I get it, you probably think that building your personal brand is all about brand positioning, networking and referrals, right? Well, yes, if that's your current marketing focus. But is it as effective as you think it is?
What do you think those people do straight after they meet you? They Google you. They may go directly to your website, but more often than not, they will Google search for your personal name or your brand. And what they find will play a bigger part in their decision whether or not to engage your services than you might think.
To help these potential customers find the information they seek, you must first ensure your website is in the number one position for your own brand search. This is critical. If you can’t be found immediately, or competitors rank before your brand, your chances of engagement are immediately diminished. Convenience is everything, and many will likely disengage if you don’t rank well.
Now, for those of you patting yourself on the back because you already rank in Google for your brand name, you probably still need to protect your organic ranking with paid ad listings. Before you know it, competitors may be placing ads above your website’s organic results for your brand in Google search. Remember what we just said? Convenience is key.
But, running broad ‘brand-name’ ads is just the bare minimum. You simply can’t expect to get the best results from Google Ads without a proactive, ‘narrow-focus’ to your campaigns. Your perfect customer is out there — you just need to target them directly.
Getting Your Personal Brand Found Online
You’re probably used to meeting people in-person and introducing them to your brand, and perhaps your business is heavily focused on personal referrals from others. But it’s crucial to remember that people that are looking for a solution to a problem or a particular service are also actively searching on Google. They are online right now looking for someone just like you!
There are two common reasons why businesses are hesitant to embrace Google Ads. You may believe that your business is too specialised or niched to find success on the platform. Or you may have tried Google Ads in the past, spent a lot of money and just not received the results you were looking for. Both of these concerns can be flipped by fundamentally changing the way you set up your Google Ads account.
Develop Your ‘Narrow-Focus’
By default, Google Ads accounts are set up to target broad search terms; for example, targeting the keyword “plumber”. But broad search terms like these are also the least cost-effective. There are a few key reasons people seem to always target the most expensive search terms:
- Google’s system is built to make them money, so defaults will always be broad.
- Most agencies charge % of spend so they actually benefit when you spend more.
- It takes more work to set up and manage “narrow-focus” campaigns, as opposed to broad campaigns.
- Success in Google Ads requires out-of-the-box strategy and implementation.
It’s critical to remember that Google Ads is essentially an auction. So, why go to an auction that is full of thousands of people? It means less chance of getting what you want. Focusing your targeting and ad-spend on more specific terms — for example; “rinnai solar hot water installer Bentleigh” — increases your odds because there are likely far fewer competitors in the running.
You are much more likely to find success by targeting 1000 keywords that only get 10 searches per month than by targeting 1 keyword that gets 10,000 searches per month. It’s all about making the odds more in your favor.
Instead of relying on the usual Google Ads methods, or completely giving up on pay-per-click marketing, take the time to think deeper about who your perfect customers are, what they would be searching for and how to get your brand in front of them. Being laser-focused in your advertising means you can gain more clients who love what you do, and those clients are just the tip of the iceberg.
