Even with all the data showing that consumers increasingly rely on online search to make purchase decisions, some local business owners still resist spending money on search marketing. Handling objections to search marketing is an important skill for digital sales teams.
Here are the five objections our digital sales specialists come across most frequently – and how to overcome them.
Objection 1: Search Marketing is expensive.
“I don’t have hundreds or thousands of dollars to put into a search campaign every month.”
Your answer: “Advertising is only expensive if it doesn’t work. A good search marketing campaign will bring new leads to your business every month – because the people who are looking for the products and services you sell are using Google and Bing to find them. What percentage of your new prospects end up hiring you or buying from you? What’s a new customer worth over the course of a month, a year, a decade? If we could get you X leads per month for a budget of Y, you’d be making more money than you’d spend on search ads.”
Hint: Use MatchCraft’s estimator tool to figure out the likely cost per lead; check the Google AdWords Selector Tool to see average bids for the customer’s keyword. If you’ve worked with other businesses in the same industry, share success stories – nothing changes a prospect’s mind faster than hearing about competitors’ success.
Objection 2: Search Marketing won’t bring me the right customers.
“I don’t want to pay for random people who happen to click through to my website.”
Your answer: “When we build your search advertising campaign, we use ultra-precise targeting that lets us dictate who sees your ads. They won’t be random people – they’ll be the people who are looking for exactly what you do and sell. We’ve managed more than 300,000 campaigns across hundreds of industries, and we use that historical data to find the right keywords and best time of day to deliver optimal performance from your search ads.”
Hint: Optimization plays a part here too. Our campaigns aren’t “set it and forget it” – we’re constantly reviewing and tweaking to make sure we’re delivering the right clicks and calls to every advertiser.
Objection 3: Search Marketing is not necessary.
“The marketing methods I’m using now are working fine.”
Your answer: “Three billion people will be using the Internet in 2015. They’ll be spending more than six hours each day online. Google processes more than 100 billion searches every month. And, by the way, mobile searches will be 70% of the total U.S. search audience this year. These numbers grow every year – and if you don’t jump in now your business will be left behind.”
Hint: Search is the best way to find people who are looking for a business’s products and services at that moment, but display and remarketing ads offer additional opportunities to reach users as they move around the Internet. What’s more, search campaign performance rises when an advertiser uses both search and display ads. Now’s the time to talk about a combined approach.
Objection 4: Search Marketing is a pain to set up.
“I don’t have time to figure all this stuff out – I’ve got a business to run.”
Your answer: “That’s why we’re here. We don’t think you should have to learn all the ins and outs of running search marketing campaigns – it’s complicated and time-consuming. Once we have a few basic facts in hand, we’ll take care of setting up your campaigns, tracking the data, and adjusting them as necessary to deliver the best results. Let us handle your search marketing so you can concentrate on your business.”
Hint: This part is about trust – are you guys really going to do a good job for me? Focus on the qualifications of the team who will be managing the campaign, including certifications, decades of experience, and data from hundreds of thousands of campaigns.
Objection 5: Search Marketing is hard to figure out if it’s working.
“I don’t have time to go through mountains of data. And I don’t want to spend money on something that’s not bringing me new business.”
Your answer: “Our Merchant Center gives you clear, transparent reporting so you can see in a glance the results you’re getting from your search campaign. You’ll know exactly how much you’ve spent and exactly how many clicks, calls and emails you’ve gotten as a result. You can even listen to the calls through our call-tracking feature. Of all the marketing you’re doing, search marketing offers the best visibility into what you’re actually getting out of it.”
Hint: Even with 24/7 access to the Merchant Center, many clients will want you to walk them through their results. Take that opportunity to show them what’s working and discuss shifting (or increasing!) budget away from under-performing keywords and toward the ones that are converting best.
Follow these tips for handling objections to search marketing and you’ll start to convince local businesses that search marketing really works.