Google Ads for Printer Service Companies and MPS Managed Print Service Dealers
Updated: Jan 30, 2019
B2B playbook for reducing costs and improving success from an online advertising cynic
Some Background
I have worked with online cost per click advertising for almost 18 years. I started using a company called RealNames then overture Adwords and finally Google Ads. There have been many iterations and improvements. One thing for sure is that it has gotten extremely complex and expensive by design.
Why bother? It kinda works.
By no means am I an online advertising advocate. Over the years we have seen ROI decline, costs have skyrocketed and the complexity grew 10 fold. I reluctantly use online advertising and limit its damage.
Learn With Caution
Google and others have developed thousands of hours of online learning assets. Just remind yourself as your learning that the instructor (Google) is teaching you out how to spend money with Google.
Some Good News "The B2B Card"
We in the printer and MPS services industry have an the advantage of working in a B2B market space and there are a number of filters we can turn on high to block our the noise and fraud.
The B2B Setup
Schedule your ads to run from 7am to 8pm EST. This reduces some of click fraud and small home office users.
Select Google search only- There are higher rates of fraud and motive for fraud within google partners.
Select your the cities and towns you operate in.
Set it weekdays only. This reduces some of click fraud and small home office users.
Focus on desktop platform only. Research supports desktop has a higher rate of B2B users then mobile. Data suggests there is more fraud in mobile so reduce mobile bid by at last half.
Click Fraud- the practice of clicking on an advertisement hosted on a website with the intention of generating revenue for the host site or draining revenue from the advertiser.
Click fraud is due to advertisers being charged for every click on their ad, hence the model’s name. In 2017 alone, about 1 in 5 clicks on adverts were fraudulent, with the number slowly increasing every month.
Other Helpful Resources
Paper Jam Solutions For Laserjet Printers
Printer Service And Parts Glossary
Developing a Critical HP Printer Parts Stocking Strategy
Click fraud is very real in CPC advertising world. There are cell phone farms across the world which have rooms full of smart phones along walls controlled by one PC. They are programmed to do what ever task they are assigned. Sometimes its clicking on ads day and night. Google "tries" it best ;) to prevent it but much gets thru.
Blocking Click Fraud
Set up IP Exclusions in Google Ads If you’ve done your due diligence and identified the IP address associated with fraudulent clicks, you can block your ad from being served to that IP in the future. To set up an exclusion, all you need to do is head to the Settings tab and scroll down to the IP Exclusions setting. You can also outsource this to a company like ClickCease. They prevent competitors and bots from depleting your PPC advertising budget.
Select Your Keywords
Tools- Keyword planner is a great tool to find keywords searched by business prospects. It allows you to find the right keywords to target for display ads, search ads, video ads, and app ads. You may find terms that you didnt think of. Its free click below
https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/
Broad Terms vs Targeted Terms
Users searching for "printer service" and "M607 printer service" should be kept in different campaigns for tracking purposes. Here is a analysis of the current most popular are printer repair related terms.
Term Search Volume/Mo Cost Per Click
printer repair: 1,700/mo - $5.38
printer service 5,400/m - $6.88
hp printer repair nj 90/mo - $5.18 - 0.4
printer repair near me 640/mo - $4.02 - 0.65
computer printer repair near me 260/mo - $4.56 - 0.8
printer repair shop near me 720/mo - $5.66 - 0.65
business printer repair near me 170/mo - $4.26 - 0.79
canon printer repair locations 50/mo - $1.31 - 0.49
hp printer repair near me 1,600/mo - $6.30 - 0.61
HP Printer Service 1,900/mo - $4.56
HP Printer repair 1,900/mo - $4.94
laser printer repair 260/mo - $6.39
Phrase Match vs Exact Match
Phrase match lets you specify an exact phrase that must be in a searcher's query for your ad to appear. It lets you hone in on your intended audience more than the broad match type, but isn't as restrictive as exact match. To set a keyword to phrase match, put quotation marks around it like "printer service near me". The exact match would be [printer service]. Learn more here
Negative Keywords Negative keyword is a term such used in conjunction with your keyword that you dont want. An example would be if you only do HP printer service but the user is searching for Lexmark printer service. You would add Lexmark as a negative keyword so you would not appear when ever someone search those terms. Learn more here https://neilpatel.com/blog/using-negative-keywords/ Focus On What Matters You will find a overwhelming amount of data and reporting that could get you lost. I believe its by design to. Focus down to a few key indicators.
Click thru rate CTR
Conversions
ROI most important
Display Ad Development Develop at least three display ads use the keywords you researched in you ad. Look at what you competitors are doing and find the holes. Understand quality score and how it affects your costs. Quality score is a whole other article.
Develop a good landing page with your keywords "printer service NJ" in the H1 and H2 tags. Make sure you send them to a order page, contact form or at the very least a phone number to contact you.
The Big 3 Nevers
Never set it and forget. Check in weekly and update.
Never follow everything google suggests.
Never hire a consultant to manage it. They will bust your ROI
Never use Enhanced CPC- select and manage all bids manually.
Consultants and Bad Operators Your will find an army or individuals and companies that may be "Google Partners" Avoid them all for now. In my experience many are bad operators that will promise to make your life easy by taking away the pain of dealing with all this.
Final Thoughts Expect Google to constantly move the ball. What worked a month ago wont work now. In the world of baseball analogizes Google Ads is a single. Put enough singles together and you get a win. If your frustrated it might not be that your doing it wrong. Its may be that it's not that great.
There are many other formulas found online. I would suggest you start with this and build from here. I would love to hear what works for you. Email me at wdemuth@metrofuser.com
Metrofuser is a leading global innovator, manufacturer of printer parts, equipment, diagnostics, repair information and systems solutions for professional users performing critical tasks. Products and services include printer parts, printers and printer repair training. Parts include HP printer parts such as printer fusers, printer maintenance kits and other HP printer replacement parts. The company's, customers include office equipment dealerships, online retailers, repair centers and MPS service providers nationwide. Metrofuser has been named to Inc. Magazine’s fastest growing companies five consecutive years.