Pay-Per-Click (PPC), of which Google’s AdWords is the biggest player, is one of the Internet’s most effective forms of advertising. Many funeral homes, even the small ones, have hugely benefited from it.
While it’s power is undeniable, there are some PPC mistakes that when not avoided, could spell doom to your funeral home.
Let’s take a look at each.
Not thinking BROAD
Many inexperienced PPC advertisers make the mistake of not taking advantage of broad terms. Many of our funeral home clients who ask us to take over the management of their program have fewer than 100 search terms. The truth is, that’s not enough. Some clients have as many as 12,500 active terms. Why?
The most obvious terms (like “funeral”) will be searched the most. Thus, your competitors will want to bid on those terms, too, thus making cost per click go up. The most searched term are much more expensive because you’re paying more to be on the top spot.
Use less popular keywords, or what we call short-tail search terms. They are less expensive. That’s why you need to do keyword research so you can bid on the broadest set of keywords possible. Your overall cost per click will go down and you will rank higher than your competitors in those search terms.
Failing to track results
Not all traffic that goes into your website is valuable. Some may have ended up visiting your funeral home website because of a related search term that really has nothing to do with a client needing a funeral service. That’s why you need to determine which of your keywords are generating not just traffic, but most importantly, results. Remember that very specific search terms such as “Funeral Home in (City)” converts better than “Funeral Home in (State).” You can track results by using Google’s AdWords tools for keywords. For more on this, contact us today.
Wanting to be the first the first time
Your keyword research could lead you to discover keywords that you a lot of client families, but don’t result in sales and only cost you money. That’s because you could be focusing too much on being number one with a keyword that is not much related to funeral services. Try lowering your bid and see how that goes. If it still doesn’t return the desired results, drop the keywords altogether.
Remember to be the number in a search term only if you’re keyword research is showing that the search term has is high converting and has very low competition.
Taking copy for granted
In PPC, copy trumps graphics most of the time. That’s why you need to carefully craft the copy of your ads and test it. If one copy doesn’t bring in the desired number of traffic and sales, change it until you’re satisfied that they bring the desired results.
Not utilizing specific locations
When creating a PPC ad, think as if people are impatient. They want to find the location of the nearest funeral home within their city fast. Make it easy for them to locate your funeral home by including specific locations of where your chapels can be found in your ads, especially in the ad copy’s title, as in “Funeral Home in Orlando, Fla.” This specific ad should not be linked to the homepage, but to the Location page of the website, which makes it easier for client families to know the exact location and the phone number to call.
There you have it, the five mistakes that many funeral homes commit when using PPC. Call us today for more information on our Pay-Per-Click service.
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