Self storage company owners know that leads are the lifeblood of their industry. It doesn’t matter if you’re currently at capacity, or if you’re in the ‘fill up’ stage in opening a new site, you need a steady stream of new leads to keep your business viable.
According to the 2019 Self Storage Association UK Annual Industry Report, the self storage companies surveyed reveal that 72% of their enquiries came from their website. This is compared to physical signage which generated just 9% of enquiries.
So we know a strong web presence through digital marketing for storage is essential. But how are potential customers supposed to find you?
One option for driving targeted traffic to your website is PPC. This is a form of paid advertising which operates on a bidding model.
What is PPC?
PPC stands for pay per click. It is a type of internet marketing that helps to send users to your website, or encourages them to call you. PPC is often one part of a wider digital marketing plan that helps to increase awareness of your company and then direct potential customers to your website.
When you search for anything in Google (or other search engines) the first results you will see will have a small ‘Ad’ tag next to them. These are PPC results, which means the owners of these websites have bid to appear in the results for the search term you entered.
How do I get started with PPC?
Google’s PPC platform is called Adwords. Once you have signed up for an Adwords account, you would need to think about:
- Which keywords are most important to you
- Which webpage to send users to on your website
- How you want your ads to appear
- How much you want to spend
Running PPC campaigns is somewhere between a science and an art. It isn’t something you should set up and leave running without regular maintenance and monitoring.
Continual optimisation will allow you to get more from your budget and increase your quality scores. You should also dedicate a portion of your PPC budget to experiments. This will allow you to test everything from advert text to landing pages to learn what resonates with your target customers.
How can self storage companies leverage PPC?
Local targeting
PPC is particularly useful for self storage companies as you can target those searching in specific areas. This can greatly reduce your costs and stop you from wasting money on campaigns that will reach those outside of your catchment area.
Eliminate negative keywords
There are some keywords and phrases that aren’t relevant to your business, but they might be semantically close. For example, using the broad match keyword “storage” might allow your ads to appear alongside searches for “storage shelves”, but this isn’t relevant to your business.
People searching for this are looking for a product, not for self storage services. By monitoring the keywords you are targeting, you can eliminate the ones that aren’t useful to your business.
Make the most of ad extensions
Ad extensions and structured snippets are best described as the bells and whistles of PPC. These help to enhance your adverts to bring more value to the user. On mobile, you could add a click to call button to help reduce the number of steps to convert. You could also add your average review rating to build trust.