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How to Find Blog Ideas Your Customers Will Actually Care About

Last Updated: February 8, 2018

You’re trying to get your website off the ground, and you’ve heard your traffic will improve if you fill your pages with lots of valuable content. But there’s the problem—you want to create interesting blog posts and page content for your audience, but you’re totally stumped on what to write about!
This is an all-too-familiar problem for many small business owners. Thankfully, in our years of practice, we’ve discovered some shortcuts that can make it easier to come up with webpage and blog ideas. Keep reading for our suggestions on how to come up with topic ideas for your website content!

Take Inspiration From Online Forums

Track down online communities related to your trade or niche. Social media groups and blog forums are a hotbed for passionate discussion about new trends, DIY tips, personal anecdotes, and more.
If you’re stuck for blog ideas, take a few minutes to read the online discussions on these forums. Mine the conversations for hot topics that attract a lot of engagement and discussion. You might also discover the same handful of questions popping up again and again. You can use these insights to provide people with the advice and answers they’re clearly searching for. These are the topics that are most likely to interest your target customers.

Discover New Keywords

In studying these online discussion boards, you may also start to notice some new phrases or keywords gaining popularity. This is invaluable information, because it will show you the kind of language regular folks use when they talk about things related to your industry.
With this knowledge, you’ll be able to mold your content so it captures search traffic for layman’s terms that you might not have been aware of, given your technical expertise in the field.

Use Tangential Topics, Too

When coming up with ideas for content, don’t be afraid to blur the lines between your niche and a niche adjacent to yours. Chances are, your target customers are interested in both, and you can easily relate these tangential topics back to your own business.
Here’s an example: Let’s say you’re a hardwood flooring specialist. It’s safe to assume a large subset of your target customers are planning a home remodel. Therefore, you may want to include blog posts about topics related to remodeling, such as DIY decorating tips, popular paint colors, and how to remodel on a budget.
In other words, go beyond your specific industry and think about related topics your target customers might also be interested in.

Consult an Automatic Generator

If you’ve exhausted all of the above strategies—or you’re simply short on time—try checking out an automatic topic generator like Answer the Public.
This tool works if you have a keyword in mind but you can’t quite figure out how to write about it. You simply type the word or phrase into the search box, and you’ll be presented with a large assortment of questions that people are asking related to that keyword. These questions are taken directly from search engine data.
For example, if you type “hardwood floor” into the Answer the Public’s search field, you’ll get a list of 111 frequently asked questions, including:

  • “Why wax a hardwood floor?”
  • “How to clean hardwood floor?”
  • “Which hardwood floor is best?”
  • “Can hardwood floor cleaner be used on laminate?”

As you can see, the questions come from all different angles, so there’s no shortage of topics you can cover for any given keyword. Just pick a question you find most intriguing, or one you know the most about, and write your answer. This should be a great starting point for your blog post or webpage.

When All Else Fails, PG Can Help!

Whether you feel like writing isn’t one of your strengths or you just don’t have enough time to create your own website content, we can help. Our talented writers and production specialists can produce compelling content for your website, blog, and social media accounts on your behalf. Then, we can even promote it online to increase your traffic and visibility.
If you’re interested in our writing services, don’t hesitate to reach out!

What You Need to Know About Google AdWords Billing

Last Updated: January 11, 2018

If you’re confused by the way Google bills you for AdWords, you’re not alone. Not even a little.
We have countless clients who feel like the Google AdWords billing system is overly complicated. We don’t blame them. Why can’t it just be a bill for the same amount on the same date every month—you know, the way practically every other company in existence does its billing?
If we were conspiracy theorists, we’d be tempted to think Google confuses AdWords customers on purpose so they spend more money.
However, we’re realists, and we’ve done our research to crack the code of Google AdWords billing. If you’re as mystified as everyone else about how your account is charged, then this blog post is for you! Keep reading to find out how it actually works.

Your “Daily” Budget Is Not What It Seems

When you first set up AdWords, Google allows you to set a daily budget. When most people hear this, they assume this is the amount AdWords will spend on their ads each day. This is the logical assumption. However, this is not what actually happens.
Instead, Google takes the amount you set for your daily budget and multiplies that number by 30.4. The result is what Google allows itself to spend on your ads for the whole month. So, in effect, when you set a daily budget, you’re really setting a *monthly* budget.

Why does Google use your budget this way?

Because Google can’t 100% predict how much clicks will cost on a daily basis due to the way AdWords bidding works. Thus, it needs to allow for wiggle room in what it spends from day to day. That’s why Google allows itself to increase spending (up to 2 times your daily budget) on any given day, as long as it decreases spending accordingly on other days so that your monthly total evens out in the end.
Google needs this wiggle room because not every day of the week is equal in terms of user behavior. For instance, an ad for something like roof repair is likely to receive more clicks on a weekday than a weekend. This means bids for clicks on certain weekdays will be more expensive because they’re more in demand. Knowing this, Google will loosen the reins on your budget in order to spend more in bids and clicks during the week, and then tighten up on the weekend when your ad isn’t seeing as much action.
In fairness to Google, this strategy does make sense once you understand what it is. However, it also makes your AdWords charges super complicated.
There’s an upside to all this confusion, though. The longer you continue on the same daily budget for the same ad campaign, the more effectively Google will spend your budget. As time goes on, Google will collect enough data to learn the optimal days and times for your ad’s performance, so it won’t have to “guess” your budget on a daily basis. All you have to do is stick with it.

Thresholds and Billing Cycles

Above, we cover how Google AdWords charges your account—in other words, how it spends your budget. Now, we’re going to talk about billing. This is where people really start scratching their heads.
In this context, charging and billing are two separate things. Your charges are what your account has spent on clicks and bids. Your bill, on the other hand, is what Google debits from your credit card. Contrary to most other services you pay for in your normal life, Google doesn’t bill you for your total charges at the end of the calendar month. Instead, it goes by a 30-day billing cycle and bills you every time you hit a certain charge “threshold.” So, you may rack up $670 in charges in the month of January; however, that won’t be reflected in your bill.

Here’s how Google AdWords billing thresholds work:

  • Your starting threshold is $50. Google does this to make sure you can actually pay before you go any further in your campaign.
  • If you spend $50 within your first 30 days, Google bills you immediately and resets your billing cycle. Now, your threshold is bumped up to $200.
  • If you spend less than $50 within your first 30 days, you’ll be billed your exact spend amount at the end of the cycle. Your threshold will remain at $50 for the next 30 days, or until you surpass $50.
  • Next, if you reach your $200 threshold within 30 days, Google bills you, resets your cycle, and raises your threshold to $350. If you spend less than $200, Google bills you for the exact spend amount at the end of 30 days and keeps your threshold at $200 until you surpass it.
  • The process repeats itself for the $350 threshold.
  • The final threshold is $500. Once you reach $500, Google will bill you and reset the cycle, keeping your threshold at $500.

So, instead of just paying what you owe at the end of every calendar month, you’re billed every 30 days OR every time you reach your threshold. This leads us to two important points:

  • Because billing is triggered by thresholds, it’s possible for you to be billed more than once in the same calendar month. This is what messes up a lot of our clients and causes their credit cards to decline.
  • If your credit card declines at any point, your threshold will reset to $50. Then, you’ll have to go through the process all over again. This can wreak havoc on your campaign if it happens repeatedly.

What If You Don’t Want to Pay More Than “X” Amount Each Month?

One obstacle many businesses face is the fact that they have their own monthly budgets in the real world, outside of AdWords. Often, they don’t want to be billed beyond a certain amount in the same calendar month for fiscal reasons. When this is the case, you have to manually pause your campaign as soon as you reach your limit. Otherwise, your charges will continue to accumulate and you might be billed again at the next threshold.
If Prospect Genius is managing your account, we are happy to do this on your behalf. We closely monitor all of the accounts we run, so we will watch your spending and pause your campaign as soon as it gets too close to your personal limit. Then, we’ll resume your campaign once the billing cycle resets.
Google AdWords billing is extremely difficult to understand, and that’s probably not an accident. However, we hope this blog post brings you some clarity and helps you manage your payments in a more effective manner. Good luck!

Facebook Costs Less Than AdWords, But Is It Better?

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

It’s no secret that paid ads are a great way to inject some power into your online marketing efforts. But whether it’s a PPC (pay-per-click) campaign from Google AdWords or a social media campaign from Facebook Ads, you need to be using the platform that best aligns with your business’s needs.
This is where most people get stuck.
If you’re struggling to decide between Google AdWords and Facebook Ads, there are two things you need to know:

  1. Facebook costs less than Google AdWords by a substantial amount.
  2. Facebook and AdWords are built for different kinds of businesses.

So, if you’re on a tight budget, that’s one reason to be in Facebook’s corner. However, just because Facebook costs less, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best fit for your company. The nature of your business will largely determine which advertising platform you use. Facebook is good for some businesses; AdWords is good for others.
Keep reading to see what we mean!

Facebook Is More Budget Friendly

For most business owners interested in paid ads online, their first question is, “How much is this going to cost me?” While the exact cost will obviously depend on the specifics of your campaign, we can tell you Facebook is typically the more cost-effective option.
Managing numerous campaigns for clients, we’ve seen firsthand that Facebook ads are, overall, a better bargain than AdWords. Take Bethany’s Cleaning Service, for example:

  • In one day, Bethany’s Cleaning Service spent $39.45 on AdWords versus $22.67 on Facebook.
  • On AdWords, their ad was placed in front of 126 people and was clicked 7 times.
  • On Facebook, their ad was placed in front of 951 people and clicked 29 times.

Therefore, Facebook cost $0.78 per click, while AdWords cost $5.64 per click. That’s a pretty big difference.

Read the full case study about Bethany’s Cleaning Service to see how Facebook Ads and Google AdWords match up!

So, if you’re worried about spending too much on sponsored ads, then Facebook is the way to go.

Facebook Is Good for Ongoing Service Providers

However, while Facebook costs significantly less, that doesn’t mean it’s beneficial to everyone. On the whole, Facebook ads make more sense for businesses that provide ongoing services for customers. These businesses can be anything from landscapers to beauty spas to weekly garbage collectors. Their common traits are:

  • Their customers typically do a fair amount of research and get referrals before working with them.
  • They provide recurring services their customers need on a regular basis (not just one-and-done jobs).

Our client, Advantage Disposal, is a prime example. As a residential trash collection company, they have regular, loyal customers whom they serve every week. Due to the nature of their business, they rely on name recognition, word-of-mouth, and customer satisfaction not only to retain their current customers, but also to gain new ones.

READ: [Case Study] Advantage Disposal

We ran two different Facebook campaigns for them (one short-term, another long-term), and they both flourished. As you can see in our case study, Advantage Disposal’s Facebook ads received a ton of engagement and generated an incredible number of leads with each passing month. Each ad focused on their customer service and personal touch, which led lots of fans to like, share, and comment to show their support. The result is that their ads reached thousands of local users and got them a lot more phone calls.

Google AdWords Is Better for One-Time Jobs

Unlike Facebook Ads, Google AdWords is suited for businesses that specialize in time-sensitive, one-off jobs. People are more likely to search Google for something like “refrigerator repair near me” or “dumpster rental in [town name]” when they’re on a time crunch and just need a one-time service. They aren’t as concerned about building an ongoing, working relationship with the business, nor do they have the luxury of time on their side.
Take a look at how AdWords worked for our client, All Bergen Appliance Service, LLC. As a local appliance repair business, they’re the ideal candidate for an AdWords campaign. In their case study, you’ll see how our pay-per-click campaign increased their monthly leads and doubled their monthly calls.

READ: [Case Study] All Bergen Appliance Service, LLC

Ultimately, we helped All Bergen Appliance Service, LLC, increase incoming calls from prospective customers from 203 in April 2017 (the month prior to the AdWords launch) to 464 in July 2017!

Don’t Go by Price Only

Sure, price is a critical factor when deciding which online ad platform to use. However, don’t let that be your only deciding factor. Although Facebook costs less and is more affordable across the board, it will still be a waste of money if it’s not well suited for your business’s needs. So, make sure you’re listening to more than just the part of your brain that wants to pinch pennies. Listen to your marketing specialists and invest wisely.
Want to discover more info about the differences between these two platforms? Check out our previous post, “How Do You Choose Between Facebook Ads and Google AdWords?”

3 Errors New Businesses ALWAYS Make (And How to Fix Them)

Last Updated: November 16, 2017

For new businesses, there’s a lot to do when you first set out on your venture. Unfortunately, there’s no book or step-by-step guide that tells you everything you need. Sure, there are countless articles and e-books about the fundamentals, but the nitty-gritty stuff you have to do for your web presence often remains a guessing game.
That’s why it’s so easy for new businesses to make mistakes when putting your company out there on the web. You’re bound to hit some stumbling blocks as you go. However, Prospect Genius wants to help you correct those mistakes so you can keep forging ahead.
In this blog post, you’ll discover three of the most common, yet easily fixable, errors we see new businesses make. Are you guilty of any of these? Let’s find out!

1. Using Your Personal Cell Number as Your Company’s Primary Phone Number

When first starting out, many small business owners, particularly local service providers, use their cell phones as their main business phones. This seems logical when you first think about it. After all, you always have your cell phone with you, and it’s the easiest way to answer calls when you’re on the go.
However, as you continue on your journey as a business owner, you’ll come to realize how important it is to have well-defined boundaries between your company and personal life. Unfortunately (and, perhaps, inconveniently), using your personal cell phone as your business phone blurs these boundaries quite a bit. For example, you feel pressured to answer your phone when you’re out with your family because a customer might be calling.
Also, to be a little more frank, it creates a nuisance. Do you really want your personal cell phone ringing at all hours of the day and night? The answer is probably no—especially when you consider that a lot of those phone calls are spam.
You see, when you use your personal number as your business number, it will appear everywhere your business does. This means your personal phone number is all over the internet (on your website, Google, Facebook, Yelp, Bing, and dozens of other platforms). This also means the National Do Not Call Registry no longer applies to you. As a result, you’ll be getting solicitor calls nonstop.
Importantly, using your personal cell phone for business also prevents you from hiring a receptionist or answering service to assist you with incoming calls.

How to Fix It

As we see it, you have a couple of options. You can:

  • Go to your preferred wireless retailer and get a new cell phone dedicated exclusively to your business.
  • Add a separate, company landline for your home office (if you have one).
  • Get a metered, VoIP line (like our CallTrax service or something similar). This kind of phone line enables you to track all of your incoming leads,  and it also comes with spam-blocking technology to limit how many telemarketers get through to you. Best of all, you can forward this line to any number you like at any time. This means you can forward calls to your personal phone, go on vacation, scale up your business, add more phones to the line, and so on.

2. Setting Up Facebook Incorrectly 

If you’re not already an avid Facebook user, the platform can be confusing. Often, we see novice Facebook users accidentally put their business name on a personal Facebook profile, instead of creating an official business page. In doing so, it’s as if their account is for a person named “Mike’s Plumbing” (for example) rather than a verifiable business.
Why is this a big deal? It matters because Facebook treats personal accounts and business pages very, very differently. So, if your company is limited to a personal account on Facebook, it won’t have the same capabilities that most other businesses have. For instance:

  • Personal profiles don’t give you insights into your page’s performance, such as audience engagement with your posts and visits to your page.
  • Personal profiles don’t include important business information. People won’t be able to see vital details like your industry/category, phone number, street address, “About Us” description, products/services, and customer reviews.
  • Personal profiles don’t allow customers to leave reviews of your business. Without customer reviews, your business won’t have a star rating or any way to demonstrate value. People like to read reviews before choosing a business for their needs.
  • Personal profiles can only  have up to 5,000 “friends.” If you want to grow beyond that, you need a business page.
  • Personal profiles can’t advertise with Facebook Ads. Therefore, your reach will be limited and you won’t be able to boost any of your posts, promos, or coupons.

Above all, having a personal profile for your business looks highly unprofessional. It instantly tells people you don’t know what you’re doing on social media. This doesn’t exactly instill confidence in your other skills.

How to Fix It

Thankfully, this mistake is easy to fix. There’s no need to delete the personal profile you accidentally created. Instead, you can follow the steps outlined here in Facebook’s Help Center: “How do I convert my personal account to a Facebook Page?”
If you’re confused by Facebook’s guide, you can always ask your marketing team for help. Prospect Genius offers assistance with this, as well.

3. Having an Unprofessional Email Address for Your Business

Are you using the same AOL address you’ve had since the early 2000s for your business? We hate to break it to you, but you need a new business email ASAP.
Your company’s primary email address must look professional. This is for two reasons:

  • Prospective customers want to know you’re a legitimate operation. So, if you list a wacky, personal email address under your company’s contact details, you might lose some business. Generally speaking, most people would rather do business with “mike@mikesplumbing.com” than “sk8rd00d99@aol.com.”
  • Dealing with Google is much easier when you have an email address on a corporate domain (like “mikesplumbing.com”). Whether you’re claiming a listing or assigning a new manager to your listing, the whole process is streamlined when you can email your authorization from a corporate domain (because Google sees this as a verification of your identity).

We understand the desire to simplify your life and only have one inbox to check, but having a separate, professional email address for your business is an absolute must.

How to Fix It

You have a few options here:

  • If you have your own website and domain, the process for setting up an email address on your domain is relatively easy. This is the ideal move because you’ll appear super professional and official. At the same time, it will make all your dealings with Google much easier in the future.
  • If you have your own website but can’t figure out how to set up your address, your advertiser should be able to do it for you. (For example, Prospect Genius offers this service for a small fee.)
  • Don’t have your own web domain? You can sign up for a Gmail address, instead. It’s 100% free, and the whole process is fairly simple.
  • For any of the above solutions, you can set your new business address to forward all emails to your personal inbox. This way, you don’t have to check two separate accounts, which makes life a lot easier.

Don’t Be Discouraged

For new businesses, getting yourself online for the first time without a single error would be unheard of. The opportunities for mistakes are endless. So, please, don’t feel discouraged if you’ve made any of these missteps. All that matters is you fix your mistake in a timely manner, learn your lesson, and keep moving forward. And if you ever feel lost or confused, reach out for help! Prospect Genius is here to answer any questions or concerns you might have.
Now get to work!

How to Run a Holiday Facebook Ad That Drives Results

Last Updated: November 21, 2019

So, you want to run a holiday Facebook ad this year.

Holiday and winter-themed promotions are different from ads you’d normally run on Facebook, given their specific and temporary nature. You want people to make an immediate purchase or hire you for a particular, seasonal service. Therefore, you’ll have to create your holiday Facebook ad with these goals in mind.

But have no fear! Follow our recommendations below to run a holiday Facebook ad that’s effective and successful.

Choose an Audience for Your Holiday Facebook Ad

First, identify the people you want to target with your holiday Facebook ad. To run successful ads, you need to target the kinds of people who will actually want to click on them. This is your “audience,” and you’ll decide what your typical audience member looks like:

  • How old are they?
  • What’s their gender?
  • Where do they live?
  • What’s their education level and occupation?
  • What are their spending habits? (Yes, Facebook has access to this third-party data…)
  • Are they homeowners? (Again, Facebook knows this through outside channels.)
  • And more!

Note: If this is your first time running a Facebook ad, you may want to target your audience more broadly.

For instance, you might just say you want people age 18-65 in your home state to see your ad. Why? Since you haven’t run ads before, you probably don’t have much data regarding your target audience’s specific demographics and behaviors. Therefore, you don’t really want to narrow it down too much unless you’re super-confident in the profile you’ve created for your audience.

Set a Goal for Your Ad

What do you want to get out of your holiday Facebook ad? Do you want people to…

  • Visit a specific page on your website?
  • Buy your product?
  • Contact you?
  • Like your Facebook page?

Because you’re promoting a specific service for a short amount of time, your goal is probably for people to make a purchasing decision of some kind. If that’s the case, then you’ll want to set up your holiday Facebook ad with a “conversion” objective.

AgoraPulse advises, “Use the Conversion objective when your goal is to get people to convert for a specific action, whether that be opt-in, register or purchase.”

However, Facebook says you should only aim for conversions if you’re confident you can get a minimum of 50 conversions per week. In other words, only use this objective if you’re certain you can get at least 50 people to make a purchase, sign up for your program, or hire you in some way. Why? Because Facebook needs data about the people who convert so it can better optimize your ad and show it to even more people who are likely to convert.

If this sounds confusing, you’re not wrong. But just take Facebook’s word for it that your ad will be more successful if you can ensure a minimum of 50 conversions per week.

So, what if you’re not confident your holiday Facebook ad will get that many conversions in a week? You’ll want to use a “consideration” objective, instead. With this goal, your ad will increase things like website traffic, Facebook engagement, and lead generation, rather than purchasing decisions. These are still highly valuable actions!

Get all these tips simplified on a single page in our step-by-step guide!

Set a Budget for Your Ad

One of the reasons we love Facebook ads so much is that they use a super-simple billing system. In this regard, Facebook is much easier to use than Google AdWords.

Facebook simply charges you per day for each of your campaigns. So, all you have to do is decide how much you want to spend in total, and then divide that by the number of days your campaign will run.

During your ad campaign setup, Facebook will ask you how much you’d like to spend each day. This is where you input the daily spend you’ve calculated. Easy-peasy.

Create the Appearance of Your Ad

This is where practice makes perfect. You’ll probably end up experimenting with multiple versions of your holiday Facebook ad until you’re satisfied with how it looks.

However, the most important aspect of your ad is the image you use. Often, the success of an ad comes down to its visual component rather than its headline or messaging. People are visual creatures, after all.

Building on this fact, Facebook’s carousel ads take visual formatting to the next level by allowing you to display several different images and/or videos at once:

“The carousel format allows you to showcase up to 10 images or videos within a single ad, each with its own link. With more creative space within an ad, you can highlight different products, showcase specific details about one product, service or promotion, or tell a story about your brand that develops across each carousel card.”

In our own experience testing out different Facebook ad formats, we’ve had substantial success with carousel ads. We highly recommend at least trying out this format and seeing how it performs for you.

With all that being said, here are some general tips to keep in mind when developing the ad itself:

  • Use a high-quality image with bright colors and a high contrast. This will make your ad leap off the screen.
  • Make sure your image has a visually interesting subject to grab people’s attention. In most cases, it should represent the particular product or service you’re promoting.
  • Use strong call-to-action language (e.g. “call now,” “click here,” “contact us today,” etc.).
  • Make your ad’s headline count. Put the most important message right there in the headline so your audience can’t miss it.
  • Your ad must link to a dedicated page on your website about the product or service you’re promoting.

You can find even more tips in our post, “How to Start Promoting Holiday Services in October (and Why You Should).” Go check it out!

Note: As the folks at RWL Design point out, there’s a significant increase in the number of people using Facebook on their smartphones during the holidays.

Whether it’s because they’re out shopping for gifts or attending holiday parties, they’re scrolling through their news feeds on their phones more often than on desktops. Therefore, you’ll want to be sure your Facebook ad looks great on mobile devices.

This means shorter text, concise call-to-actions, and light-colored images. Moreover, make sure the webpage your ad links to is mobile optimized, as well.

Get the Most Out of Your Holiday Facebook Ad

Phew! Did you catch all that?!

When you’re setting up your holiday Facebook ad, use this post as your guide. These tips apply to virtually any type of local business or service provider. If you follow our above suggestions and advice, you’ll have a stunning ad that targets the right audience and gets you the results you need—all without breaking the bank.

Good luck!

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