5,500 water heater leads in less than 8 months. Difficult? For sure. Impossible? Not even close. Read on to find out how AdMachines’ handcrafted lead generation has helped clients generate 4,900 phone calls and 445 form submissions and counting.

Our Water Heater Marketing plan is time-tested and proven to work consistently over time. Literally anyone can slap together a marketing campaign in a slapdash way and have it just barely function. But that’s not what we do. We design our water heater campaigns to not only get you a staggering amount of leads, but qualified leads you can actually act upon. We understand that your ad vehicle isn’t what matters: it’s how you use it.

Search Intent

According to data from the EPA, eight out of every one thousand homes will need a water heater replaced in the next 12 months. As a water heater provider, those eight homes are your target demographic. So how do you get yourself in front of them?

Two words: Search intent. Which itself is just another name for keywords and history. How are people searching when they go to Google? What problems do they have and what solutions can you offer?

the customer journey

The typical search pattern looks a little something like this: a user goes to Google looking for a 50 gallon water heater. They see the Google ads, they see the ecommerce and they see the organic ads and they want the premium option. Maybe they see the listing on Home Depot’s site for a premium name brand heater like Bradford White’s Defender model. And before you know it, they’re clicked through to Home Depot and have become a lead. In an attempt to fully understand leads, we developed second-to-none keyword lists that are designed to catch any and all searches for a given topic. No matter what a lead may be searching for related to water heaters, our keywords catch it. We have over 500 keywords in any given water heater campaigns that will ding results for name brands, models, sizes, types, providers, services, the works. 

the urgency of calls

We also take into consideration that not every call is going to be the same. Different leads are in different phases of the buying process and some have different intentions for the call. More urgent service tends to operate on a 24-hour cycle, while more general, less important services are generally on a seven day sales cycle. The two are very different and represent unique subsets of buyers and we want to remain aware of that.

Based on our experience, calls placed between 6:00 AM and 10:00 AM tend to be the emergencies whereas calls that come in later in the day are generally more focused on buying a new product. These are the seven-day cycle folks, and they’re the reason we incorporate remarketing campaigns. 

Someone who’s calling because their water heater exploded is going to get you on-site ASAP, so we don’t need to keep ourselves top of their mind after the initial contact. Google Display remarketing campaigns allow us to keep your brand in the mind of someone who’s essentially digital window shopping for their next water heater-related purchase. That’s a whole week of gentle reminders to come back to your site and take action. 

the right place and the right time

Our data also shows that a staggering 90% of all search for repair and replacement services is done from mobile devices. A high percentage to be sure, but not totally surprising. People love convenience, and what device is more convenient than their phone? Mobile is king when it comes to water heater campaigns. Optimize your landing pages for mobile users and bid high on mobile ads because that’s where the action is. 

But mobile isn’t the only important factor in a water heater campaign. Time of day matters, too. Data from a top performing water heater client shows that between 7 am and 9 am is when the most expensive calls are made, with 9:00 being the peak hour. Competitors usually fall off in terms of call volume by 1:00 PM because they wasted the ad budget for the day. You don’t want to miss those afternoon calls when you can scoop those up in the evening or first thing tomorrow. You also have to consider that these leads are a lot less expensive which helps you balance lead costs for the day. Consistency is the name of the game with our leads, and our campaigns support afternoon demand as much as morning. 

What makes a Good Ad?

But what is an ad without good, strong copy? The answer is “not much.” Each campaign we generate is supported by the perfect ad. What is the perfect ad? The one that directly addresses competitors. Let’s say Home Depot, Lowes, or another of these big box stores is offering water heaters in your market. They learned a long time ago to get away from the basic installation labor, and they’re no longer doing water heater installs for $200-$300, they’re doing them for like $1,500+, especially in major markets. We want to compete at that level. How do we do that? 

Compete by offering financing. Focus on your local roots. Highlight the things that you can do that the big box stores just can't. Fast service, extended warranties, you name it. Most of your competition isn’t going the extra mile. You can and you should make that known in your ads. 

Tailor your ads to match customer search intent. Don’t slam all your services into one ad. Yes, you may have full service plumbing, but your lead does not need to know that in the ad they sree for water heaters. It may confuse them to see information on drain cleaning when they searched for water heater repairs. Our answer to this is to run campaigns for each of your services individually. It takes a lot more time to set up, of course, but the end result is a legion of ads laser-focused on the things your target audience wants to hear about. 

Create a sense of urgency in your copy. Compel leads to action by offering enticing deals and savings with a limited-time run. Statements like “Call today, we have two openings left” really do work. 

Our ads hold to these core design tenets and they net a 40% conversion rate on average; that’s a very promising number because every single one of those conversions are high-value and are very likely to become your next customer. It just works. 

landing page

And, of course, an ad cannot succeed without an appealing, dedicated landing page behind it. Our landing pages are nice to look at, but the real value in a landing page is consistency. Keep the messaging consistent from the ad to the landing page. Really give the prospect a sense of continuity from their initial search until the moment they hit “Send” on the form. A good landing page is the best salesperson you could ask for, and anyone in sales will tell you that consistency is king.

Control Your Outcome 

Conversions mean nothing if you aren’t targeting the right audience. You do not need people who live in apartments to see your ads about water heaters. You want homeowners who have equity in their home and for whom finance won’t be an issue: a high- value client who’ll keep coming back for more.

targeting the right audience

Powerful technology from Google allows us to target individuals based on their search history. From there, we can categorize them based on basically any criteria you could want for: home ownership status, home financing, people who are looking to move, age-based, etc. This technology empowers us to not only target these qualified individuals, but also eliminate audiences not suited to your advertising needs. 

Targeting people doesn't do you much good if those people are out of your service area. You obviously only want your ads to be appearing to audiences within your general geographic location. This one may seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised. With Google’s tech at your fingertips, you can look at areas where water heater sales have historically been pretty good and use your budget to target those areas more closely.

put your ads in the best spots

Geographic isn’t the only type of positioning you need to worry about. Where your ads appear on the page is important, too. Depending on who you’re trying to advertise to, being top-of-page isn’t always necessary. For emergency situations/calls, yes, it’s always going to be the best spot. But for the folks out there taking their time and shopping around, the third or fourth option can still generate a good lead. They’re comparing companies, and you have a chance to not just get a click, but to stand out from the crowd, and at a discount compared to the top of the page. 

But getting on a Google page isn’t the only place you want your ads to appear. Despite what a good chunk of the under 40 crowd believes, Microsoft’s network of sites are hugely beneficial for advertising. These sites include Bing, LinkedIn, AOL, Yahoo and other sites who’s user bases generally skew older. Older audiences are more likely to have water heaters and the spending power you’re looking for. 

You never want to spread yourself too thin. You’re a local company, that’s your strength. Your campaigns should be designed to help you own your own backyard. AdMachines’ strategies for campaigns will ensure that you’re the go-to water heater provider in your area in no time at all.