(My apologies to my friends/readers in the Southern Hemisphere; In JUNE, this is more of a Northern Hemisphere / “Middle of the Season” type of message. You might bookmark this for review in December!)

It’s June.
If you’re not as busy as you want,
Then you should be looking at
Google AdWords/Pay per Click/PPC

By Brett Lloyd Abbott, MYM Austin Inc.

I’m still embarrassed today with the answer I gave to a magazine editor about 4 years ago, when she asked “It’s June – If pool builders need more leads for this season, what do you recommend they should be doing right now?”

At the time, I was still fairly “anti-pay-per-click,” based on my tests and experiences from 5+ years ago. So I offered her a handful of more “traditional” marketing suggestions, NONE of which could be implemented quickly.  Basically, what I said was “If it’s June, and you suddenly realize you don’t have enough leads for this season, then you’re more or less screwed. You missed the window!”

I STILL cringe a little, because THAT was BAD ADVICE.

I love radio.  And referrals.  And networking.  And signage.  Social media and search engine optimization can also work. I even consider print advertising and direct mail to be good investments under certain circumstances.  But no matter what sort of Return on Investment these other traditional advertising media may offer, they all fall short in one key category – NONE of them can be implemented “in a hurry.”  You’ll need 30, 60, 90 days or more to properly implement any of these advertising campaigns.

Pay per Click is the exception.  It can “turn on a dime.”

Forget the fact that Pay per Click is still the most predictable, most reliable, and most measurable advertising medium available for pool builders.  In June, for pool builders in the northern hemisphere, the huge undeniable and unique advantage of Pay per Click is that it can be up and running and generating new leads for you in less than 3 days.

I’m totally serious.  If you decide TODAY that you need to “juice up your leads” a little, to finish 2015 strong, we can have you up and running by THIS FRIDAY.

But let me offer this one absolutely crucial (and tragically, frequently ignored) caveat:

Trying to run your own Pay per Click campaign is simply nuts.

I know of some pool builders who think “Hey, I have a Google AdWords account.  I can do this myself!”  But they’re ignoring these crucial facts:

  • If you’re not a full-time expert in PPC, you are absolutely wasting money; no two ways about it. for example, if you don’t know the right “negative keywords” (there are more than 500 in our industry), and all the latest subtle tricks and rules from Google to get premium listings at lower cost, then you’re just throwing money down the drain. (Those are just 2 examples. I wrote about all 10 classic mistakes of amateur PPC advertising last year.)
  • If you’re not highly experienced in POOL BUILDER PPC, then you’re not going to be able to “turn this thing on” in just 72 hours.  It will take you months if not years (and a whole lot of cash) to eventually “dial it in” and “get it right.”
  • You ALSO need to be an expert in REMARKETING, because that’s where the huge payback in PPC advertising really takes place.

By the way – The best PPC experts get a volume discount from Google – typically in the neighborhood of 10% – which means they can buy more ads than you with the same amount of money. That alone can typically wipe out most or all of any minimal management fee they might charge. So when you realize the very best experts will save you THOUSANDS of dollars, and get you MORE leads, WAY FASTER than you, AND do it more or less for FREE, then this decision is a no-brainer.

There’s only ONE PPC expert I recommend for the swimming pool industry:
Corey Zeiman of Guaranteed PPC

You can contact Corey directly at (877) 796-0297 x101 or email him at corey@guaranteedppc.com. You can also check out his website here: GuaranteedPPC.com.

To Your Success,
Brett Abbott

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