While there is still a discussion about whether the US solar panel market should still be considered emerging or already established, one thing is for sure: unlike many other industries, it still doesn’t have a monopoly which means everyone still has a chance to place themselves into that sweet position of the green power’s industry leader. So you cannot afford to lose any time and use every single tool to make it to the top of the solar contractors’ market.
One such tool is PPC or Pay-per-click. You must have heard these words before, but unless you have already started the process of giving your solar energy company a proper digital boost, you might still have some misconceptions about it.
There are a few things you need to understand here. A handful of platforms allow you to set up such ads, but we are going to focus on just one of them: Google ADs, the most prominent one. Google currently holds almost 90 percent of the search engine market.
First of all, you need to understand the kind of keywords you want to advertise for, i.e., people looking for what kind of solar-related information should see your ad.
Then you create the ad – usually a line informing of your green energy business that would lead them directly to your website.
After that, Google does an appraisal of your website, checking that it has related quality content, is comfortable to use, and how much, Google estimates, traffic would go through that link leading to your solar contractor website. You need to understand that Google takes their user’s experience into consideration first (wouldn’t you?) Based on these metrics, the search engine gives you a quality score: one of the two factors determining whether your ad is going to be shown by Google or not, and how much you will have to pay for each click in case your advertisement makes it to the top.
Only after that Google considers the price you are willing to pay per click on your ad. Setting just the right price is undoubtedly a challenging task, deciding whether you will profit from every click or not. Yes, you heard it right: Google doesn’t set prices – it’s the websites that bid to get to that sweet-sweet spot at the top of Google’s first result page. Thus, setting up just the right bid price is a fine line.
Once bids are set, and quality scores are calculated, Google multiplies them and gets a rank for each ad. And only a few with the highest rank get picked for promotion. I’m sure you’ve already realized: that it’s not the highest bidder that wins but the one with the best combination of the bid and the quality.
The final step: to set the price, Google divides the rank of the bidder who precedes you in the rank by your quality score. That means you will pay less than your bid: the higher your rating than your closest competitors, the bigger the discount will be.
Now let’s talk a little about the misconceptions you might have heard.
Misconceptions #1- It’s not as reliable as more conventional ways of promotion and marketing
Fact # 1- Actually, it is the easiest to monitor and measure ways of marketing. Every single click and interaction that takes place on your solar energy website can be monitored. If the metrics apps are correctly set up, you will be able to tell precisely how much you will be making of each dollar spent on SEO and internet marketing. Try and measure the effect of a billboard or a TV commercial – while you might see the difference in the number of customers, you won’t be able to tell precisely how much income these advertisements generate. With SEO, it’s easy, reliable, and accessible for you 24/7.
Misconceptions #2- It’s expensive
Fact # 2- In reality, it’s one of the most profitable marketing tools there is. As we have mentioned before, the unthinkable for old-fashioned ways of marketing transparency is a guarantee that each moment you know whether you’re losing or making money. Plus, Google ADs has a great number of options that will allow your green power business to tune the ad campaign precisely as you want.
Misconceptions #3- I can set ads myself; I don’t need a middleman
Fact # 3- As previously mentioned, there are two major factors that affect how much you pay Google to be shown on the top: the keywords and your website quality (from Google’s point of view)
The keywords your solar panel company needs are not just terms and phrases specific to your company. Who knows it better than you, right?
Unfortunately, it’s just part of it. To really make an ads campaign work, you have to know what a person who would be interested in green power, solar panels, sustainability, and energy independence, would type into Google’s search bar. That’s why you need specialists who don’t just work in SEO but SEO in your professional area, a company that has had experience with your customers and your competitors.
Another problem is tweaking your website to the search engine’s demands. The main challenge here is relevance: you can find plenty of information online on how to do it, but Google constantly changes its preferences and requirements, making most of what you can find online obsolete. Only those who are constantly working with this system have a decent idea of what it is actually looking for.
A high-quality score will allow you to pay less, and great keywords will maximize your ROI (return on investment). This way, surprisingly, you will actually save money by paying professionals to set up and run your Google Ads campaigns for you.
Imagine having your solar contractor website at the top of the Google Search Page – doesn’t get much cooler and, more importantly, profitable than that!
