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Why You Must Market to Millennials (and How to Do It)

Last Updated: October 19, 2017

Another day, another article about millennials, right? We get it. You’re sick of hearing about them. However, we ask you to bear with us this time—because this is directly related to your small business’s marketing efforts.
Millennials are the largest living generation today. According to the 2015 U.S. Census, our country has more than 83 million millennials right now, compared to 75.4 million baby boomers. That’s a lot of purchasing power! And thanks to rapid changes in technology, we’re seeing a sharp difference in the way they prefer doing business.
This means you’re going to have to adapt to millennial preferences soon, if you haven’t already. They’re becoming the next generation of homeowners, and therefore your target customers for things like electrical work, plumbing, home remodeling, appliance repair, and the like. So, if you’re a local service provider specializing in any of these services, you have no choice but to get on board with how millennials operate. That’s just reality.
Obviously, this begs the question: How, exactly, do millennials operate? And what will you need to change in order to accommodate them?
Keep reading to find out!

How Millennials Approach Local Businesses

A recent Goldman Sachs report calls millennials “the first digital natives.” That’s a fitting description, to say the least. Millennials spend a lot of their time online. Like, a lot. Here’s what you need to know about their digital habits and how they deal with businesses online:

They browse the web on their smartphones and tablets daily. Consumer Barometer (a Google partner) reports that 75% of millennials go online via smartphone at least as much as via computer. Moreover, roughly 33% access the internet on smartphones more often than on computers.
They Google *everything*: 55% of millennials use search engines to research products they’re interested in buying. More than 40% do this research on a smartphone. They demand and expect information on the spot.
Once they’ve heard about a local business, they typically look for its Facebook page to check out reviews, posts, photos, and more details.
They rely on customer reviews and recommendations more than other generations. They use social networks to get advice twice as often as Gen-Xers and baby boomers.
They don’t like making phone calls. In many cases, they’ll go out of their way not to talk to someone on the phone, even if that means working with a different company.
Their preferred methods of communication are text, email, and IM/chat. According to Forbes, 68% of millennials say they text “a lot” throughout the day. Compare this to just 47% of Gen-Xers.

The gist? Millennials love using their phones for everything except talking. Go figure.

How You Can Appeal to Millennials

Taking all of the above into account, you get a strong sense of what appeals to millennials. So, in your own marketing efforts for your local business, apply these three rules:
1.) Look good on their smartphones.
The majority of millennials are glued to their smartphones. They search Google, watch videos, go on social media, and text. If you want to appeal to millennials, your business has to be easily discoverable and accessible on their smartphones. This means having a strong Google Maps listing and an attractive, mobile-optimized website.
2.) Meet them on social media.
Social media is where millennials are spending their time. It’s how they connect and interact with the world. They rely on social media for recommendations, advice, and general information. If you don’t have an active page that millennials can check out, you’ll miss out on tons of business.
3.) Think beyond phone calls.
This one is huge in terms of closing jobs. Even if you have an attractive mobile site and engaging Facebook page, you could lose a millennial’s business simply by not having an email form or messaging option. You must provide a way to contact you that doesn’t require a phone call.
And if you DO have an email form set up, make sure it actually works! We can’t tell you how many businesses have an email address on their website and just never check their inbox. It’s as if all their prospective jobs jump straight into a black hole. Along those same lines, if you do have a Facebook page with Messenger enabled, make sure you’re receiving notifications so you don’t miss any messages.
Pro tip: Always respond in kind. In other words, if someone messages or texts you, use that same mode of communication when you reply. Do not return a text with a phone call, unless the customer specifies otherwise.

Resistance Is Futile

There’s nothing easy about upending the way you’ve done things for years. However, if you want your local business to continue to grow, rather than shrink, you must adapt to the youngest generation with the strongest purchasing power. That means you have to make it easier for millennials to find your business, learn about your services and reviews, and contact you—all from the smartphone in the palm of their hand.
By following our recommendations in this post, you’ll be well equipped to meet the expectations of millennials and turn them into your newest customers. Good luck!

Could You Be Targeted Next by Google's Aggressive New Filter?

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Raise your hand if you wish Google would stop making secret updates already! Just when you think you’ve mastered local search, Google launches a change that turns everything on its head. This time, it’s the Hawk update.
This latest update has serious, wide-reaching consequences for small, local businesses like yours. It’s crucial you understand the impact this update could have on your business. That way you can take steps to protect yourself. Keep reading to find out everything you need to know.

First, a Quick Summary of Google’s Hawk Update

At the end of August 2017, local SEO expert Joy Hawkins detected a change in Google’s local search filter. She noticed that Google’s search results had stopped showing certain businesses that used to rank locally. As it turns out, Google was bumping select businesses if they shared a similar category and street address with another business that had a higher ranking.
To be fair, Hawkins notes that this is an improvement on the update immediately preceding it. The previous update (known as “Possum”) applied to any businesses that were even *near* each other. So, if two plumbers were located on the same block, one of them would be filtered out of the results. Thankfully, the Hawk update seems to have rectified that.
Now, the local search algorithm narrows its focus on businesses that share the same street address and category. The intention, Hawkins explains, is “to help ensure that multiple listings for the same company don’t monopolize the search results.” However, it’s having a massively negative effect on many legitimate businesses.

How the Hawk Update Affects You

You might think, “Well, good. That means fewer spammers and impostors.” To an extent, you’d be right. However, lots of local businesses share commercial building space. Moreover, many local service providers (like plumbers, handymen, appliance repairmen, etc.) operate out of their homes and use P.O. boxes and UPS stores for their listings to avoid advertising their home addresses. They’re perfectly legitimate businesses, but their listings are now vulnerable.
In fact, we are seeing Google auto-suspend numerous clients with virtual mailboxes (especially UPS Stores) as soon as we try to verify their listings. This tells us Google is maintaining a database of virtual addresses so it can prevent businesses from using them. Ever since the Hawk update rolled out (and even a little earlier), we haven’t been able to use a UPS Store address for a new client without the listing getting suspended.
If that all sounds too technical, let’s boil it down. Here’s what you need to know: Google’s new update poses a major threat to any business that uses a virtual mailbox. If you use a UPS Store or a similar type of virtual address, Google could bump you from local search results while a competitor remains. According to Hawkins, when there’s more than one business at the same location, “Google picks the most relevant listing of the bunch and filters the rest. It’s very similar to what they do organically with duplicate content.”
But how does Google pick “the most relevant listing”? That, in keeping with Google’s m.o., is a mystery. However, based on past and current trends, we can assume Google makes this distinction the same way it assigns ranking: by looking at a business’s website content, customer reviews, backlinks, and other supporting data.
In short, you may be affected by this latest update if you:

Rent space in a commercial building that also houses similar businesses
Use a mailbox at a nearby UPS store to avoid listing your private residence
Do either of these two things and don’t have an established web presence yet

Needless to say, this applies to a lot of businesses. So, this begs the question: How can you prevent damage to your listing?

How to Protect Your Local Business Listing

There are no guarantees when it comes to Google. However, you can minimize the likelihood of Google filtering you out by making some changes. For example:

Just use your home address. This is the best option because, ultimately, this is what Google wants. It wants every business using a physical street address. All signs point to Google only becoming more aggressive with virtual addresses in the future. Biting the bullet and switching to your home address will cause less trouble in the long run.
If you really don’t want to use your home address, choose another virtual mailbox that’s not a UPS Store. (We can help you choose one.)
Start building your web presence and get more reviews on your listing. Lead Google to view your business as the “most relevant.” This way, it will be less likely to bump you from the search results.

Unfortunately, there’s no quick or easy solution here because every case is so different. Your chances of being filtered out of local search results go up or down depending on your location, industry, and competitors. In other words, the solution can only be determined on a case-by-case basis.
For this reason, our specialists are available to help any business owner who is concerned about the Hawk update. We’ll check out your web presence, analyze your case, and provide you with a sound strategy to minimize damage. Please don’t hesitate to call or email us for help.

Branding 101: How to Make People Remember Your Business

Last Updated: September 13, 2017

Let us paint a picture for you. It’s Saturday morning at the local supermarket. You’re in the meat section deciding between porterhouse and rib eye when you spot a familiar figure. You immediately recognize the person in front of you as the girl with the blue hair from high school. You haven’t seen her in over a decade, but she still dyes her hair the same color. It only takes you a second to remember her name because that shade of blue is burned in your memory. Her name is Lucy, and she always knew all the answers in geometry class.
In effect, the way this scenario played out is how branding works. You remembered your former classmate because of her blue hair. It made her stand out back then, and it makes her stand out now. If she had dyed it a different color now, chances are slim you would’ve recognized her.
Branding works the same way for businesses. Branding is the combination of distinctive, visual features that make your business recognizable and memorable—features that are unique to your business. Your logo is your main branding feature, and there are a handful of other visual elements that also contribute to your branding (which we’ll get into later in this post).
For your old classmate, blue hair is the cornerstone of her personal “brand.” That’s the touchstone by which people remember her. So what’s your brand? How do you lead people to recognize and remember your business? That’s what we’ll discuss in this blog post. Keep reading!

Branding Is What Makes You Memorable

Let’s use a well-known business as an example. Take a look at how Yelp introduces its own branding on its Brand Styleguide page:

This brand guideline is like Yelp’s closet: all the pieces go together to form an outfit. And building a cohesive brand identity is like finding a sense of style. We want to be easily recognizable, so every choice we make at Yelp is deliberate and thoughtful, from our logo to Yelp Red.

The key line here is, “We want to be easily recognizable.” In a nutshell, this is the purpose of branding. To achieve this, Yelp uses a specific shade of red and a big asterisk that pops for its logo. People respond strongly to these kinds of visual elements. Even if they don’t recognize the name “Yelp,” they’ll recognize the bright-red asterisk that is its trademark.
You want people to recognize your business instantly, the way you recognized your old classmate. When people see your logo on a truck, a business card, or even on Facebook, you want them to remember your name and what you do. That means following Yelp’s example and creating a signature brand of your own. Now, let’s go over the different elements (or “assets”) that compose your business’s brand.

1. Have a Meaningful Logo

Arguably, the most important asset of your brand is your logo. You must design an original logo that has a distinctive font and captures the spirit of your business.
Entrepreneur.com states rather succinctly, “Your logo is a visual representation of everything your company stands for.” Therefore, you need to think long and hard about not only your products and services, but also what your mission is. What makes you different from your competitors?
Unlike Nike or Coca-Cola, two of the best-known brands in the world, your growing business can’t rely on an abstract “swoosh” or a swirly font. Most people don’t know what you’re about yet, so you’ll need to be more literal when designing your logo. Find a way to incorporate what your business actually does and the essence of what your business stands for. Entrepreneur.com cites a great example:

Consider Allstate’s “good hands” logo. It immediately generates a warm feeling for the company, symbolizing care and trust. With a little thought and creativity, your logo can quickly and graphically express many positive attributes of your business, too.

So, let’s say you’re a plumbing business, for instance. What’s something that sets you apart from your competitors? Is it your dedication to trustworthy customer service? If so, you might design a logo that includes a wrench being held by two different sets of hands. This logo literally illustrates what you do (the wrench) and also symbolizes trust and dependability (helping hands).
Again, visual representations are most effective, so your logo should make a statement with pictures, not words. Highlight your business’s positive attributes with a high-quality illustration.
Pro tip: Be sure to trademark your logo once it’s complete! This will protect you from other companies trying to use it.
(And remember, if you’re having trouble, Prospect Genius offers graphic design for custom logo creation!)

2. Choose Fitting Colors

You probably don’t often think about how colors are used in marketing. Yet, there’s an entire field of study devoted to understanding how colors affect the human brain. It’s called the “psychology of color.” And, as it turns out, color has a giant impact on branding.
Generally speaking, people associate different emotions with different colors, whether they’re conscious of it or not. Some studies of color even show certain physiological effects, like hunger and anxiety (red) or relaxation (green). The two or three colors you choose for your branding will depend on what kind of emotional (or physical) associations you want to evoke.
For example, the blue family of colors is often associated with reliability, stability, and cleanliness. Meanwhile, green denotes growth, health, and finance. And orange triggers playfulness and energy. For a complete breakdown of all the color groups and their associations, check out “How to Create a Distinct Color Palette for Your Brand” from Elle & Company, LLC. It’s a super-informative resource that will help you narrow down your choices.
But the bottom line here is that you should think about which traits you want to highlight in your branding. Then, choose colors to support those traits.

3. Reflect Your Personality

Although personality isn’t a tangible, visual element, it’s an essential part of your brand. You have to develop a character for your brand so customers can attach their own personalities to yours. On Help Scout, Gregory Ciotti explains there are five potential “dimensions of brand personality” for businesses. Most businesses will be dominant in one of these five dimensions:

Competence—characterized as reliable, intelligent, or successful
Sincerity—characterized as down-to-earth, honest, wholesome, or cheerful
Excitement—characterized as daring, cool, imaginative, or up-to-date
Sophistication—characterized as upper-class or charming
Toughness—characterized as outdoorsy or rugged

If you’re having trouble focusing in on your dominant personality, try thinking about how your target customers self-identify. People are more likely to connect with brands that reflect their own values and personalities. This is a helpful trick in choosing the most effective brand personality for your business.
Once you’ve zeroed in on your brand’s personality, start using it as the basis for all the content you produce. Whether it’s your ad copy, social media activity, blog, or tagline, make sure it reflects this personality. This way, your business will have a consistent, recognizable character your customers can connect with.

4. Promote Your Tagline

A tagline isn’t just a summary of what your business does. A good tagline distills down the unique benefits of your business and the value they deliver to customers, all within a short sentence or two.
Charles Gaudet, a contributing writer to Forbes, says the key to creating an effective tagline is first understanding your business’s “unique advantage point”:

This consists of three questions entrepreneurs need to ask themselves about their business.

What is the ultimate benefit I want my customer to gain?

How will my product make my customer’s life better?

Why is my business better than my competition’s?

A great UAP builds a moat around your business that your competition won’t be able to easily replicate.

Your tagline doesn’t have to be all that clever or witty, but it must be memorable. A simple, straightforward tagline will be more memorable than one that’s trying too hard to make a play on words.
Moreover, your tagline must reflect your brand’s dominant personality. If your personality is small-town sincerity, play that up in your tagline. Perhaps your down-to-earth sensibilities provide a unique benefit to your customers.
Once you’ve created a tagline you’re proud of, don’t forget to use it! Since it’s a bite-sized version of your brand’s mission, you should make it as visible as possible. Put it on your website, social media pages, business cards, company vehicles—everywhere. Promote your tagline as much as you promote your business itself. Doing so is the most efficient way to build a link between your company name and the value you bring to customers.

Display Your Branding Everywhere

Of course, branding only works if you use it everywhere, across all platforms. You have to be consistent and hit people over the head with it in order for it to stick. Once people are exposed to your brand enough, they’ll begin to prefer it more and more. This is a psychological phenomenon known as the mere-exposure effect (also known as the familiarity principle). Generally speaking, people will start to like something over time purely because they’ve been exposed to it a lot.
In other words, use all of your brand assets—logo, colors, personality, and tagline—as often as you can. Use them in social media, on your website, and on all of your advertisements. Moreover, use the assets together to reinforce their link to each other and to your business.
When you put all this info into action for your local business, your brand will gain momentum. People will remember the big logo on the side of your truck or see your tagline on their Facebook news feed and be one step closer to calling you. Good luck!

How Do You Choose Between Facebook Ads and Google AdWords?

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

If you’re one of our clients, then you’ve heard us talk about the advantages of paid advertising. In fact, you’re almost certainly sick of hearing about how advertising on Google AdWords and Facebook can be super-effective ways to reach a wider audience.
However, in all our talk about these two platforms, we rarely get into how you should choose between them. After all, most local businesses don’t have room in their budgets to advertise on both platforms. So, when it comes down to Facebook Ads versus Google AdWords, which one should you choose? That’s what we’ll help you decide in this post.
Keep reading to find out how your goals and budget will play into your decision!

Facebook Ads Versus Google AdWords: What’s the Difference?

Let’s start by going over the fundamental difference between Facebook Ads and Google AdWords. It’s as simple as “push” versus “pull.” Let us explain.
As you may know from reading our previous blog posts, we describe Facebook Ads as “interruption marketing.” Facebook sprinkles ads throughout your audience’s news feed. As a result, when users are scrolling through their friends’ photos and status updates, your ad interrupts them. (This is how TV commercials work, too.) These people aren’t searching for your company or services, but you’re putting your name in front of them anyway. You’re essentially “pushing” your brand and your offerings into their consciousness.
On the other hand, Google AdWords uses your business’s offerings to “pull” customers in. Google only presents your ads to users after they search for your specific products or services. Then, it’s your ads’ job to grab people’s attention and intrigue them enough to click. With Google AdWords, you’re relying on the fact that people are already aware of and interested in the services or products you offer.
In simpler terms: Facebook ads push your services onto potential customers, while Google ads use your services to pull them in.

Use Google AdWords When Demand Is Built In

As we explained above, Google AdWords is ideal for products and services that people are already seeking out. These ads are pay-per-click, and your main goal is to get people to click on your ad. Clicking on your ad brings them to your website, which, hopefully, convinces them to call you for a job. Plus, whoever clicks is already a motivated consumer because they’re clearly interested in learning more about your service offering (otherwise, why would they have searched for it?). Therefore, AdWords is the best way to directly increase your leads and revenue.
So, if you provide a well-known service that local homeowners regularly need, like household appliance repairs, then you may benefit from an AdWords campaign (provided it’s set up and managed correctly). People’s refrigerators and dishwashers break all the time, and they only have three options: repair it, replace it, or live without it. That means your ad for a common, straightforward service like appliance repair has built-in demand. This makes your chances of converting leads into sales much higher.
Please note: Because clicking on your ad brings users to your website, make sure your website is up to snuff. It should have high-quality images, well-written content, and all of the pertinent details customers want to know upfront. In other words, before you even think about starting a Google AdWords campaign, you better fully optimize your website.

Use Facebook Ads to Establish What You’re About

While Google AdWords targets a product or service and directly converts new leads, Facebook Ads promotes a general awareness of your local business. More awareness will eventually lead to more customers, but you shouldn’t expect your Facebook Ads to single-handedly drive up your revenue.
So, what kind of awareness do you want to spread with Facebook Ads? If your local business is doing something different and your desired customers wouldn’t necessarily know to search for it, then you’re a prime candidate for Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads are ideal for promoting things like a brand-new product, a special technique you use in your work, or a unique perk that comes with your services. Basically, you’ll want to use Facebook Ads for anything that’s novel or can’t be easily distilled into a couple of keywords.
For instance, we have a client who successfully uses Facebook Ads to promote their trash collection company. The focus of one of their ads is the old-fashioned customer service they provide. Because Facebook Ads are designed for interruption and “pushing” your business into people’s minds, they’re a great platform for establishing your brand’s personality and values. In this case, our client uses their ad to tout their dedication to customer satisfaction. Not surprisingly, this ad receives a tremendous amount of engagement and positive feedback from its audience. Over the course of a few months, they saw a substantial increase in phone calls.
Please note: While Facebook Ads generally don’t lead directly to new sales, their versatile design allows you to set whatever call-to-action you like. You can lead your audience to visit your website, visit your page, or send you a direct message straight from the ad. This helps you tailor your campaign so you get the results you’re looking for.

Both Are Great for Special Promos

Special promos, like limited-time offerings and discounts, are where Google AdWords and Facebook Ads overlap. A special’s time-sensitive nature automatically builds a sense of urgency. Plus, if it’s a sale, the promise of savings is sure to catch people’s attention.
However, the same basic differences between Google and Facebook still apply. On AdWords, your special must be for a product or service people are already searching for. On Facebook, the special has to be intriguing enough that it steals people’s attention away from their news feeds.
When you target and manage these special campaigns effectively, you’re sure to see success on either platform. The platform you choose simply depends on how much you’re willing to pay. Which brings us to…

Price Comparison

It all comes down to cost, doesn’t it? Google and Facebook’s pricing structures are dramatically different. Here’s what you need to know.

Google AdWords

Frankly, AdWords is expensive. So, while it’s an effective tool in generating more leads, you should only start a campaign if you’re sure you have room in your budget. For many local businesses, though, the return on investment for AdWords tends to be on the higher end of the spectrum, which makes the investment worthwhile. However, your ROI will depend on a few key factors:

Your local market. Are enough people seeking out your products or services to justify the costs of running a campaign? Sometimes, there’s just not enough demand, and your small revenue won’t cover your investment.
Your local competition. Are you going against regional chain stores or national corporations? Chances are, they’re going to beat you because of their name recognition and large budgets. It will be an uphill battle for you.
Your budget. High-ranking keywords often cost more per click. As a result, many people diversify into multiple different keywords. This stretches the budget too thinly across the ads. And when you underfund them, they underperform. It may sound counterintuitive, but if you set your AdWords budget too low, you’ll actually waste more money.

Facebook Ads

Facebook, on the other hand, is more affordable than AdWords. While a keyword-targeted ad for your industry might cost you $13 per click on AdWords, an ad with similar messaging may cost you just $3 per click on Facebook.
However, as we’ve established, the AdWords audience is more motivated in the moment to make an immediate purchase—so you may get much more out of that $13 than you do out of the $3 on Facebook. At the same time, that’s why Facebook is a great tool for when you just want to broaden your visibility and brand awareness. It all circles back to what your goals are.

Summary of Facebook Ads Versus Google AdWords

Phew! We’ve covered a lot of ground in this blog post, so let’s do a quick recap.

Use Google AdWords when you have an in-demand, well-known product or service you want to promote.
Use Facebook Ads when you want to increase visibility and brand awareness for your local business.
Use Google AdWords only if you’re willing to pay more upfront to get more in return.
Use Facebook Ads if you’re on a small budget and need an affordable alternative to AdWords.

Of course, there are still several nuances and shades of gray that take years of experience to fully grasp. Only trained online marketing specialists understand the countless factors that go into deciding between Facebook Ads and Google AdWords. So, if you’re still unclear about which platform you should go with, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our specialists. We’re here to help your local business grow in any way we can.

Don't Let Pay-Per-Click Turn Into Pay-Per-Search

Last Updated: August 22, 2017

Curious about how your PPC ads look? Googling yourself to check on your pay-per-click campaigns is understandable. However, it’s also ill-advised.
That’s because frequently googling your company can sabotage your AdWords campaign.
Don’t believe us? Keep reading.

How Googling Yourself Tanks Your CTR

Your cost per click is substantially related to your ad’s click through rate (CTR). This is the ratio of passive ad views (impressions) to active ad clicks. If your ad gets lots of views but few clicks, you can end up with a low CTR—and paying a greater cost per click.
Why a greater cost? Because your CTR affects your AdWords Quality Score, and your Quality Score controls how much you pay per click. Google wants to show ads that are interesting to its users: otherwise users may get fed up and choose a different search engine altogether. To make certain ads are as high quality as possible, it relies on Quality Score.

Quality Score and Cost

Your Quality Score is heavily impacted by two factors: CTR and relevance. If either metric is low, it will drive down your Quality Score (and drive up your price per click). Relevance can be addressed by targeting ads using both keyword and location. Click through rate is a bit trickier to fix, though. Under normal circumstances, your marketing agency will test different ad versions to get your CTR as high as possible.
However, you work against your marketing agency’s efforts when you frequently google your company’s name or other search terms to check your ads. This is because frequent searches increase the number of impressions. And since you know that clicking on your ads raises costs, you probably never click. As a result, you’re driving up impressions but not clicks. This leads to a lower CTR for your ad. No amount of testing by your marketing agency can fix it as long as you continue to depress your CTR by googling yourself.
This is where the domino effect starts. Once CTRs are low, your Quality Score follows. As PPCHero explains, “If you have a lot of low CTR ads in your ad groups, they could be contributing to a low Quality Score since AdWords considers all of your ads when calculating your scores.”
Unfortunately, a low Quality Score ultimately results in higher costs for you. The short version of the story is that if you frequently google your company, you’re spiking your own PPC bill!
This isn’t just a theoretical problem. At Prospect Genius, we’ve seen it firsthand. In fact, we had one client snowball their cost per click from $22 to $31!
We don’t want the same thing to happen to you. So if you’re thinking about checking your PPC ads by googling yourself, just don’t!

Stop Tanking Successful Ads

This issue goes beyond cost. When you continually google yourself, it’s not just that you end up paying more money per click for no good reason. You also single-handedly undermine your own advertising. If that doesn’t frustrate you, it should!
You see, PPC, by nature, targets a motivated audience. The searcher is already looking for your product or services, so they are more likely to click when they see your ad. So, when you go the extra mile and actually target your ads to a specific service in a specific area, you get maximum results for minimum cost.
Except when you search for your own ads.
When you’re searching for your own products or services just to “check” on your ad, you can end up substantially warping your results. The more specific an ad, the smaller the number of impressions it’s going to get. Usually, this isn’t a problem because you’re offsetting the low impressions by reaching an audience that’s more likely to click.
But that’s what makes these types of ads especially vulnerable to sudden dips in CTR. Because impressions are already low, you’re relying on a high number of clicks to keep your CTR up. So when you google these ads, look at them, and don’t click, you’re preventing the CTR from growing.
And if an ad’s CTR is low because you’ve been looking at the ad and not clicking, it could spell major trouble. If you’re working with a reputable PPC provider, they monitor your ad performance regularly. So when they see a surprisingly low CTR, they will try tweaking the ad to improve performance. However, nothing is wrong with that ad: the CTR is just low because you’ve been googling without clicking. Ultimately, you’ll be spurring your PPC agency to change an ad that otherwise could have been successful for you!

Safe Ways to Monitor Your PPC Ads

Please note: we’re not saying don’t check on your PPC campaigns. On the contrary. It’s very important to stay updated on how your ads are doing, so you can make informed decisions about your return on investment. But unlike googling yourself, there are ways to check your AdWords campaign without also inflating your costs!
Your best bet is to work with a professional pay-per-click advertising agency that provides clear tracking features. At Prospect Genius, our clients have unlimited access to their account’s call logs, leads, and other reports right in the Client Portal—letting you see your campaign’s performance without having to resort to Google. If you’re not sure what metrics are the most relevant for assessing your campaign, check out this analysis.
Or, if you’re a staunch do-it-yourselfer, you can use the AdWords dashboard to look up your ads’ performance, preview appearance, and more.
At the end of the day, we hope you now recognize that googling yourself can be harmful to your PPC campaign. Do yourself a favor and opt for alternative methods of checking performance instead. Keep your costs down by NOT googling yourself.

Prospect Genius

Branding 101: How to Make People Remember Your Business

Branding Is What Makes You Memorable

1. Have a Meaningful Logo

2. Choose Fitting Colors

3. Reflect Your Personality

4. Promote Your Tagline

Display Your Branding Everywhere

Don't Let Pay-Per-Click Turn Into Pay-Per-Search

How Googling Yourself Tanks Your CTR

Quality Score and Cost

Stop Tanking Successful Ads

Safe Ways to Monitor Your PPC Ads

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