Generating Leads as a Home Improvement Company
Generating leads online is essential for any home improvement company looking to grow its client base and stay competitive. With the right strategies, you can attract high-quality leads and turn them into paying customers. Below, we’ll explore some of the most effective ways to generate leads online, including search engine optimization, paid digital advertising, and other proven techniques.
Separate Service and Product Pages
A key SEO strategy to generate leads online is by creating dedicated service and product pages on your website. For example, if you offer various window types like awning and casement windows, each style should have its own page. This not only helps potential customers find exactly what they’re looking for but also improves your chances of ranking for more specific search terms. The same approach applies to roofing services—create individual pages for shingle roofing and metal roofing to capture search traffic for these specific services.
By separating your services and products on distinct pages, you make it easier for search engines like Google to understand your offerings, which will help you rank better for relevant keywords. This strategy is also useful for businesses wondering about the reasons why your website isn’t ranking as well as it could.
Create City-Specific Pages
If your home improvement company serves multiple locations, another great way to improve lead generation is by creating city-specific pages. For instance, if you provide window and roofing services in both Toronto and Ottawa, create separate pages for each city. This will enhance your search engine optimization by targeting local customers in each area, allowing you to rank higher for location-based searches like “Toronto window installation” or “Ottawa metal roofing services.”
By boosting your online presence with city-specific pages, you can capture high-intent leads that are actively searching for home improvement services in their local area.
Use Paid Ads for Immediate Results
While SEO strategies like dedicated service and product pages can take time to show results, paid digital advertising offers immediate visibility. Both Google Ads and Facebook ads are effective platforms for home improvement companies looking to generate leads quickly.
- Google Ads allows you to target users searching for home improvement services in real time, making it a powerful tool for reaching high-intent leads.
- Facebook ads are great for reaching a broader audience by targeting people based on demographics, interests, and behavior. These ads work well for generating awareness and driving potential customers further into your buyer purchase decision process.
A well-rounded marketing strategy should include both search engine optimization and paid digital advertising to generate consistent leads.
Content Marketing to Build Authority
One of the most effective ways to establish yourself as an authority in the home improvement industry is through content marketing. Writing blogs, how-to guides, and case studies that are informative and relevant to your audience will help you build trust with potential customers. Additionally, fresh content improves your SEO rankings, giving your website a better chance of appearing in search results.
By producing content that builds credibility, such as articles about energy-efficient windows or roofing material comparisons, you not only answer potential customer questions but also position your company as a go-to expert in the field. Over time, this can lead to more conversions and increased customer loyalty.
Leverage Third-Party Sites
Another way to generate leads is by listing your services on third-party websites that are popular in the home improvement industry. Websites like Home Reno World, Homestars (Canada), and Angie’s List (US) are widely trusted by consumers looking for reliable contractors. By having a presence on these platforms, you can reach a new audience that may not have found your website organically.
These platforms not only provide social proof by allowing clients to leave reviews and ratings but also play a key role in our strategy at Retailors Group. As a home improvement marketing agency, we have successfully generated thousands of leads each month for our windows and doors clients by integrating third-party sites into our lead generation process. These platforms help us extend our clients’ reach, build credibility, and capture high-intent leads who are actively searching for home improvement services. By combining the power of third-party sites with our digital marketing and SEO expertise, we help businesses grow their customer base efficiently and effectively.
Generating leads online for a home improvement company requires a multi-faceted approach. From separating your services and creating city-specific pages to leveraging paid digital advertising and content marketing, there are numerous ways to attract potential clients. By combining these strategies and continuously optimizing them, you can build a lead generation system that brings in consistent, high-quality leads.
Why You Need Dedicated Service and Product Pages on Your Website
If you are a business that offers multiple services and/or products, it is essential to be clear about what specific benefits your business can provide to your target audience. This might seem like common sense, but I've come across a lot of websites where businesses will simply just list all of their services as appose to going into in depth on what the service or product is about.
There are 3 main reasons to why you need dedicated service/product pages on your website:
Improve SEO with Targeted Keywords
Having dedicated service and product pages enables your website to target specific keywords more effectively, which enhances your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Search engines like Google rank pages based on how well they match the intent of users’ searches. When you create individual pages for each of your services or products, you can optimize each page with relevant keywords, titles, meta descriptions, and content that speaks directly to that offering. This not only improves your site’s chances of ranking for multiple keywords but also helps capture traffic from users searching for very specific terms related to your business.
For example, if your business offers both residential and commercial cleaning services, separating these services into distinct pages allows you to optimize for terms like “residential cleaning in [City]” and “commercial cleaning in [City].” This increases your likelihood of appearing in relevant search queries and helps you capture a more targeted audience.
Enhance User Experience with Clear Navigation
Users expect to find what they need quickly and easily when browsing a website. Dedicated service and product pages provide a structured and intuitive layout that makes it simple for visitors to locate the specific information they’re looking for. Instead of overwhelming users with a long list of everything your business offers on one page, separating services or products into individual sections helps guide them through a seamless user journey.
With clear navigation, users are more likely to stay on your site longer, explore multiple pages, and engage with the content. This not only improves user satisfaction but also signals to search engines that your site is user-friendly, which can contribute to improved rankings. A well-organized site structure reduces bounce rates and ensures that users can easily find the service or product that meets their needs.
Increase Conversion Rates with Specific Calls-to-Action
Dedicated service and product pages allow for more tailored messaging, including calls-to-action (CTAs) that are specific to each offering. When you create a page focused on a single service or product, you have the opportunity to craft CTAs that speak directly to the visitors’ intent. Whether it’s encouraging them to “Schedule a Free Consultation” or “Buy Now,” customized CTAs align with the specific service or product being offered, increasing the likelihood that visitors will take action.
For example, if you run a landscaping business and have a dedicated page for lawn care services, you can feature a CTA like “Book Your Lawn Assessment Today.” On a page focused on garden design, the CTA might be more specific, such as “Get a Custom Garden Design Quote.” This level of customization ensures that the content is engaging and persuasive, leading to higher conversion rates by addressing the exact needs of your target audience.
Build Trust with Detailed and Relevant Content
When each service or product has its own dedicated page, you can provide more in-depth content that builds trust with potential customers. Detailed service pages allow you to outline the specifics of what you offer, answer frequently asked questions, and highlight the unique value you bring. This transparency helps potential customers feel confident in their decision to engage with your business, whether they’re booking a service or buying a product.
Detailed content also allows you to include testimonials, case studies, and examples of past work, which further enhance credibility. By addressing common customer concerns and offering a comprehensive view of each service or product, you position your business as an expert in your field. As trust builds, so do conversions, as visitors are more likely to choose a company that provides clear, valuable information.
6 Reasons Why your Facebook Ads aren't Generating Leads
If your business relies on leads to come in, then you have probably tried running ads on various mediums in an attempt to bring in more leads. One of those platforms that you probably have tried is Facebook.
Meta (Facebook) has an abundance of benefits including its audience size, low cost per acquisition, and variety of platforms and ad formats. A lot of these benefits will be for nothing if you are not running optimized ads on Facebook.
If you’re currently running Facebook Ads and you are finding that you’re not generating the leads that you want, there are some steps that you can take to improve your results. Running any ad, whether it is on Facebook, Google, or even older mediums like print, requires testing, analyzing, and optimizing in order to find the recipe for success.
Through our many years and many dollars spent, we have come up with 6 reasons why your Facebook Ads aren’t generating leads and tips on how to fix them:
Budget is too Small
The next 5 steps after this one basically outline the order of potential issues that need to be optimized and tested. Until you have that right recipe that works, Meta (Facebook) needs to properly learn the exact behaviours of your audience. This cannot be achieved with a small budget.
If you are constantly running Facebook campaigns with the intention of generating leads on say a $100 budget, and you are not seeing any results, increase your budget.
Facebook needs to learn who your exact audience is and what you are trying to accomplish, which can take time. Let’s not forget that your ad or copy for your ad might not be resonating with your audience either, which could further delay any lead generation.
Once you have figured out a comfortable cost per lead formula, you can reduce or increase your budgets since, in theory, you will know exactly how many leads you will receive for every dollar spent.
Tip: When you first start your campaign, set your budget to a significantly higher amount to force Facebook to learn faster. When you set your budget, Facebook paces itself to ensure they land exactly on your budget, and this unfortunately also means they will slowly learn if your budget is small. Once Facebook passes their learning phase and they understand what you’re trying to accomplish, decrease your budget back in line with what you were intending to spend.
You Chose the Wrong Objective
If you are trying to generate leads, there really are only 2 objectives that you should be using on Meta (Facebook):
- Leads Objective
This objective on Facebook helps businesses create campaigns to attract potential customers by collecting information that moves them through the buying process. You can use this feature to gather lead information through forms, prompt users to call your business, or connect with them via Messenger. When someone clicks on your ad, they can fill out a form with their details, call your business directly, or engage in an automated conversation through Messenger. The Leads objective is unique because it allows you to include built in lead forms, which are the only forms on Facebook ads designed to capture names, email addresses, and other relevant information, making it easier to follow up with qualified leads. - Traffic Objective
If you have a landing page that you know already works, or perhaps you want to retarget on other platforms like Google, you may want to lead the Facebook user to your website. Pros: Typically a lower cost per lead than the Lead Generation objective. You will also generate more “first-click” traffic through this objective, giving you an opportunity to re-target individuals that may not be ready to convert today. Cons: As you will discover on a later point, your landing page is a huge success factor to whether or not this objective will ultimately convert. If you have a poorly designed landing page, revert to using the built-in Facebook form and go with a Leads Objective.
If you are using any other objective to try and generate leads, this is probably the reason you are not generating leads. Moreover, if you are using one of these 2 objectives, you might need to analyze which of the two is best for your business.
Incorrect Audience
When running Facebook ads, it’s crucial to continually evaluate whether your audience targeting is working effectively. If you’re not seeing the leads or conversions you expect, it’s time to take a closer look at your audience strategy. To get a clear understanding of what’s working, start by setting up at least two ad sets to compare performance. This way, you can identify which audience is driving better results. Without this comparison, it’s difficult to pinpoint whether audience targeting is the issue.
We recommend avoiding Facebook’s detailed targeting options, such as choosing specific demographics, interests, and behaviours. Instead, set up two distinct ad sets. The first should use Meta Advantage+ (their AI-powered audience), which leverages artificial intelligence to find potential customers based on real-time data. The second ad set should use a lookalike audience based on website traffic or conversions. This will help you reach people who share similar characteristics with users who have already visited your site or taken meaningful actions, such as making a purchase.
Additionally, enable Advantage Campaign Budget, which allows Meta to distribute your budget automatically to the better-performing ad set. This strategy ensures that your ad spend is being used efficiently, maximizing results based on real-time performance data. By running these two ad sets simultaneously and allowing Meta to optimize your budget, you’ll get a clearer picture of which audience delivers the best results and make informed adjustments going forward.
Tip: You should always have a retargeting strategy in place for previous Facebook users that have engaged with you. Retargeting will always be cheaper than acquiring new Facebook users to engage with. So with that being said, exclude previous website visitors from your other ad sets. If done properly, the users that engage with your ad will be put into a funnel and see different ads. We wrote an article, Step-by-Step Guide to Facebook Funnels for Lead Generation, which goes into more detail about creating a funnel strategy.
Bad Creative and/or Copy
If you’ve already tested your audiences and ad sets but your Facebook ads are still underperforming, it’s time to take a closer look at your ad creatives. Facebook offers a variety of formats for your ads, including photos, videos, stories, carousels, and more. Each format has its strengths, and choosing the right one can make a significant difference in how your audience engages with your ads.
Additionally, your ad creative consists of more than just visuals. There are key sections like ad copy, headlines, link descriptions, and buttons, all of which play a crucial role in how well your ad performs. With so many variables in play, optimizing each element is essential to getting the best results.
We recommend using Dynamic Creative, a feature you can toggle on in the ad set section of your campaign. Dynamic Creative allows you to upload multiple versions of your creatives—such as photos or videos—as well as different ad copy, headlines, and calls-to-action (buttons). Meta will then automatically test various combinations of these elements to determine which works best with your audience.
The advantage of Dynamic Creative is that it removes much of the guesswork. Instead of manually testing one creative at a time, Meta does the heavy lifting by finding the best-performing combinations. You can then review the performance data and make adjustments, such as removing underperforming creatives or refining your ad copy and headlines.
By leveraging Dynamic Creative, you give Meta the flexibility to optimize your ads in real-time, improving the chances of finding the perfect mix of visuals, messaging, and targeting that will resonate with your audience.
Your Offer
Now that you’ve identified the right audience, optimized your creatives, and fine-tuned your ad copy, but your Facebook ad still isn’t converting, it’s time to take a closer look at what you’re offering.
The strength of your offer depends on where your audience is in your funnel and what you’re trying to accomplish. If your goal is to generate traffic for future retargeting, you may not need a highly aggressive offer. In this case, a compelling message that piques interest and captures the user’s attention is enough to bring them into the funnel for later engagement.
However, if you’re deeper into the funnel or aiming to generate leads immediately, you need to ensure your offer is strong enough to entice action. When asking users to provide contact information, you need to provide a compelling incentive—whether it’s a valuable piece of downloadable content or an irresistible “buy now” or “get a quote” offer.
It’s essential to be equipped with multiple offers to test and optimize. If everything else in your campaign is running smoothly, testing different offers can help you lower your cost per lead and increase conversions. Remember, the right offer can make all the difference in turning an interested viewer into a qualified lead or customer.
Landing Page
Once you’ve optimized your audience, creatives, and offer, the next step is ensuring your landing page aligns with the rest of your campaign. If you’re using Facebook lead forms, these built-in forms are a great way to capture leads directly within the platform without requiring users to leave Facebook. These forms are pre-filled with user information, making it easier and faster for users to convert. This can be especially helpful when your goal is to reduce friction and increase the number of leads.
If you prefer using an external landing page, it’s crucial to test different variations to determine what resonates most with your audience. A/B testing is essential here. You can test landing pages with less information, focusing solely on the offer and lead form to keep it simple and direct. This approach is great when you want users to focus purely on taking action without being overwhelmed by too much content.
Alternatively, try testing a landing page with more detailed content, including testimonials, “why us” sections, and clear explanations of what your product or service can do for your customer. This approach works well for audiences that require more convincing before providing their information.
Tip: When using a landing page, it’s important to remove any distractions that might take users away from converting. Avoid including menus, navigation links, or any options that allow users to leave the page. The goal is to keep the user focused on completing the action—whether that’s submitting their contact information, requesting a quote, or signing up for an offer. The fewer opportunities they have to navigate away, the higher the chances of conversion.
Conclusion
Facebook ads have the potential to be a powerful lead generation tool, but they require careful planning, testing, and optimization. By fine-tuning your audience targeting, improving your ad creative, aligning your landing page, and leveraging the full range of ad formats, you can turn underperforming ads into lead-generating machines. Don’t forget to continually monitor and adjust your ads based on performance metrics to ensure they stay effective over time.
How to Generate Leads Online
One of the more challenging aspects of running a service-based company is generating leads. There are a lot of techniques that have been used for decades that companies have tried, including cold calling, print distribution, trade shows, etc. Although these techniques might still work, using online platforms has become a popular choice for companies to use to generate leads in more recent years.
In today’s digital landscape, lead generation has evolved significantly with the rise of social media, search engines, and email marketing. Companies are now able to reach a global audience, attract leads with highly targeted advertising, and use data-driven insights to optimize their strategies. The shift towards online lead generation offers businesses a scalable, cost-effective way to connect with potential clients, and tools like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and LinkedIn make it easier than ever to focus on the specific needs and preferences of your target audience. By integrating digital platforms into their lead generation efforts, companies can not only generate leads more efficiently but also nurture those leads through the entire sales funnel with automated email marketing campaigns, retargeting ads, and personalized landing pages.
Below are some of the strategies that will help you generate more leads online:
1. Embrace Multi-Channel Solutions
There isn’t one way that people use the Internet which also means there isn’t one platform that you should use exclusively.
Some people find companies by searching for their services and others get drawn in by a Facebook ad. Even drilling deeper, some people click on Google paid ads as they are the first thing they see on search results, while others ignore ads and scroll to organic search results.
To master online leads, you need to do a lot of tests and you need to utilize multiple channels to be effective. Some of the channels we have found to work to generate online leads include:
- Google (paid ads and organic)
- Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn for B2B, Twitter)
- Email Campaigns
- Online Directories (Homestars, Better Business Bureau, Yelp)
We have successfully generated thousands of leads each month for our windows and doors clients by combining a variety of digital marketing techniques, including Google Ads, SEO, and targeted social media campaigns. Our approach focuses on reaching high-intent audiences with precision, allowing us to consistently attract qualified leads. By optimizing campaigns through data-driven insights and continuously refining our strategies, we help businesses in this industry grow their customer base effectively. This strategy can be applied across various service-based industries to achieve similar success in lead generation.
Tip: When testing multiple lead generation channels, it’s essential to track and analyze the performance of each one using tools like Google Analytics or social media insights. Focus on refining the channels that deliver the best results, but don’t hesitate to experiment with new ones. Regularly reviewing your data will help you allocate your budget effectively and ensure you’re investing in the platforms that bring the highest-quality leads.
2. Separate Service Pages on your Website
If your business offers more than one type of service, it is always in your best interest to separate these services onto their own dedicated pages. Doing so not only allows you to better showcase each service but also improves your chances of ranking each one organically on search engines. Search engine optimization (SEO) is all about relevance, and when you combine multiple services on one page, it becomes difficult for search engines like Google to determine which keyword or phrase you’re aiming to rank for. Each service-specific page provides an opportunity to target precise, relevant keywords, making it easier for Google to match your content with user search queries.
Additionally, many of your competitors likely have their services broken down into individual pages, giving them a significant SEO advantage. By dedicating a page to each service, they can increase the relevance and focus of the content, allowing Google to better understand what that page is meant to rank for. As a result, Google is more likely to rank their pages higher than yours in search results because their pages are clearer and more optimized for specific services. Furthermore, separating services on individual pages allows you to write more detailed, relevant content that addresses user intent and answers their questions, leading to better user engagement and higher conversions.
Tip: When creating dedicated pages for each service, focus on writing unique, high-quality content that addresses user intent. Use targeted keywords naturally and include supporting elements like testimonials, FAQs, and case studies specific to that service. This not only improves your chances of ranking higher on search engines but also increases engagement and conversion rates by providing relevant information tailored to each service.
3. Online Contests
If you already have an online presence, hosting an online contest is a fantastic way to generate leads while also expanding your email list and social media followers. Contests tend to attract a lot of attention and engagement, especially if the prize is valuable to your target audience. Participants are often required to provide their contact information (such as an email address) or follow your social media accounts to enter, which helps you build a warm audience that’s already familiar with your brand.
To run an effective online contest, you need to develop a clear strategy that outlines who your target audience is and what you aim to achieve with the contest. Are you looking to generate leads for a specific service, build brand awareness, or grow your online community? The more specific your goals, the better you can tailor your contest to attract the right people. The prize you offer should be directly related to your business or services, ensuring that entrants are genuinely interested in what you offer rather than entering just for a generic prize.
If done properly, online contests allow you to tap into warm leads for your service, but they also give you an audience you can directly advertise to in the future. For instance, you can nurture these new contacts through targeted email marketing campaigns or social media ads, increasing the likelihood of conversions down the line. Additionally, contests can help build brand loyalty by fostering engagement and interaction with your followers, strengthening the relationship between your business and potential clients.
Tip: When creating your contest entry form, include qualifying questions that help identify participants who fit the criteria for your service. This not only helps you segment your audience, but also gives you the opportunity to ask those qualified leads if they’d like a quote or more information about your offerings. This proactive approach can immediately turn contest entrants into potential customers.
4. Create an Online Lead Funnel
An online lead funnel is a structured technique for guiding potential customers through the buying process, step-by-step. Rather than expecting visitors to convert right away, the funnel acknowledges that most buyers need multiple touch-points with your brand before making a final decision. These touch-points can include interactions with your social media posts, visiting your website, reading reviews, or receiving an email. Each stage of the funnel brings the user closer to a purchasing decision by gradually building trust and offering more relevant information along the way.
We’ve previously written about the buyer purchase decision process online, which dives deeper into this topic and explains the psychology behind how people make decisions. One of the most common mistakes businesses make when advertising online is trying to capture leads only at the final stage of the buying cycle, ignoring the earlier phases like awareness and consideration. This approach can be costly and ineffective, as potential customers may not be ready to make a decision yet, and you risk losing them to competitors who nurture them throughout the entire funnel.
Developing a well-thought-out lead generation funnel as part of your online strategy not only helps you capture leads at every stage of the buying journey but also saves you money in the long run. By targeting individuals who have already engaged with your brand, you can focus your advertising efforts on people who are genuinely interested, making your campaigns more cost-efficient. Over time, this precise targeting leads to higher-quality leads, better conversion rates, and a more sustainable, effective marketing strategy.
Tip: When building your lead generation funnel, create content tailored to each stage of the buyer’s journey. Use educational content for the awareness stage, detailed comparisons or case studies for the consideration stage, and compelling offers or testimonials at the decision stage. This approach nurtures leads at every point in the funnel, increasing the likelihood of conversion.
5. Produce Consistent and Relevant Content
This is more of a complementary technique to some of our other points as opposed to a technique that will directly generate leads. With that being said, it is still a crucial point in your long-term lead generation strategy.
In point number 4 we discussed creating a funnel to generate leads. The first stage in most lead generation funnels is bringing people into the funnel through addressing a need or answering a question. This is where having blogs, infographics and videos can help. As soon as a user engages with your content, you are now given the opportunity to either retarget or identify similar users that you can advertise to.
Having consistent and relevant content is also a crucial part of SEO, which will help boost your rankings, which will then help boost your leads.
Moreover, when potential buyers do research on your company, it is always a confidence booster to see that you know what you’re talking about through your content.
Tip: Use retargeting ads as part of your lead generation funnel to re-engage potential customers who didn’t convert initially. By showing them tailored content based on their previous interactions, you can keep your brand top-of-mind and gradually move them closer to making a decision.
Generating leads online is an essential part of growing your business, but it requires a strategic approach. From embracing multi-channel marketing to creating an effective lead funnel, businesses must adapt to the dynamic digital landscape to capture and nurture potential customers. By diversifying your lead generation efforts, optimizing your service pages, and ensuring you’re engaging users at every stage of the buying process, you can increase both the quantity and quality of your leads. Remember, it’s not just about driving traffic—it’s about building relationships and trust with your audience over time. The more targeted and thoughtful your strategy, the more effective and cost-efficient your lead generation efforts will become.
Are you Having Trouble Getting a Hold of your Leads?
If you are already investing marketing dollars in online lead generation I am sure you have encountered some leads that are tough to book. Either they are not easy to get a hold of or they don't remember asking to be contacted. This is a common problem and there are a few things you can do with your online marketing efforts to minimize these.
Don’t Make it Too Easy
Having a prospect put in some effort in order to submit their information, is not a bad thing. If you are running Facebook ads, avoid using Facebook lead generation forms that automatically pre-fill the prospect's information from their Facebook profile. Include several fields that must be filled out manually, this will eliminate most trigger happy users and generate more serious inquiries.
Avoid Click-Bait Promotions
In short, don’t list offers that you know are not available to the majority of your prospects. An outrageous promotion may be eye catching and may entice users to engage with your ad, eventually it leads to more questions and less bookings. Consumers know that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Ask Pre-Qualifying Questions Early
When a user engages with your ad, before inviting them to leave their information, ask a couple pre-qualifying questions and get them to engage with your brand. Some pre-qualifying question examples include asking about their property type, number of windows they want replaced or style of windows they are looking at installing.
Ask Your Prospects How They Would Like To Be Contacted
Not everyone is comfortable with speaking on the phone. Ask your prospects how they would like to be contacted. Is it Email, SMS, phone, Social media? Your chances of booking an in-home consultation increases significantly if you tailor your communication to the client’s preference.
When it comes to lead generation, it is always better to have fewer, well qualified leads than having more cold or slightly warm leads. Following the above suggestions will help your online lead generation efforts yield better results while reducing the overall cost per lead.
Why Your Landing Page isn't Converting on Paid Ads
Are you running paid digital ads with the intention of generating leads? Have your attempts led to little to no success? If this is the case, there could be several reasons for the lack of leads ranging from the paid media source, to the ad creative/copy, to the offer or even the audience. From our experience in running paid digital advertising campaigns for our clients, we have found the most critical factor in generating leads through paid digital advertising is having an effective landing page.
Before we jump into what makes a good landing page for paid digital advertising, let's first define what is considered paid digital advertising. Paid digital advertising is a marketing method that involves businesses paying an online platform to show advertisements to consumers in either a pay-per-click or pay-per-impression model. The most popular forms of paid advertising are paid search, social media and banner advertising.
Now if you are doing one of these forms of paid digital advertising and you are not seeing results, here are some reasons why your landing page isn’t converting on paid ads:
Landing Page was Designed for SEO
When designing a page for SEO (search engine optimization), it is usually put together in a way where it is packed with a ton of information pertaining to the product or service that you are trying to rank high on organic searches.
There isn’t anything wrong with this when you are looking at it from a perspective of SEO. Moreover, when consumers are working through the journey of a purchase decision process (read the linked article to learn more about a buyers purchase decision process), having such pages with a lot of information helps satisfy the discovery and research phases.
When you send potential consumers to this page with the intention for converting them to leads, you will find all of this information is too much.
When advertising to generate leads, you are advertising to an audience that is much further down the process in their purchase decision process. Overloading them with more information will likely cause the future customer to overthink their decision and potentially draw them back into a research phase.
If you are running paid ads and you want to convert leads, do not send these customers to your SEO designed landing page.
Too Many Options on your Landing Page
If you are indeed sending paid advertising clicks to your SEO landing page, now you know to send them to a dedicated page which only those that click on paid ads will see.
Now there are businesses that do this already, knowing that their SEO designed pages are not the best destination for paid ads. Are you still having conversion issues? If so, it is probably because you are giving your visitors too many options to click on.
The first thing that you want to do is eliminate your menu and eliminate your footer. When you paid good money for someone to visit your site and convert into a lead, you do not want them to start exploring your website.
Ideally, you would want this landing page to be as simple as possible with only 1 outcome, fill out the form and convert! Now, if your business sees a high conversion rate on phone calls, this might be the 2nd option available, but that should be it.
If the page that you directed them to has many links or opportunities to leave that area, you run the risk of them leaving before they convert.
Lead Capture Form Needs Attention
So, now that we are sending customers to a dedicated landing page and we’ve reduced the options available to click on, we need to figure out what else can be a barrier to submitting information on your landing page.
One other area that we have found affected landing page conversions was the amount of inputs required for a visitor to fill in before they can submit their information. In some cases, having the extra inputs leads to higher intent inquires, but on the flip side this could potentially deter someone immediately as it might optically seem too cumbersome.
With all of our lead generation landing pages, we incorporate quiz style lead capture forms. What is a lead style capture form? This is a form that hides all of the required fields as steps so that the initial shock of what needs to be completed is not initially realized from the start.
Moreover, with this style of form, you can ask questions that can either filter people out based on criteria, or it can ask specific questions based on answers provided. As an example, if your company installs both windows and doors, you probably shouldn’t ask your visitor for how many windows that want replaced if they came for a new door. This form will help you ask the right questions at the right time.
Do these techniques work?
We ran an A/B test with 10 of our home improvement clients where we sent half of the ad viewers to a page on their website pertaining to a service, and then we sent the other half to a proper landing page designed to convert paid advertising visitors.
Our test ran for 30 days and we made sure that the traffic to landing page A and landing page B were of similar size. The results were as follows:
Landing Page A - Regular Page on Website
- 5.82% of all visitors converted
- Best client had a 8.61% conversion rate
- Worst client had a 2.02% conversion rate
Landing Page B - Landing Page Designed for Paid Advertising
- 11.86% of all visitors converted
- Best client had a 18.57% conversion rate
- Worst client had a 8.06% conversion rate
How We Generate Thousands of Leads a Month for our Windows and Doors Clients
If you are in the Windows and Doors industry, then you know that generating leads is essential for your business. From our experience we have seen Windows and Doors businesses utilize one of the following to generate leads:
- Mail drops through the postal service
- Buy recycled leads from online companies
- Hire a digital marketing agency to do SEO and online advertising
- Do nothing and rely on word-of-mouth
While all of these techniques probably generate a moderate amount of leads, Retailors Group has worked with dozens of Windows and Doors businesses over the last 3 years and we consistently generate over 1000 leads per month for our clients using a tried, tested and true system.
So how do generate these thousands of leads every month?
Facebook Ads Using Lead Forms
Maybe you have tried Facebook/Instagram ads in the past and have not seen the results that you were hoping for. But why is it there are still over 3 million businesses that use Facebook for paid digital advertising?
The reason for this is simple, certain businesses and industries have found the right audience and Facebook campaign that generates consistent and reliable results.
When we launch Facebook Ads for Windows and Doors clients, we always use Facebook’s built-in instant forms. The built-in instant form allows you to collect contact information from people who may be interested in your business or service without requiring those people to leave Facebook or Instagram.
We have found that we generate 4 times more leads for windows and doors clients using lead forms vs taking potential leads to a website or landing page.
Google Search Ads Straight to Lead Capture
If you are generating online leads for your Windows and Doors business, you have either tried Google Search Ads or you are already running Google Search Ads. You are probably also aware that the cost-per-click for keywords associated with Window and Doors tend to be higher.
So how do we maximize on converting the clicks? We have found that straight-to-the-point landing pages that lead consumers to an action work better than leading consumers to a regular website. Moreover, we have found that getting straight to the lead capture form upon the click from a Google search ad, eliminating all of the distractions from a landing page or website, generates 27% more leads.
On top of knowing what works for where to bring clients that click on your ad, we also have the experience specifically with Windows and Doors clients which means we have the list of negative keywords and have the winning copy for ads, both of which help maximize on higher intent clicks.
SEO for Window and Doors
There is a big difference in hiring an SEO company and hiring an SEO company that specializes in Windows and Doors. A lot of our current Windows and Doors clients have worked with another SEO company prior to working with us. What we have seen is other SEO companies treat Windows and Doors companies like they would treat any other industry. Unfortunately, this strategy puts an emphasis on “ranking” keywords vs generating leads.
At Retailors Group we have an SEO strategy that works for Windows and Doors:
- Separate your window pages from your door pages to rank higher intent searches
- Create city pages to maximize local searches
- Content writers dedicated to writing Widows and Doors content for better ranking
Moreover, we will also make necessary changes to your website as required to ensure when consumers land on it, they convert into leads.
Contests that Generate Leads
We see a lot of contests being run by companies nowadays. For the most part, these contests are designed to increase social media followers, increase email subscribers and increase general brand awareness and exposure. While these are all good reasons for contest creation, we have found the formula to utilize these contests to generate leads.
What we do is ask contest entrants a set of filtering questions. Essentially, we want to find entrants that fit the criteria of an ideal Windows and Doors lead. If entrants answer questions that do not meet criteria (ie they are renting or live in a condo), they will be simply asked to enter the contest.
If the entrant does meet the criteria, they will be shown a promotion and asked if they want to get a quote. If they say no to the quote, we at least know that this individual meets the criteria of an ideal customer and we will ask this individual to opt-in to an email list and continue to nurture them through emails and retargeting ads.
Customer Nurturing
As touched on above, when we work with Windows and Doors customers, we help nurture known customers. Who is a known customer? A known customer is one that we have either captured through a contest, email opt-in form or one that we know anonymously through a Facebook Pixel or Google Analytics Cookie.
For those that we know through an email address, we will send them monthly newsletters with offers. For those that we only know via a cookie, we will retarget these individuals through social media ads as well as Google display ads.
To summarize, we are a trusted Windows and Doors Marketing Agency. We put the focus on generating leads vs other vanity metrics that our competitors like to talk about. Still skeptical? Try our guaranteed leads package to experience first-hand a good sample of what we can deliver.
Step by Step Guide to Facebook Funnels for Lead Generation
If you run a service-based business that relies on inbound leads coming in, then you have probably started to strategize on how to generate leads online.
Facebook ads gives you an opportunity to tap into a large base of users while utilizing their advanced targeting algorithm to help find the right person most likely to engage with your company.
So what is a lead generation funnel? A lead generation funnel is a technique that brings potential buyers along a journey with your brand, allowing for multiple touchpoints, until they eventually convert.
A potential buyer needs multiple touchpoints with your brand before they eventually decide to do business with you. According to Salesforce, it takes 6 to 8 touches to generate a viable sales lead.
We talked about embracing a multi-channel approach to generating leads in a previous article, how to generate leads online, but today we will discuss how you can utilize Facebook to create these multiple touchpoints which will bring you leads.
In a nutshell, what we are trying to accomplish here is to bring in traffic, keep this traffic engaged with your brand, show this traffic what you can do for them, and then aggressively propose to this traffic to do business with you. Finally, at the end of the funnel, get the conversion.
I have mentioned several times in previous articles, big mistake marketers make is trying to cut corners and exclusively advertise at the end of the funnel only. I get it, this is where advertising expenses turn into revenue, but by skipping the other steps in the funnel, you will end up spending a lot more money trying to attract the right customer.
On a high-level overview, this is what the funnel will look like:
Before we get started, there are a couple of pre-requisites required. First, make sure you have Facebook Business Manager setup and make sure you have your Facebook Pixel installed on your website. Secondly, you should have a basic understanding of how to create campaigns, ad sets, and ads in Facebook Ads Manager, as we won't go into the basics of creating ads.
If you have these pre-requisites covered, let's get started!
1. Bring New Potential Leads In
With this being the top of the funnel, it is crucial that we keep this stage as full as possible. Remember, if it takes 6-8 touch points before conversion, you will need time between this first step and the last step. In order for this funnel to work, new fresh potential leads need to keep pouring in.
In order to bring new fresh leads in, we are going to attract them through content.
Content
What problem will your product or service solve? Who is your ideal customer? What differentiates your product or service versus your competition? These are all crucial answers that you need to answer when it comes to developing content that you want to share and use to attract potential buyers to your site.
Seeing that we need approximately 6-8 touchpoints before a lead conversion, I would recommend having a minimum of 3 pieces of content. These content pieces can come in the form of blogs, infographics, or videos. Having a variety of content mediums and a variety of subjects will also help with the effectiveness as it will keep your ads fresh.
Create your Audience
After you have your content ready, it is time to create your audience on Facebook. Ideally, you will want to create a look-a-like audience on your website traffic. A look-a-like audience is basically a set of people that Facebook determines are similar to those that have taken action on your website.
Remember, Facebook houses an enormous amount of data on interests, behaviours, and demographics of everyone that uses any of their platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and even websites that use their Audience Network Ads. Instead of guessing who your audience is, let Facebook do the work on your behalf.
Now, if you don't have a lot of traffic coming to your website, it will be very difficult for Facebook to find commonalities on small sample size. If you're not generating at least 1000 website visitors a month, you will need to create a cold audience based on who you believe is your target audience. Facebook has a tool, Facebook Audience Insights, which can help you create that cold audience.
When you finally go ahead and save your audience with detailed geographical targeting, be sure to exclude previous website visitors and your Facebook fans. The intention of this stage of the funnel is the first contact with your brand.
Create Your Ad
Now that you have your audience created, it's time to run your first ad. Let's go ahead and choose the "Traffic" objective. Since we already created the audience, go ahead and add them to your ad set. When it comes to your ad, choose one of the content pieces that you believe will draw the most traffic to your website.
Our goal is to bring fresh traffic in so we can bring these users along on their purchase journey with your company. Moreover, the more traffic that comes in will allow Facebook to better understand who your target audience is, thus making your look-a-like audience that much more accurate.
2. Keep Potential Lead Engaged
Now that our new leads are starting to visit your site, it is time to keep them engaged with your brand. Remember, we need multiple touchpoints, which is the purpose of this step.
Create your Audience
For this step, we want to target individuals that have already visited the content that you put out. For those with a limited budget, you can simply just retarget ALL previous website visitors knowing that you will hit all of those potential leads from step 1. If you have a bit more of a budget, it will be more accurate to target only those individuals that visited the very specific page where the content you provided is available.
In Facebook Audiences, go ahead and create a custom audience, choose website traffic and add people who visited specific web pages with the URL containing the page of the content you provided in step 1.
So now, we are basically telling Facebook to only show this ad to people who saw and clicked on our first ad.
You will want to repeat this process at least one more time if your budget permits as you want to continue having this potential lead see your ads and content to get familiar with your brand.
Create Your Ad
First this stage we are going to use the "reach" objective for these ads. The "reach" objective is typically a bad campaign to use when we are trying to bring in new traffic as Facebook will show your ad to as many as people as possible, regardless if they click or not. In our case with this stage of the funnel, we want to show this ad to ALL individuals that have already clicked a previous ad, so in this case, this objective works perfectly.
We are going to use this new audience in the ad set and reduce our budget vs step 1 since we are dealing with a smaller audience.
3. Introduce Product/Service
Now that your potential lead has engaged with 2-3 of your content pieces, it is time to start introducing them to your product or service.
Before we start showing ads to promote your product/service, let's make sure your intended landing page is ready to potentially convert. Although we have another step past this one, there is a good possibility that your potential lead can convert at this stage.
Some areas to consider on your landing page:
- Above the fold should clearly state the problem your lead wants to solve
- Multiple opportunities throughout the page to convert (call now, form submission, buy now, etc.)
- Features and benefits of your product/service
- Testimonials
If you are confident that you covered all of these points, let's go ahead and create your audience.
Create your Audience
Similar to step 2, if budget restraints are an issue, it is safe to just retarget ALL website visitors at this step. The problem with doing this is you will potentially be showing this to potential leads that only saw your ad once.
The proper way to do this is to create a custom audience of individuals that have journeyed through the first 2 steps of your funnel.
In Facebook Audiences, go ahead and create a custom audience, choose website traffic and add people who visited specific web pages with the URL containing the page of the content you provided in step 1. You will now click on + Include More People, then click on +And Also to add the URL containing the page of the content you provided in step 2.
Here, we are basically telling Facebook to show our ad to those individuals that have passed through 2 steps in our funnel. If we did this properly, we will now have an audience of potential leads that are warm to your brand.
Create Your Ad
Similar to the prior step, we will choose the "reach" objective and use this new audience for our ad set.
4. Make a Compelling Offer
Now that we have a potential user that has moved along on your funnel, it is time to advertise a strong call-to-action to generate the lead.
So to recap up to this point, our potential lead has now seen at least 2-3 content pieces and has seen at least one ad about the products/services that you carry. This individual is showing a lot of interest in the services you carry and it is time to get them to convert.
Create your Audience
In Facebook Audiences, go ahead and create a custom audience, choose website traffic and add people who visited specific web pages with the URL containing the page of your product/service page that you used in step 3.
Create Your Ad
Since we are dealing with an audience that is showing high interest in your product/service, it is now in your best interest to advertise a strong offer to get them to now convert. My recommendation would be to create a landing page that helps support this specific offer that you are advertising.
If you don't have access to creating a landing page, Facebook allows you to create a lead form that you can use to collect lead information right from Facebook.
5. Convert
Now that you have your lead information it is time to contact your lead and make your sale!
The only portion involved through Facebook for this step is to exclude all of your converted leads into your custom audience in step 4. These converted leads should now be nurtured a separate way for retention purposes.
If you use your own landing page, there will be extra work required. You will need to tag your form and create a custom conversion on Facebook. If you used Facebooks built-in form, simply choose "Lead Form" when creating your custom audience.
Need Help Generating Leads?
Retailors Group is a full sales and marketing agency. We utilize various digital marketing techniques like SEO and paid digital advertising to generate online leads.