Google Ads for Funeral Homes 101: Part 1 – Campaign Setup

Rob shares his strategy in setting up Google Ads (formerly AdWords) campaigns for Funeral Homes and Cremation Providers who are trying to attract at-need first calls. He explains Bidding and Location settings and explains the importance of Ad Rank and the use of Negative Keywords. For more information about Funeral Results Marketing, check out our Funeral Home Website section, Cremation Arrangement section, or Digital Marketing Services section on our website or contact Rob at [e-mail] or at 1-800-810-3595. See the complete transcript here: Rob Heppell: Welcome back to the Funeral X Podcast. I am Robin Heppell and I'm joined with my Funeral Results Marketing business partner, Jake Johnson. Hey there, Jake. Jake Johnson: Hey Rob. Rob Heppell: How's it going today? Jake Johnson: Life is good, right? We're all living the dream. Rob Heppell: We are. Well, this is good. We're getting close to the spring here. Although I know in Arizona, you guys don't see many differences in the seasons, where we are, we yearn for the spring. Jake Johnson: Yes. We usually look for January, February, and March to just be repeatable, and that just never happens. Rob Heppell: Yes. I don't think other places up north here, near the 49th parallel, want any repeat of December, January, February. Jake Johnson: Yes, there's usually not much sympathy with my statement. Rob Heppell: Hey, today, I think we're going to go into, we've had some questions come in about Google Ads and getting it set up for a funeral home and getting it set up for online cremation. And I thought maybe I just run through like a best practices, like a 101 getting it set up. There are obviously going to be more advanced things to do, but obviously, we'd like to help folks out with these services. But I think just even having a better understanding, it's good to know at least what you're getting into, whether you do it or not versus being totally oblivious to all the things that go on inside those accounts. And as you know, it continues to change. Google keeps on changing the tactics they're trying. They are getting more artificial intelligence working and machine work in there. And it doesn't always favor funeral homes. So I thought I just run through that and maybe feel free to ask questions as we go, as you are a funeral home owner yourself in an online cremation business. Jake Johnson: I think it's definitely a valuable thing to go through. My first introduction to Google Ads, Rob, as you venture into explaining to everybody what it does, was for me it was like 2006 and I was asking my neighbor about it. And I said, "Do you do it?" He says, "Well, it's very much part of my business." He had an online training business. I said, "Well, how much do you spend?" I felt like a big guy. I spend 2,500 a month in ads spend and had these keyword campaigns I was constantly refining. And he said he spent about 30,000 a month. It just floored me.And I'll tell you what it was. It was a lesson though in something that, in sales, we don't see the big picture sometimes. And that's determining how much is the… I think you have the overall, you have [ROAS] I think you call, but the cost for the acquisition of the customer or whatever it is you're selling. And so for him 30,000 a month translated into exponential growth for his company. And I think we can all get blinded by costs and not realize what it's doing for our business, but as you know, and I'm sure you're going to share, I mean, there are certain things you need to be aware of because if you're spending, I'll use 2,500, if you're spending 2,500 incorrectly, then you're not getting the returns and you're just blowing money. But you're feeling good because you got Google Ads. I mean, there's definitely a trick to it and I learned a lot from you. So I think it's a good episode. Rob Heppell: Yes, you bet.