Home Improvement Lead Generation
Home Improvement Lead Generation Strategies
Welcome, Welcome
In today’s video and blog I am going to be talking about the 5 channels I used to generate over 600 leads per month for a local HVAC business and I’ll talk about how you can use those same tools for your home service business.
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Let’s jump right in.
Using these 4 methods I am about to talk about, I helped a local client generate over 7,800 leads in just one year.
The best part is not every channel is paid for. The 5th channel on this list is completely free and generates thousands of calls a year so make sure you stick around to the end of the video for it.. You may be surprised by what it is.
So let’s jump right in.
If you are a home service business chances are one of the most difficult things for you in your business is generating consistent leads that are affordable and good quality. That combination seems hard to come by.
I completely understand the frustration. With an abundance of tools out there like Yelp, Homeadvisor, Yellowpages, Angie’s list and countless others all fighting for your business it’s hard to know what your best options are.
The funny thing is I don’t focus on any of those tools other than the free accounts they give for lead generation. So, here are the 4 tools I primarily use.
Let’s start with the newest one I am using and most likely one of the most affordable tools you can use.
Google Local Service Ads
For those of you who haven’t heard of Google local service ads, feel free to check out my more in-depth video on Google local service ads that explains exactly how it works, what it costs and how you can get signed up for it.
These ads are relatively new but each day it is becoming a bigger part of my overall strategy and part of my recommended channels for lead generation for home service businesses.
If you are in-home services this is a complete no brainer. It’s at the top of google search, the leads are cheap and you only pay for when a real customer calls you.
These ads only became available in late 2019 in my area but in just the first month without any optimizations it brought in just over 30 leads.
I anticipate that over the course of next year these ads should bring in around 500 or more leads potentially more with the right optimizations.
If your business is in-home services and your industry qualifies, this is an awesome tool to get high quality and affordable leads.
Tool #2
Facebook Ads Home Service Lead Generation
Now I’m not talking just a regular Facebook post on your page. For most businesses, the organic reach of Facebook has been declining for years.
I’m talking about running Facebook ads for your business. The thing is Facebook is a beast at reaching a large audience.
According to tech crunch there are around 189 million daily active users in the US and Canada alone. That is a lot of potential customers.
With Facebook ads you have access to a simple interface to target people based on their locations, amazing for local businesses, based on their interests and based on how they interact with your pages videos and your website.
You have access to many different types of ads depending on what your goal is. For lead generation there is literally an ad type called lead generation.
It enables customers to fill out forms right on Facebook without even needing to go to your website.
Best of all you can use a tool like Zapier to send these leads automatically to you or your team via text or email and even directly into some CRM’s like Salesforce.
Now that’s a lot of information best for another video.
Facebook is one of my fastest-growing channels I use for clients as it accomplishes more than just generating leads. It acts as a great branding tool because you can reach such a large audience while at the same time it helps you reach potential customers that may not have been searching for your business’s service.
There are many companies out there getting leads for just a few dollars each. The cost you pay per lead is going to vary based on your industry, your audience, your location and most of all your ability to convert that audience through a compelling offer.
The best thing you can do is continually test and improve your ads. Create an amazing offer that stands out, try different images, and ad copies and your ads will be generating you quality leads in no time.
And at the very least Facebook is an amazing lead nurturing tool. Use it for retargeting potential customers or even current ones..
Last year Facebook helped generate over 300 hundred leads for new HVAC system replacements and repair services and even helped sell full system replacements worth up to $15,000.
Method #3
Search Engine Optimization
Now SEO or search engine optimization isn’t necessarily the easiest to do but it’s ability to generate leads is incredible. Not to mention once optimized it can bring in consistent leads with minimal maintenance.
Some consider it a free option for getting new leads however i disagree. This process does take time to see results and improve. This combined with possible tools or developers you may need to optimize your site are also not free.
For those who have never heard of SEO or unsure of what it is. It is essentially the ability to show your website higher in search engines like Google when people search for terms related to your business.
For one of my clients their SEO optimized website brings in nearly half of all of their leads. Now other factors like branding campaigns can help boost these numbers but all in all a relatively large portion.
So how is this possible and how does it work?
When you are looking for a service or product where is the first place you go to find information? If you don’t already have a company in mind, most likely you are going to do a search for something along the lines of “roofing companies near me”
Now you may be thinking why not just run Google ads and skip the SEO.
Well, in my opinion, most Google ads are relatively low quality and have difficulty getting a high click-through rate. Which is the percentage of people that click on your ad.
Not to mention many people think they can tell the difference between Google Ads and non-paid rankings.
According to one study of 803 participants
34.8 percent recognize Google ads but don’t click on them.
Now I’m guilty of it. Somehow I think I am beating the system but not clicking on an ad. Take that Advertiser!
Another crazy statistic is that over
The #1 result in Google’s organic search results has an average CTR of 31.7%.
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/local-seo/optimize-google-my-business/
Which is not the first listing you see when you do a search (which is an ad).
More recently in the last few years, there have been some big changes in how search results look and the different types of results.
Google Ads seem to blend in a bit more and are harder to differentiate..
You have new tools like Google local service ads, You have google shopping ads, Rich snippets and frequently asked questions.
All of this is making SEO more difficult but by no means should it not be considered as a crucial part of your online strategy.
If you make it through you will have 21 actionable ways you can, improve your HVAC and Plumbing SEO Rankings, start outranking your competitors, and most importantly start getting more customers from SEO.
Now there are estimated to be more than 200 factors for ranking your website higher in search engines. That’s too much to cover in this video but here are some helpful tips.
Do your keyword research..
Use premium tools like SEMrush to find keywords that are easier to rank for but are still searched often.
You want to be on page 1 not page 2 because searches rarely click on page 2.
It’s pretty much like that one family member you only see every few years…
Now targeting the highest searched keyword, is most likely going to run you into the highest difficulty to rank for it.
Start with low competition keywords that you can rank for. Find the questions people are asking and answer them in-depth with blogs or videos.
More often than not, it is better to be on page 1 of google search results for a low volume keyword than to be on page 2 for a high volume keyword.
All of this can help you to improve your rankings and generate more leads for your business.
Tool #3
Google Ads for Home Improvement Lead Generation
Wait, I thought you said people don’t click on Google ads.
Not quite..
In fact, that same study shows that…
60 percent of searchers can’t recognize search ads in Google
What this means is if you can get a high quality ad that matches what someone is searching for you can get them to click on it and improve that Click through rate.
Combine that with a great functional website and great reviews you most likely will be able to convert them into a lead and ideally your next customer.
Google ads are usually one of my top choices in generating consistent leads for home service businesses.
A great strategy to start with is targeting transactional keywords that have relatively high volume but low competition.
These are keywords in which you can say with certainty that this customer is looking for a company that can perform their desired service.
This will be key to your success when using Google Ads.
I know there are many mixed opinions on how well google ads actually work. It is very easy to waste hundreds or even thousands of dollars very quickly with the wrong account set up.
However, with simple improvements and regular optimizations to your Google ads account you can be up and running very quickly.
What is nice about Google Ads over SEO is that you can see your results very quickly and you can improve things instantly.
If you set up proper tracking to be able to see when an ad has led to a phone call or a form fill out you can then optimize for those leads which is much more difficult with SEO.
You can use call tracking tools like CallRail as well as connect your google ads account with your google analytics to see when people fill out web forms on your website.
You will then see what your real cost per lead is also known as cost per conversion, on each ad that is running and simply improve and expand.
Eventually, you will have a list of high performing keywords and ads that bring in consistent leads every day.
Finally the free tool you have been waiting for.
This may surprise many of you but it is the most underutilized tool out there for home service businesses and just about any local business.
It’s your Google My Business Profile.
Now before you say that’s it. Hear me out.
I’m not talking about your average one time setup of your GMB profile with no reviews. I am talking about the most crucial part of your entire online strategy.
One that generated us well over 1500 calls last year…. FREE.
Your reputation online is going to determine whether a potential customer chooses your business over your competitor. No matter if they heard your radio ad or saw you on Facebook this is the tool that brings it all together.
Have a poor rating? Less than 4.0? Customers are going to notice and choose the company with a better one.
This isn’t just for home services like roofers, electricians and HVAC. This is important for any local service. Restaurants, barbers, dentists you name it.
So how is this possible to generate so many calls for free?
It’s actually way easier than you think. Just fill out absolutely everything they give you and use their tools often.
Add photos regularly, reviews regularly, responding to those reviews, use the posts feature, add every category and service that you perform.. All of this will improve your Google my business listing dramatically and help you to rank higher in Google my business results.
One of the biggest factors for these rankings is how close you are to the searcher.. So it gives you an edge over other companies that aren’t in your direct area including the big ones who have already established well over 1000 5-star reviews. They are out there.
If you do these simple improvements I can guarantee you will see an increase in leads.
Summary
Let’s put this all together…
Use these 4 tools and you would have just dominated the entire Google Search results page.
You will now have an ad in the Local service ads, the Google ads, the Google My Business listing and the organic SEO listings. If that doesn’t sound like some huge potential for leads I don’t what it.
Combine that with Facebook and you should now cover a huge portion of your market size. Better yet when someone sees your Facebook ads and does a google search, they will be able to find you and your 5-star reputation easily. Making it a no brainer to choose your business for their next project or service.
Please subscribe if you like my video and give it a like. I would really appreciate it. If you have any questions about anything I mentioned please do not hesitate to comment down below and I will answer them!
As mentioned before check out my other video on Google local service ads and check out some other helpful videos on my page.