Do you want to start out with Google Ads for Financial Advisors? If you are unfamiliar with creating and monitoring Google Ads, here is a complete guide on everything you need to know in order to create Google Ads for Financial Advisors. Google Ads has an excellent method of tracking your client engagement so you can expand your reach wider than it has ever been and beat your competitors! Why wait when you can start growing your profits today?
1. How would Google Ads for Financial Advisors work?
Google ads are advertisements that appear on Google’s search engine results page. To get a chance to appear in a favorable position in the search results, advertisers bid for keywords that potential clients will use to find services. They pay for the ads when someone clicks on the ad (called Pay-Per-Click, or PPC).
1.1 Difference with SEO
SEO (or search engine optimization) is a process that allows websites to organically rank high in search results. To rank above other competitors, you will need to dedicate time and effort to curating high-quality content. This high rank will make your services more visible to those seeking them.
On the other hand, Google Ads provides quick and more reliable results. If you need immediate results, Google Ads are the best way to accomplish your initiatives. We have clients who are brand new to Google Ads but end up being satisfied with what Google Ads has allowed them to achieve. Once you have begun to grow your business, you can turn to SEO for consistent and long-term goals. Here is an ahrefs article on Google Chrome extensions that help with SEO.
1.2 Get Started with Your Account
Use this link to get to Google Ads; selecting “Start Now” will prompt you to either sign in to your preexisting Gmail account or create a new one.
Want to learn more about Google Ads?
2. Financial Advisors Service Campaign Set-Up
After logging in to your Google ads account, select “+New Campaign”
For the best results, choose the option to create your campaign without selecting any goal. Avoid using any unwanted features that may not be worth the cost.
After this, select “Search” for the campaign type as this is the most beginner-friendly option to start out with.
You do not have to select any results or ways of tracking conversions right now, as we will get to this later.
2.1 What are the General Settings?
Under Networks, make sure neither box is checked.
- We do not want the option under Search Network because we only want to appear in the Google Search Engine, not Google’s search partners.
- We do not want the option under Display Network because want to appear in results only for keywords we desire.
2.2 Dates and URL Settings for Financial Advisors Campaign
- If you don’t set a date for your campaign, it will continue running until you terminate it.
- Make sure to regularly check on your ads to avoid extra charges for suboptimal ads.
- Do not worry about the tracking template unless you are experienced and want to report these conversions.
- Dynamic ads are ads that are generated based on your site. Do not worry about this unless your budget allows for it.
2.3 Targeting Locations for CFPs
- Narrow down to the location where your services will be offered. Try “Advanced search” to select your location with a map search or set using a radius.
- For the target selection, it is crucial to choose Presence NOT Presence or Interest because interest in your location is not reliable enough for money to be spent on their click.
- The language you are targeting depends on the searcher’s interface. Consider adding “English” when it is applicable.
2.4 Audience Segment for Financial Advisors
Search and browse segments that you think those who are interested in your services will be searching for. For example, potential clients may be researching trips after retirement, and they will need a financial advisor to consult their retirement plan. Remember to only select “Observation”; these are only conditions that Google assumes based on their search history and browsing engagements, which may not be completely accurate. If you choose “target”, you may be restricting yourself from interested clients.
2.5 Budget and Bidding for Financial Advising Campaign
- It is recommended that you set the average daily budget to be 10-20 times the cost of the keywords you choose. The sooner you have sufficient data collected, the sooner you can make the necessary improvements. Your bids will be based on the following formula:
- (Ad Rank of Person Below/Quality Score) + $0.01
- The quality score depends on what people do after clicking on your ad, ad relevance, as well as click-through rate. Having a high-quality score will decrease your bid costs.
- You will be bidding based on clicks for your website. You will later go to campaign settings after creating the ads to update each ad’s bid limit.
- Consider rotating your ads if you suspect certain ads will perform better on certain days or times.
Consider getting text assets to increase the size of your ads. This will increase the chances of someone clicking on the ads; learn how to do this with our blog!
3. Creating Ad Groups for Financial Advisors
Generate multiple ad groups for your business based on the different services you provide, such as:
- Tax planning
- Retirement planning
- Insurance coverage
- And more!
Consider the interests and intentions of your potential clients! When entering keywords (you can also add them after you create your campaign using Keyword Planner), think of what your clients will search to find your services. Remember to remove your competitors and searches that indicate the person is only looking for tutorials or guides.
3.1 Match Types
Avoid broad matches because they are not specific enough for you to pay for.
- A broad match will allow related phrases to your keywords
- “Phrase match” will look for your keyword in the search query and allow additional words
- [Exact match] will require the search to contain the search
Use this tool to create different sets of your keywords under phase match and exact match.
4. How to Create the Ads for Financial Advisors Services
You will create an ad/multiple ads for each group.
4.1 Final URL
Choose a landing page (the page that the clicker ends up on) that will encourage the searcher to try out your services. This can be a link to information on your website or your services page.
4.2 Display Path for Financial Planning
This is how the URL will appear on the ad. Exclude articles (“a”, “an”, “the”) that would extend your link unnecessarily.
4.3 Headlines for Different Ads
Create different headlines that will draw attention to your ad. Be sure to pin the position of these headlines because the most relevant headlines should appear in the 1st and 2nd positions. The 3rd headline may not always appear.
4.4 Descriptions for Financial Advisors
You have 90 characters to write a brief description of your services. Use up all the characters to make the ad as large as possible. Also, learn more about using ad extensions for Google Ads.
4.5 Payment for Financial Advisors Ads
After setting up your payment plan, you are now ready to track your campaign.
Want to make your ads stand out?
5. Tracking Conversions for Financial Advisors Services
Use “Tools and Settings” to explore the different ways to improve your ad clicks.
5.1 Use Keyword Planner to Find More Phrases
Go under Planning to select “Keyword Planner”. After doing a search, you are able to see how often these phrases are searched every month along with competition. You can select a campaign and ad group to add these keywords. You can see how much bids range (we can see the Low and High prices) to set a maximum price for each ad.
5.2 Negative Keywords For Financial Advisors
Underneath this, we can also select negative keywords to filter out searches that will not convert. Filter out names of competitors, guide/tutorial searches, and terms such as “free”. Read more about optimizing negative keywords in our article.
5.3 Conversions for Financial Advising Ads
Going to “Tools and Settings,” look under Measurement and go to conversions. You will create a new conversion action and choose to track your website. Input your website domain and decide what you want to track (appointment bookings, quote requests, purchases). You can also use the generated code to implement the conversion tracking yourself.
Need any help tracking your campaign?
Landing Page
The landing page for your financial advisor business should have one main purpose, and that is to convert leads into customers. This is the page they should “land” on when they click on your ad.
How Do Landing Pages Work?
- When a user clicks on your ad, they will end up on your landing page which should have a form.
- The person fills out the form, which then converts them into a lead.
- After, the information provided on the form is stored in your database.
- Then, you can market the lead based on the information they have given you.
Benefits of Landing Pages
- Landing Pages can increase conversions and leads.
- Landing pages can generate actionable data and insights.
- Landing Pages can grow your email list.
- Landing Pages can help build trust and credibility.
- Landing Pages can be tested.
- Landing Pages can increase search traffic.
What Makes a Good Landing Page?
An effective landing page will contain key elements that will encourage the user or website visitor to take a conversion action. This means that your landing page should have plenty of CTAs or Call To Action buttons.
Your landing page should have a clear Headline of what is being offered, supported by a high-quality image or Hero Shot that communicates the offer visually. An effective landing page should also include its unique selling proposition or USP that makes it stand out from local competitors, along with Key Benefits that offer the solution to the problems or fears of your potential clients.
It is also important to include social proof or testimonials from previous or current clients, since these can build trust and credibility, and can further convince the potential lead to convert. The most critical elements to include in your landing page are CTAs or Call-To-Action buttons. These should stand out from the page, so they can give website visitors plenty of opportunities to convert.
Another point of interaction or conversion that you can consider including in your landing page is a lead form, which should be in response to the product or service of your financial advisor business, and a “Frequently Asked Questions” section to provide additional information for the website visitor, and further support your landing page efforts.
Recap
You are now done setting up your first Google Ads campaign! We have covered the process behind Google Ads, how to develop ad groups, and how to track your conversions. Make sure you consider these other growth strategies to expand your financial advisor business!
YoYoFuMedia has helped more than a thousand clients (which you can learn more about here) and has survived more than 15+ Google algorithm updates. If you need the help of professionals to successfully set up and run your campaign for Google ads for financial advisors, schedule a free consultation and let us help you!
