Google Advertisement and SEO

[Gr8Loads]

Good afternoon Everyone,

Hope you are all much busier than me but I will try to be optimistic with this one. As you may know we have been trying to get on the direct sales for some time now. The extremely low freight volumes and rates put a few obstacles for us along the way. From hiring a sales person and asking them to be a magician and make something unlikely to happen, to guarantee someone a salary that would be competitive enough in today corporate market but knowing they wont be able to satisfy our expectations. Its a challenge these days to say the least.

I have decided to go another route, not much less expensive but at least it will put me behind the "driver seat" when it comes to negotiating rates and making commitments. SEO / Google Ads Campaigns, have been very expensive but effective toward a lot of my colleagues in different industries.

The question(s), will it be as effective in our industry? Does anyone have previous SEO experiences or Google Ads? Budgets, durations of campaigns would be greatly appreciated. Maybe someone is willing to share their current cost per lead and turnover ratio?

Thought I would break the ice in this new category Looking forward to a discussion.

 

[mtltrans]

Leveraging some of MBA knowledge here (did digital marketing as one of the majors). SEO can help your site get discovered by Google if you use the right keywords. Google word ads for business to business services may not work as well because you pay per click, and if you use the wrong keywords, you'll get the wrong people clicking...lots of traffic but the wrong target audience. You need to make sure that your webpages are designed with content that your target customers want, and then will inspire them to contact you. Google word ads may work better for driver recruiting than for B2B marketing like transport, unless you're offering a service like warehousing or a tangible good. Find out from your clients what they use when they research and look at competitor websites that are best in class. Good luck.

 

[Gr8Loads]

Leveraging some of MBA knowledge here (did digital marketing as one of the majors). SEO can help your site get discovered by Google if you use the right keywords. Google word ads for business to business services may not work as well because you pay per click, and if you use the wrong keywords, you'll get the wrong people clicking...lots of traffic but the wrong target audience. You need to make sure that your webpages are designed with content that your target customers want, and then will inspire them to contact you. Google word ads may work better for driver recruiting than for B2B marketing like transport, unless you're offering a service like warehousing or a tangible good. Find out from your clients what they use when they research and look at competitor websites that are best in class. Good luck.

We are working with an established SEO and Advertisement company, I am sure they will do their research about appropriate key words. I am still wondering about budget for our industry? Of course the more money you willing to spend the better, but what is that ideal advertisement budget for Transportation in GTA?

 

[mtltrans]

We are working with an established SEO and Advertisement company, I am sure they will do their research about appropriate key words. I am still wondering about budget for our industry? Of course the more money you willing to spend the better, but what is that ideal advertisement budget for Transportation in GTA?

Depends. For sure, it won't be the same for everyone, depending on what strategy you're going to use to reach your target audience and engage them. The costs are mainly dynamic and depend on how frequently you want your ad to be shown, and across what audiences: regional? local? national? It will be more expensive as you increase the scope of your audience size and how frequently you want to flash your ad in front of them (impressions).

 

[Gr8Loads]

You said a few very interesting things.

Dynamic cost, depending on frequency, demographic, etc...

I decided to split my GTA into 4 categories (South, North, East and West). We will begin to target South which is probably going to be the most expensive (North York, Scar, Markham, Etobicoke, York, Richmond Hill). As for the audience not sure how that will work yet, I just gave them an age target for now but we still have to discuss the details.

What's very interesting is frequency of the ad. I mean its always going to be there on google. I'm paying for my company to come up top 4 on the paid ads if you search for a "key work" right? and I'm PPC ( paying per click) only when someone searches a key word and actually clicks on my name, is when I'm charged by google.

The other thing we are planning to do are Banners for branding and pulling people onto the website. Now I can see how those may be charged per frequency, view and click.

The hardest part to figure out is the audience, and that was my ultimate doubt. Which shipper/buyer/purchaser actually looks for transport companies online? How old are they? where are they located, etc. Our industry is very difficult in its nature to determine all these factors. For example you can pick up and deliver a load locally in the GTA, but the customer will be in the USA.

 

[AgentSmith]

All you can do is test your key words and target audience plus negative terms to weed out the junk calls.

I would budget for $500 - $1000 per week plus the SEO management cost.

You are replacing a sales person or telemarketer or prospector with Google Ads and should expect to make a similar investment.

You need to spend some time training your ops personnel on how to handle inbound queries from the general public.

 

[Gr8Loads]

All you can do is test your key words and target audience plus negative terms to weed out the junk calls.

I would budget for $500 - $1000 per week plus the SEO management cost.

You are replacing a sales person or telemarketer or prospector with Google Ads and should expect to make a similar investment.

You need to spend some time training your ops personnel on how to handle inbound queries from the general public.

Thanks @AgentSmith - Have you done SEO in the past? Any chance you can share what was your cost per lead?

 

[AgentSmith]

I'm at roughly the same stage you are, still testing and experimenting, spending lots of money and getting some very odd calls with few results.

 

[EricG]

I have some extensive input to offer as we did a very extensive FB Ads and Google Ads program a while back. We had it third party managed and also self managed at various points. visual ads, 4x4, banners, 6x6, full page, CPM, unique clicks, impressions, non-unique clicks, keyword targeting. key phrase targeting.

first suggestion, DO NOT USE keywords (I'll explain later why not in certain circumstances this is highly not advisable). use KEY PHRASES or combination of words.

placeholder post... I will update my post this weekend with more details.

 

[mtltrans]

All you can do is test your key words and target audience plus negative terms to weed out the junk calls.

I would budget for $500 - $1000 per week plus the SEO management cost.

You are replacing a sales person or telemarketer or prospector with Google Ads and should expect to make a similar investment.

You need to spend some time training your ops personnel on how to handle inbound queries from the general public.

Agreed.

 

[mtltrans]

You said a few very interesting things.

Dynamic cost, depending on frequency, demographic, etc...

I decided to split my GTA into 4 categories (South, North, East and West). We will begin to target South which is probably going to be the most expensive (North York, Scar, Markham, Etobicoke, York, Richmond Hill). As for the audience not sure how that will work yet, I just gave them an age target for now but we still have to discuss the details.

What's very interesting is frequency of the ad. I mean its always going to be there on google. I'm paying for my company to come up top 4 on the paid ads if you search for a "key work" right? and I'm PPC ( paying per click) only when someone searches a key word and actually clicks on my name, is when I'm charged by google.

The other thing we are planning to do are Banners for branding and pulling people onto the website. Now I can see how those may be charged per frequency, view and click.

The hardest part to figure out is the audience, and that was my ultimate doubt. Which shipper/buyer/purchaser actually looks for transport companies online? How old are they? where are they located, etc. Our industry is very difficult in its nature to determine all these factors. For example you can pick up and deliver a load locally in the GTA, but the customer will be in the USA.

One trick is to look at your competitors websites and see what they are using. But ads will only draw traffic. You have to have a sales program to back it up, and make them want to engage. Always use a call to action. Something like ask us now for a quote, talk to us today about your needs, etc. Your sales person has to be able to execute the strategy, otherwise you may just get random looky loos. You have to know your target industries and know what the competition is doing, and create value where they don't. You have to figure out what creates value in your organization, like personnel that are very customer service oriented? Sharp pricing? Easy to contact? Knowing who your prime customers are means you can make a sales program that reaches the big guys and the little guys that need your services. Do you excel at LTL or truckload? Ads and content are your way to showcase your firm's competencies, and how you're different from that conglomerate with the nice red swoosh that we see.

 

[EricG]

One trick is to look at your competitors websites and see what they are using. But ads will only draw traffic. You have to have a sales program to back it up, and make them want to engage. Always use a call to action. Something like ask us now for a quote, talk to us today about your needs, etc. Your sales person has to be able to execute the strategy, otherwise you may just get random looky loos. You have to know your target industries and know what the competition is doing, and create value where they don't. You have to figure out what creates value in your organization, like personnel that are very customer service oriented? Sharp pricing? Easy to contact? Knowing who your prime customers are means you can make a sales program that reaches the big guys and the little guys that need your services. Do you excel at LTL or truckload? Ads and content are your way to showcase your firm's competencies, and how you're different from that conglomerate with the nice red swoosh that we see.

"conglomerate with the nice red swoosh" hey I take offence to that lol... We had our red swoosh a few years before they did... and no we aren't affiliated.

 

[JustWonder]

Good afternoon Everyone,

Hope you are all much busier than me but I will try to be optimistic with this one. As you may know we have been trying to get on the direct sales for some time now. The extremely low freight volumes and rates put a few obstacles for us along the way. From hiring a sales person and asking them to be a magician and make something unlikely to happen, to guarantee someone a salary that would be competitive enough in today corporate market but knowing they wont be able to satisfy our expectations. Its a challenge these days to say the least.

I have decided to go another route, not much less expensive but at least it will put me behind the "driver seat" when it comes to negotiating rates and making commitments. SEO / Google Ads Campaigns, have been very expensive but effective toward a lot of my colleagues in different industries.

The question(s), will it be as effective in our industry? Does anyone have previous SEO experiences or Google Ads? Budgets, durations of campaigns would be greatly appreciated. Maybe someone is willing to share their current cost per lead and turnover ratio?

Thought I would break the ice in this new category Looking forward to a discussion.

Any suggestion how did it go through?

 

[nir182]

Good afternoon Everyone,

Hope you are all much busier than me but I will try to be optimistic with this one. As you may know we have been trying to get on the direct sales for some time now. The extremely low freight volumes and rates put a few obstacles for us along the way. From hiring a sales person and asking them to be a magician and make something unlikely to happen, to guarantee someone a salary that would be competitive enough in today corporate market but knowing they wont be able to satisfy our expectations. Its a challenge these days to say the least.

I have decided to go another route, not much less expensive but at least it will put me behind the "driver seat" when it comes to negotiating rates and making commitments. SEO / Google Ads Campaigns, have been very expensive but effective toward a lot of my colleagues in different industries.

The question(s), will it be as effective in our industry? Does anyone have previous SEO experiences or Google Ads? Budgets, durations of campaigns would be greatly appreciated. Maybe someone is willing to share their current cost per lead and turnover ratio?

Thought I would break the ice in this new category Looking forward to a discussion.

US elections are happening currently. So volume and networking is going to be rough.

 

[Gr8Loads]

To everyone who is interested. SEO and PPC are working but require a large capital invesment, time and dedication. We are starting to get leads and converting sales. All customers are rquired to pay COD for various reasons which makes the closing job a bit tougher especially in current market conditions.

 

[artmax]

b2b?b2c? which market segment?
Local? cross border? I would assume it works a lot better for local as most likely one or both decision makers are in the same area.

 

[Gr8Loads]

b2b?b2c? which market segment?
Local? cross border? I would assume it works a lot better for local as most likely one or both decision makers are in the same area.

We only service B2B cross border CAD to USA and back.