Self Storage Google Ads During Covid-19

A Changing Business World

The world as we know it is changing dramatically before our eyes as a result of the current Covid 19 pandemic.
Many businesses are on hold and sadly many will not survive the current situation – even those that do survive are facing a lot of uncertainty about the future and having to adapt and evolve quickly.

The Self-Storage Industry thankfully has weathered the storm a lot better than most and the majority of facilities have been able to adapt and continue providing services, even during periods of lockdown.

Paid Marketing Changes

It is estimated that the likes of Google & Facebook will lose around £30 Billion in ad revenue alone as a result of the worldwide shutdown – this shows that many many businesses are no longer using advertising their businesses on the platforms or have at the very least scaled back their efforts.

As the Storage Industry is still doing well overall, it is important that PPC advertising continues to be a core marketing strategy during these unprecedented and difficult times and that accounts are well structured, targeted and optimised to ensure that the highest number of leads can be achieved as cost effectively as possible.

Top Pandemic Paid Ad Tips

#1 – USP’s & advert messaging

If you have any adapted or new offerings that tie in with the pandemic, ensure that these are detailed in your ads and on your website. Also ensure that your pre-Covid ad copy is still relevant in the current climate.

If you have any concerns that potential Customers might be worried about using your facility due to the virus situation, highlight that your business is Social Distancing complaint and that they can use your services as if it was business as usual.

#2 – Budget analysis and cost per lead

With everything that has been going on, it is the perfect time to re-evaluate your ad strategy. Paying attention to your budgeting and especially your conversion costs ensuring that your cost per new customer is viable. These figures can easily be understood by reviewing your ad spend & correlating with the number of enquiries that then turned into actual Customers.

#3 – Understand search behaviours

During the lockdown & social distancing period, many people have been spending even more time online researching & less people are actually converting due to furlough, financial & economic factors.

Clearly communicate the services you currently have available & make sure that your unique selling points are clear & highlighted in your ads & via your ad extensions.

As many people may be in ‘researching’ mode but not quite in buying mode, it is important to utilise remarketing strategies to build brand awareness with these people for a period and increase the chance of them coming back to you when they are ready to go.

#4 – Top of funnel & cold advertising

In the Self-Storage Industry, it is often much harder to work with a cold audience – those that are not specifically searching for storage related services. Display ads performance can often be hit or miss, however during the current Covid-19 situation, as many people are in research mode rather than making decisions, this gives top of funnel advertising more of a chance of working than usual so it is worth testing.

A good example is to direct cheap display traffic to some good content such as blogs on your site and these visitors will then fall into your remarketing audiences and trigger ads showcasing your services and offers to them for several weeks after, helping build brand awareness and encouraging them to choose you when they are in decision mode.

#5 – Getting back to normal

When lockdown restrictions are lifted, many Consumers will move from research mode into decision making mode and may be ready to use a storage service. New potential types of Customers may increase as a result of the lockdown situation and pressures eg: separating couples so be aware of these.

It is important to ensure that your paid advertising campaign budgets are working as hard as possible, especially coming out of the lockdown and that your Google ad strategy is strong to ensure that you are getting the attention of as many available prospects as possible. If you would benefit from a FREE Google Ads review or chat about your Google Ads strategy, click on the link below to arrange a chat:

https://www.scheduleyou.in/MAkMRLeEr