How to use Google Ads for a photo booth business
- Boothco Limited -
For most photo booth rental businesses, the first place to start is with Google search campaigns, as these allow your business to show on the SERPs when a potential customer is Googling a keyword related to what you offer. Search ads work by bidding a specific amount to appear for a certain keyword on the search engine result page.
One of the most important elements is understanding which keywords you wish to appear for. You will want to ensure that the keywords that you are bidding on are completely relevant to your audience and that you can “convert” (e.g get enquiries from) those who do click on your adverts. This will mean that you are not spending money on clicks that drive the wrong type of traffic to your website.
How to choose keywords for photo booth Google ads
Before embarking upon any Google campaign, it’s important that you consider what keywords are going to be the most relevant for your potential customers. This means thinking about what someone looking for your business may type into the search bar when searching for your services.
For example – someone may be searching “photo booth hire for a wedding in Kent” – and if you are a photo booth business based in Kent – you certainly want to be appearing when someone types this into Google. It’s worth bearing in mind that nearly one-third of mobile searches are related to a location – so consider whether your customers are likely to be searching by area, and the areas which you want to and can work in. Another consideration is the type of events you want to do – weddings, corporate, parties are all terms which may be used by someone looking for your services. So for example “hire a photobooth for awards night” may be a top terms for you. The best way to start your keyword research is by putting together a list of what we would call “seed keywords”. These are the main keywords that you think suit your business best.
How to do keyword research
Now you have your “seed keywords” it’s important to find out whether
- a) Anyone is searching for them
- b) How much each click might cost you.
There are several tools which you can use to do this, but if you are new to Google ads, one of the easiest resources is to look in the keyword planner which is located in Google ads itself.
Here’s an example of keywords relating to photobooth hire
This allows you to type in a “seed keyword” and will then give you suggestions, alongside the minimum recommended bid.
Additionally – Google gives you an option of three types of “match”.
Broad match
Phrase match
Exact match
We recommend that you do not use broad match keywords, as they are likely to return irrelevant clicks, which will cost you money with no return.
Adding Negative Keywords to your Google Ads
Be careful! You only want to add keywords that are relevant to people looking to hire a photobooth. Remember every click to your site that is irrelevant wastes your budget. To ensure that you are not wasting your click budget you should create a list of negative keywords – some examples would be search terms such as “photo booth for sale” or “DIY photobooth”. Also, if you focus on a specific type of event, it can also be worth excluding keywords for others. For example, if you don’t want to weddings – it is wise to exclude the term “weddings” from your campaigns, as again this will waste your advertising budget.
How should I structure Google ads for a photo booth business?
One of the biggest mistakes that business owners make when setting up Google search ads is misunderstanding how Google ads should be structured. So let’s talk about the different elements of search ads.
Campaign
A campaign is the top level of your adverts. Here you set the campaign type (search, video etc). This is also where things like location are set, so it’s important that if you are targeting a range of locations and want to exclude others, that you set up a different campaign for each area.
Your budget is also set at campaign level – so again you may wish to consider how much you wish to spend on each location – keywords in London for example may cost more than in Lincoln. So adjust your budget accordingly.
Ad sets
An ad set is where you will group a set of keywords together. Why do this rather than lump them into one big group? The answer is relevancy. You need to ensure that the ads showing are relevant for the search term that someone has entered into Google.
For example if someone searches
“Hire Magic Mirror, SE1” and your ads lead with “Rent a photo booth in London” is not as relevant. ‘
And while not being relevant could cost you a loss of clicks, more importantly, it could actually mean that your bid is higher – thanks to something called Quality Score. Google ranks your ads on how relevant they are to a search term, and a quality score below 5 means you pay more per click.
Ads
Your ads are what display on the SERP. It’s always recommended that you test at least three ads in each ad set. However, you also have an option to use a ccc ad, which allows you to upload multiple headings and descriptions and Google will show the most relevant one for each search.
Tracking conversions for your Google Ads
One of the biggest mistakes that many business owners who are new to Google ads make is not tracking their conversions. A conversion is an event that has value to you. Some examples of a likely conversion event for a photobooth business include:
Someone making an enquiry via a form on your website
Someone calling you directly from your advert (phone call from Google)
Someone calling you from a number displayed on your website
If you have a booking function– someone directly booking photobooth rental through your website. By setting up conversion tracking you are able to link any of these actions directly back to your adverts – finding out which keyword, which advert, and which campaign is driving new business. This allows you to put your budget against the keywords that give you the best returns, and also craft adverts that are more likely to win you clients.
There are several ways to set up conversion tracking (and it’s worth noting that tracking calls on your website will require a third party software). For more info on conversion tracking take a look at Google’s own guide here.
How much do Google ads cost for a photo booth business?
The amount you may need to spend on Google ads will vary depending on your location and also what other businesses are bidding. Right now – many photo booth keywords cost less than £1 per click, and some are incredibly low.
We recommend having a budget that will cover at the very least 10 clicks per day so using an example of £0.50 per click would mean at least a £5/day budget. However, as the auction changes, the cost per click may increase, so build this into your Google ads marketing budget.
If you are considering using Google ads for your photo booth business and are not too sure where to start – why not get in touch with us to find out how we can help.