched my Adwords Training Clinic.  It’s the lowest price I’ve ever offered for any training.  Click Here for details.

Google is changing.  And their pay-per-click program, Google Adwords, is part of the change.  Over the last few years I’ve written a few ICS Web Exclusives about Google Adwords, but this is some of what is happening most recently.  There are some new things you should be aware of if you’re spending money on Adwords.  Google Adwords can be a great return for your advertising dollar.

What is pay-per-click advertising?

Basically, it’s an arrangement where you pay a fee each time someone clicks a link to your website.  Typically these are set up in search engines when a user searches for a particular keyword phrase.  For example, if a user goes to www.Google.com and searches for “Carpet Cleaning Atlanta”, pay-per-click Google Adwords ads show up in the listing.  For this conversation, we’ll talk about Google Adwords since it’s the most popular pay-per-click service.

Why would you use pay-per-click advertising?

First, your cleaning website may not naturally rank in Google for all keyword searches in your city.  If that’s the case, paying for a Google Adwords campaign can help you get ranked in Google for any keyword phrase you wish.  Second, if you’re already ranking in Google, you may want to have an additional listing to get even more traffic.

CAUTION!  BUYER BEWARE!  It’s important to realize that you can waste a lot of money on pay-per-click advertising if you’re not careful.  Not setting your Adwords account up correctly and failure to monitor your spending are often a problem.  When I look inside a client’s Adwords account, I typically see little errors that are costing them hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars.

But another important thing to understand right now is that your website MUST have a good sales strategy to turn your web lurkers into paying clients.  If your sales strategy doesn’t convert prospects into clients, you’ll be wasting money on pay-per-click advertising.  You pay for the traffic whether or not the web lurker ever uses your cleaning service.

Click Here to get more Google Adwords Training

What are average pay-per-click rates?

It depends on your city.  Smaller cities can sometimes have rates per click as low as one dollar for cleaning searches.  In most medium sized cities the cost can average $3-5 per click.  Also watch out if your area has abnormally high pay-per-click costs.  Some areas, such as Phoenix, Arizona, are notorious for having high pay-per-click rates for cleaning searches.  If your pay per click rate is more than $10 for cleaning searches, you may want to consider limiting use of the service.  For restoration searches, anything over $15 is abnormal.

When is pay-per-click advertising worth the money?

When your site is new you’ll need traffic.  This is a perfect time to test out your website sales strategy by doing a small pay-per-click campaign.  And if you’re starting on a search engine optimization (SEO) campaign to naturally rank your website better in Google, it’s been noted that running an Adwords campaign can help slightly.  Also, if you want to do a little extra advertising to boost sales on any given week, Adwords is great.  It’s perfect because you can start and stop your campaign any time you want.

What factors will get you ranked better in Google Adwords?

Money talks.  So typically, the biggest factor is the amount that you bid for a click.  If you beat your competition, you could get higher ad rank.  Higher ad rank means you’ll show up higher in the search.  But there’s more to it than that.  I called Google and spoke with one of their reps just to clarify.  Here’s what he said.

Each keyword (phrase) gets a quality score and we multiply that by your price per click.  Quality Score x Your Bid Per Click = How High Your Ad Ranks.

The higher your quality score, the less you pay per click!  Your quality score is derived by how many clicks you get, keyword relevancy, and your landing page.  So let’s talk about what your landing page should have.  Fast load time and a professional appearance is the key.  Google wants the users who click your Adwords ad to have a good experience.

Sites that take 6 seconds or more to load make for user frustration.  And ugly, unprofessional websites create a repelling eyesore.  Besides getting more cleaning jobs booked, a professional website can make your cost per click less.

Here an example:  Company A with a low quality score could pay $5 per click to rank in the third position.  But Company B with a really good quality score may pay only $4 a click to get first position ranking for the same keyword phrase.

Click Here for my new Google Adwords Clinic

Should you outsource your pay-per-click advertising?

In some cases, outsourcing could be best.  Not typically though.  Know that you can often save $100 a month or more by doing it yourself.  Plus, I’ve seen campaigns set up by Adwords “professionals” that were set up poorly.  So it depends on who you use.  The folks at Google can set up your campaign for you, but normally it’s not the most refined campaign you can get.  It’s better if you learn to set it up and monitor it yourself.

Now you’ve got a general idea of what Google Adwords pay-per-click is about.  Watch my blog, because soon I’ll be giving you some specific strategies and examples of Google Adwords ads that get good response.  Then we’ll dive into what it takes to start a profitable Google Adwords campaign.

Starting now!  You can get exclusive training to get your Adwords campaign to bring you more clients.  I’ve just launched my Adwords Training Clinic.  It’s the lowest price I’ve ever offered for any training.  Click Here for details.

They’re easy to use.

They’re cheap to put up.

They’re primed for Google to love them.

Get us to set up a mini-website for you!

Get $100 off when you order before December 31, 2011

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I just got home from traveling to several cities teaching cleaners about how to use the Internet to get cleaning jobs.

See this video of me at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Denver:

I found several keys that hardly any cleaning company is doing.  See, Google has changed the game on how they rank cleaners.  And most cleaning businesses aren’t taking full advantage.

This coming Tuesday evening I’m holding a special webinar.

You’re invited to this webinar FREE!

Register FREE NOW by CLICKING HERE!

Until later,

John Braun

P.S.  Have a great weekend and don’t forget to register right away.

This is my latest article in the September ICS Magazine.  To subscribe to ICS Click Here

How well does your cleaning website work?  You can clearly tell by the number of jobs you book from your site.  For the cleaning company who uses the web effectively, it’s easily one of the cheapest ways to get clients.

Pretty websites don’t sell! 

Putting up the most glamorous, perfect website with beautiful graphics won’t necessarily get you any calls.  Don’t get me wrong.  You should indeed have a nice, professional looking site.  And yes, it should contain great pictures and graphics.  But don’t concentrate solely on a fancy website.   Even ugly websites can sell.  I talk with cleaners all the time who have beautiful websites that don’t bring in new clients.

You may have an old website built in 1999 that needs updating.  Or you could have the latest techno geek site built last month.  Whichever the case, you need your site to book cleaning jobs.  These are quick and easy additions.  Adding a few of these babies could double or triple your response.

Here are 8 additions to help book more cleaning jobs:

1. Your city name big and bold toward the top of the page.  How many times have you done a Google search only to find the site that came up wasn’t even relevant to what you searched?  For example, when prospects search for “Carpet Cleaning Dallas” they want to instantly know they’ve found a carpet cleaning company in the Dallas area.  So post your city name toward the top of your site on the main page.  Let there be no mistake about the area you service. 
2. Contact or estimate form for inquiries.  Nearly half the people who search for a cleaning company do so after normal business hours.  Since the prospect knows you’re closed, she doesn’t bother to call.  She could write down your phone number or bookmark your site with every intention of calling you the next day.  But phone numbers get lost.  Life happens and she forgets who you are.  Why not make it easy and allow web visitors to punch in their information while you’re on their mind?  A contact or estimate form solves this problem.  It could be a simple form asking for their name, email, phone number, and comment about what they need cleaned.  I highly recommend a contact form on your main landing page or at the very least a large clickable button that says, “Get an Estimate” so when it’s clicked, the user is taken to your estimate form page.
3. Testimonials improve your credibility.  Yes, adding handwritten, typed, audio, or video testimonials helps tremendously.  You can talk all day about how great you are, but when someone else says something good about you, it means much more.  It’s a great idea to get testimonials and reviews for your Google, Yelp, Yahoo, Bing, Merchant Circle and other social media pages.  But make sure you put a few of your best testimonials on the main page of your website.  Establish credibility as soon as a web surfer pops on your site!
4. Pictures of you or your techs.  The number one reason a prospect will look at your cleaning site is because they want more information about you.  And would you believe around 75% of cleaning websites don’t even have a single picture of a person on staff?  How will the prospect know who you are without a picture?  In cases of the owner being the guy who goes out and does the cleaning, you likely want your picture on the main landing page.  This gives your company a personal feel.  Larger companies may want a picture of their fleet of vans and technicians.  At least, have an “About Us” page with a couple pictures and information about who you are.  After all, they’re looking at your site to find out more about you.
5. Videos help tell your story.  Pictures are good.  Videos are great.  Today it’s easy to put videos on your site.  You can even shoot web quality video with most smart phones.  And if you don’t have a smart phone, an $80-$100 USB ready High Definition camera will do the trick.  Of course you’ll need a little bit of tech savvy to edit the video, but for a few hundred dollars there are excellent Videographers who can help put a semi-professional video together for you.  When I added videos to my local cleaning website, the number of jobs I booked doubled overnight.  Adding a video that properly sells your cleaning service will easily boost your response rate.  Put at least one video on your main page.  If it’s a good video, it will keep web surfers on your site longer, increase your search engine ranking, and book more jobs.
6. Get their email address with an email opt-in box.  If there was a way to robotically keep in touch with prospects who come to your website, would you use it?  Well there is!  It’s called an email auto responder.  It contains a little box you put up on your site where prospects put in their name and email address.  It’s best if you offer them a bonus to entice them to sign up for your auto responder.  The bonus could be a gift certificate toward cleaning, free bottle of spot remover, or an intriguing report.  After they sign up you can program your auto responder to send them a series of emails over the course of the next several weeks.  This is a great way to keep your company at the top of your prospect’s mind.  See www.ConstantContact.com www.IContact.com or www.Aweber.com for information on auto responders.
7. Have a call to action on every page.  Once you’ve gotten them on your site, make responding to your offer easy.  Tell them EXACTLY what to do and how to do it.  In fact, I like to put a button on every page that says something like, “Click Here NOW For a FREE Estimate.”  When clicked, the web surfer is taken to a web inquiry form that asks questions about their cleaning needs.  As well, have multiple calls to action.
8. Call them to action.  Don’t just use banners asking to click for an estimate, also put a call to action in the body copy of the website.  Simply say, “Click Here for an estimate” in the middle of your text.  In addition, your phone number should appear in BIG, BOLD type at the top of every page.  Make it easy for them to contact you.

If your website doesn’t get prospects calling and emailing for your service, something is terribly wrong.  You need to do something about it or you’re leaving lots of money on the table.  If your website doesn’t give your prospects exactly what they want, they’ll go on to your competitors site.  Take action today by making a few of these additions and book more jobs on your website.

Several subscribers asked about how to properly set up a Facebook personal profile and Fan page.

So I created for you a step-by-step video showing you exactly how to do it.

See it now below…

P.S. Also, if you’ve been thinking about getting a new website or redesigning your existing site, I have a coupon code for $100 OFF that is available for 7 days.

Just go to www.Hitmanadvertising.com/internet

Use the coupon code “100dollars” at the checkout page.  You’ll see your $100 discount applied.

But hurry!  The coupon code is only good until Thursday, June 16, 2011

It’s all about the benefits of how Google Adwords can benefit
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* Learn how flexible Adwords is for advertising

* Tips on making your Adwords more profitable

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Greg, the example of the company you gave is doomed to the price point they chose.  And you’re right, advertising prices like that in any ad media is wrong.

Like Steve T, my first thoughts were to create my own Groupon-like killer offer.

But then I started doing some of the numbers and realized Groupon would be easier and cheaper.

Yes, I teach my clients many ways to do profitable neighborhood advertising with $50 gift certificates and similar offers.  They do work.  But Groupon is simply an additional media to offer something like this.

Let’s do the math of offering a $50 certificate of FREE cleaning:

In both instances, you would use the control of assuming you’re only doing $100 worth of cleaning worst-case scenario.  But keep in mind; you’ll be doing MUCH more if you’re decent at upselling.

If you offer a $50 gift certificate for cleaning and only do $100 of cleaning, you get $50.  But WAIT…YOU STILL HAVE TO PAY FOR MARKETING.

If you have a sure fire, works all the time way to get a new client for $25 a pop, this would be perfect.  But I’m hear to tell you, it’s probably going to cost you more than $25 in marketing to gain a new client even if you’re giving away a $50 gift certificate.

Sure, referral programs may cost you a little less than $25 to gain a new client.  And YES, you should do referral program with an offer like this.

But what we’re talking about here is advertising to NEW prospects and this gets expensive.

Can it be done for less than $25 a new prospect?  Because that’s all you’d be saving if you offered a $50 gift certificate yourself.

That’s basically what Groupon is doing.  They’re giving you a NEW prospect for $25.

With Groupon, you’re giving away $50 of FREE cleaning.  Groupon would sell a $100 Groupon and charge your prospect $50.  This is kind of the same offer as a FREE $50 gift certificate, but actually better because the prospect is required to put $50 down up front when they buy the Groupon.  Plus, the sense of urgency Groupon forces will get you more sales and more prospects

With Groupon, you get 50% of the $50 Groupon cost, so that’s $25 that you get for doing $100 of cleaning.

With the $50 gift certificate, you’re getting $50 for doing $100 of cleaning.  But then YOU ARE RESPONSBILE TO GET THE LEAD.

Can cleaning clients be obtained for less than $25 with anything other than a referral program?

Yes, they can and many of my clients obtain clients for MUCH less than $25 a lead.  But here’s something some marketing “gurus” don’t want you to know…it will usually cost you MORE than $25 to gain a new cleaning client.

Now if you have a HUGE local social network online like Groupon, you could do it much cheaper.  Or, if you got free PR to do get the message out about your killer offer, this would work.

Like with any advertising, if your price structure and sales strategy once you get in the home is in place, Groupon can be a good thing.  More often than not, most homeowners will buy much more than the Groupon.

In fact, we didn’t have a single Groupon buyer that only got the $100 worth of cleaning.  Everyone purchased more at our normal pric

Everyone who I’ve spoken with that’s used it has good things to say about their experience.  I’m still looking to hear from someone with a negative experience.   I’ve made this plea many times and have found no one to give me negative feedback.  To me, this is hilarious because if I ask about any other ad media, I’d get dozens of mixed reviews

John Braun

It’s my cleaning website checklist.

It’s normally only available to members of my Internet Class.

But this weekend only, I decided to let you steal a peek.

But before I give you the FREE checklist, I wanted to remind you…

Monday, March 21^st the Internet Marketing Class begins.

That’s this coming Monday night at 7pm central!

www.Hitmanadvertising.com/internetclass

* Get 12 EASY things to get better site ranking fast

* You can get your website critiqued to boost sales

* Find out EXACT strategies to get your site booking jobs

* Get one year of email newsletters already created for you

There are still a few of the killer bonus package left.  I didn’t think they’d last this long, but they did.

Now here’s the direct link to your FREE website checklist

***Moved to the Internet Class member section***

For sign up details see www.Hitmanadvertising.com/internetclass

After you get the checklist, sign up for the best Internet marketing training in the cleaning industry.  It all starts this coming Monday.

Until later,

John Braun

P.S.  I look forward to personally welcoming you to the other side.

It walks you through the Internet Blueprint report, which by the way is the most information packed FREE report I’ve ever published.

If you haven’t seen the report, SCROLL DOWN to the previous blog post.

I suggest you watch this video first and then read over the report a couple times.

But first, get registered for a FREE webinar I’m holding this Thursday night!

It’s at 5pm pacific | 7pm central | 8pm eastern

Register RIGHT NOW at the link below…

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/188827347

Then, watch the video below…