Google Search for high-value services

A company is moving into a new office floor. The operations manager has a budget, a deadline and a lease that starts in four months. Over a few weeks they ask around, look at a few fit-outs other businesses have done, and search for commercial fit-out companies in their city. Two of those companies end up on a shortlist. One of them gets the job.

A recommendation helped, but the shortlist started with a search.

Big decisions include a search

People don’t choose a builder, an architect, a specialist supplier or a fit-out company on impulse. They research, compare and ask people they trust, often over weeks. In B2B, the person searching is usually a manager who has to justify the choice to someone else.

Much of that research happens on Google, typed in plain words that say where the person is up to. Someone searching for a commercial fit-out company in their city is telling you what they need, where they are, and that they’re getting close to a decision. Search lets a business be there at that point, in front of that person.

The maths is different

Clicks for high-value services can cost more than most, because the competitors know what a customer is worth too. Looked at on their own, those clicks can seem expensive.

Often they aren’t, once they’re measured against what a customer brings in. A campaign for a business like this isn’t judged on how cheap its clicks are. It’s judged on whether the enquiries it brings are worth having, and on what they turn into.

Fewer, better enquiries

A business that takes on a handful of large projects a year doesn’t need hundreds of enquiries. It needs the right ones. Every enquiry that isn’t a fit still takes time: a phone call, a site visit, a quote that goes nowhere.

A good Search campaign for a high-value service is built with that in mind. It shows for the searches that suggest a serious buyer, and its ads are clear about what the business does and who it’s for. Some people will read that and move on, and that’s part of the point. The ones who get in touch already know they’re in the right place.

The page has to hold up

Someone about to spend a lot of money looks closely. They read the page. They look for past work, for signs the business is established, and for anything that doesn’t quite add up.

So the page after the click has to hold up to that. It can be a page on the main website or a dedicated landing page. Either works, as long as it’s credible and complete: real work, clear details, and an easy way to get in touch. A page that looks like it was put together in a hurry can undo a good ad very quickly.

Results take longer to show

When a sale takes months, so does the proof that a campaign is working. An enquiry this week might become a project next year.

That changes how the campaign should be judged. The useful questions are about the enquiries themselves: how many came in, how many were a good fit, and, over time, how many became work. Those answers say far more than a month of click figures.

A campaign judged after three weeks, for a sale that takes six months, is being judged too early.

Search catches the recommendations too

High-value work often comes from word of mouth. Someone hears about a business from a colleague or a friend, and then, often before calling, looks it up.

Search covers both kinds of people: the ones looking for a business like yours, and the ones looking for yours by name. Both want to find the right business quickly and land somewhere that confirms what they’ve heard.

Where a business offers something people don’t yet know to search for, other campaigns can help introduce it, such as Demand Gen or YouTube. For the moment someone is ready to find a business, Search is usually where they go.

Look at your last three big customers: what would they have searched before they called you, and would your ads have been there?

If you’d like us to look at your account, request a review, or read more about Search campaigns.