You’ve developed a premiere spa website. The user experience is nothing short of stellar. The launch was great. And your current clients are effortlessly using all the features you’ve left at their fingertips.

Hurray!

Still, after an initial revenue bump, growth is stagnant again. And you’re ready to see bigger returns on this investment.

It is right about this time that most spa business owners consider online marketing. And Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads are often where they decide to invest.

If you’re exploring PPC marketing, keep these three tips in mind for running this type of campaign.

Research How Pay-Per-Click Ads Work

You can set up a Pay-Per-Click campaign in essentially four steps:

1. Create your ad.
2. Set your target.
3. Determine your bids and budgets.
4. Input your campaign dates.

Done right, PPC ads are proven to be able to double your money, and Google reports that for searches on terms suggesting a desire to purchase, paid ads get 65 percent of all clicks.

But simplicity doesn’t equate to ease – or profitability.

There are strategies behind the timing and location of ad placement, selecting keywords that garner profitable clicks, and setting budgets and campaign lengths to limit spend.

Done wrong, a campaign can cost a spa owner a small fortune… without the expected return.

For example, say you choose a popular industry term (like Microdermabrasion Facial) and set the bid at $10 per click. If 10 people click on your ad per day for an entire month, you’ve spent $3,000 in just 30 days. You would need (34) $90 bookings just to break even.

How likely is that? Probably not very.

Make sure your bids are set at a reasonable amount. Set spending caps. And most importantly, schedule a regular time to monitor your costs and how much business your ads are generating.

Consider Outsourcing to a PPC Agency

Just as you specialize in running a spa business, there are people (in fact, entire agencies) dedicated to online advertising campaigns.

In addition to the licensing and permitting you’ve retained to become a spa treatment professional in the first place, we recognize that over time you’ve likely worn titles ranging from spa manager and booking agent to customer service rep and back-end accountant.

And while running your spa business has required your adaptation into a jack (or jill) of all trades, online campaigns have the potential for not only being a bust, but downright putting you in the hole without expert management.

For this reason, consider outsourcing your campaigns to an online ad agency specializing in PPC. A savvy business owner knows their limitations… and how to find the right people and resources to overcome them.

Know Enough to Evaluate Your Campaigns

Whether you decide to leave your PPC campaigns to the professionals or manage it yourself, you should understand the metrics you’re reviewing.

Here are a few key things to know as you get started:

• PPC ads have three elements. The headline, text, and a link. You can run tests by changing up one element and keeping the rest the same. Then see which ad performs better. Keep the better ad — and then try changing something again to see if you can beat those new results.
• You want to be able to track your conversion rate. Click through Rate (CTR) tracks how often people click on an add after viewing it. But not everyone who clicks will ultimately lead to a conversion. The Conversion Rate tracks how often users actually turn into clients or subscribers.
• You’ll need to decide what you consider a conversion. If you sell products and services on your website, this is likely easy. But maybe you are trying to get people to call you. Or sign up for your newsletter. Think about what actions you want users to take — and the value of those particular actions.
• You should make use of Geographical Targeting. As a brick-and-mortar business, you are only interested in people within a certain radius of your spa’s location. You should ensure your ads are only displayed to these people through the use of geographic targeting.
• You should consider user intent when targeting keywords. What words are people using when they search for your spa? Is it a specific treatment? A certain neighborhood? Use Google’s Keyword Planner to brainstorm ideas. But before you jump on any term, ask yourself: is this a phrase that a customer would realistically search for in order to find my business?

You will always be the final decision-maker, and confidence is key. With a little research and regular check-ins, you’ll know your PPC ad campaign is steering your spa’s financials deep into the green.

Looking for more ways to grow?

Helping spas and estheticians to grow their businesses is what we do at NewMed Concepts. Sign up for our upcoming training classes, subscribe to our newsletter, and text NEWMED to 484848 to stay up-to-date.