Author: Chris Heiler
We get lots of questions about the best ways to advertise a landscaping or lawn care business online. Questions like "Is radio and print advertising still relevant?", "Should we pay to be on Angi or HomeAdvisor" and "Does Facebook advertising actually work?".
All good questions, my friends.
Let's address the best digital marketing for landscapers by first making an important distinction between advertising and marketing.
Digital advertising for landscaping companies is a form of marketing – they are not one in the same – and the terms should not be used interchangeably.
In its simplest form, advertising is paid or sponsored messaging broadcast via traditional media like television, radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards, and direct mail or digital media like display ads or Google Ads.
Marketing is much broader and includes disciplines like branding and public relations and strategies like networking. Digital marketing includes strategies such as search engine optimization (SEO), email/SMS marketing, and content marketing (all the fun digital stuff we offer at Landscape Leadership).
In this article, I plan to focus strictly on digital marketing for landscapers. Direct mail, print advertising, etc., etc., has its place... Just not in this article :-)
The Rules of Advertising
Let's start with a reality check. None of us are Coca-Cola, Apple, or McDonald's. The biggest, most identifiable brands in the world were built on advertising (millions of dollars worth). The biggest marketing mistake you can make as a small business is to try and do the same. You don't have the budget. On top of that, advertising has no credibility.
"Advertising has as much credibility as a message inside a fortune cookie." Al Ries
Another mistake is to treat landscaping advertising as an investment and to expect a healthy return on that investment. Advertising is rarely worth what it costs – except for the big brands who use it to maintain their leadership position. Companies like Walmart and Microsoft don't expect a return on the millions of dollars spent on advertising – they treat the expenditure as insurance. They are simply protecting themselves against their competition.
My point is, for a small business like a landscape contractor or lawn care operator, you need to choose wisely when it comes to advertising: Be smart about where you put your dollars and manage your expectations accordingly.
Fortunately, with the digital age upon us, we have more cost-effective and targeted avenues for reaching our prospects and customers today via advertising. Let's dig into some of the best ways to advertise a landscaping or lawn care business in today's digital age, starting with social networks and review sites.
A Word on Review Sites
Look in the mirror. You love looking at reviews online when making a purchasing decision, don't you? Well... so do your potential customers.
Remember what I said earlier about advertising lacking credibility? That's because traditional advertising is biased, and oftentimes, down-right deceiving. We love (and mostly trust) online reviews because they are from a third party – removing bias from the equation.
This is one reason why review sites like Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) can be a smart choice to invest time into. Directing your clients to these sites continuously can be a great way to build credibility.
We tell clients to give a lot of focus to their Google Business Profile because Google's search engine accounts for 93% of all online searches. We also appreciate that there currently isn't any way to sponsor your listing, keeping the integrity of their review platform a legitimate step above others.
[RELATED READING: How to Get More Positive Online Reviews For Your Green Industry Company]
Angi, HomeAdvisor, and Yelp
People may find organic search listings from sites such as Angi, HomeAdvisor, and Yelp. They may, in turn, spend time reading reviews and learning more about service professionals such as landscapers and lawn care operators.
While these platforms may be a good place to showcase reviews, their popularity has waned recently. There also have been numerous accounts of business owners feeling like Yelp, in particular, has reduced visibility of reviews unless a business pays to advertise on their platform.
Simply put, if you have money and time to invest, look to Google and your own website.
Social Media Advertising
Social media has lost a little of its shine, at least for small businesses. There's such an overwhelming amount of noise on social networks now that it has become very difficult for small businesses to reach their audience in an organic way.
Let's be clear: Just because you share an update on your Facebook page and Instagram profile doesn't mean all of your followers will actually see this.
If you want to leverage social media to generate qualified leads, lower your expectations. In many cases, we've seen that social media is an excellent measure for digital brand recognition, but doesn't often result in a high volume of leads. The cost per lead can also pale in comparison to other advertising mediums.
[RELATED READING: What is Your Social Media Objective?]
Facebook & Instagram
Chances are your "organic reach" — the total number of people you can reach for free on Facebook or Instagram by posting — has been on a sharp decline. For many pages and profiles, reaching a measly 10% of their followers with an update is challenging now.
Why should you consider advertising on Facebook and Instagram? There are really two reasons to advertise your lawn care or landscaping business on these massive social networks:
- To reach more of your current Facebook & Instagram followers in order to increase interaction and engagement and even drive more repeat sales (assuming many of your fans are actually customers and not other landscapers).
- To reach more users — who are not currently following you — in order to increase your number of followers, generate more leads and/or make more sales.
We've run numerous advertising campaigns on Facebook and Instagram for our clients and the results have been fairly positive, though not overwhelming. We've found the cost per click and cost per lead from Facebook and Instagram advertising to be much higher than traditional pay-per-click advertising like Google Adwords.
Our current position on Facebook and Instagram with our clients is that we will not put any time into creating a presence on these platforms unless their Google Ads budget is maximized and limited by demand.
As a "professional" social network, LinkedIn's advertising platform is best for B2B green industry companies who deal with other professionals such as facility and property managers.
LinkedIn has been making many recent changes and we've been pretty excited about how this platform has had a post-pandemic revival.
However, it's critical to understand that users prefer the content created by individual users. If you intend to advertise on LinkedIn, consider running campaigns from both your brand and power users in your organization. You can create a variety of ad formats from images, videos, and sharing content in LinkedIn thought leadership ads.
[RELATED READING: 10 Things Landscaping Salespeople Shouldn't (& Should) Do on LinkedIn]
Retargeting
From Wikipedia: "Behavioral retargeting (also known as behavioral remarketing, or simply, retargeting) is a form of online targeted advertising by which online advertising is targeted to consumers based on their previous Internet actions."
When a user visits a website, their browser stores a cookie and serves up ads on other partner websites.
Personally, these ads can be seen as annoying and often don't result in high clickthrough rates. We're not saying they're a complete waste of time, but should only be utilized if your landscaping company is maximizing other mediums such as Google Ads.
Google Ads (Pay-Per-Click advertising)
You've gotta give it to Google, they've made a bazillion dollars with their Google Ads platform charging advertisers on a "per click" basis. But is PPC (pay per click) advertising really worth it to companies in the lawn and landscaping industry?
It can be, if...
- Your website is optimized for lead generation and pay-per-click advertising. In other words, you're not just sending visitors to your homepage but instead strategically leading them to unique landing pages where you can convert them into qualified leads.
- You understand how to target your unique audience with Google Ads and know how to manage a pay-per-click advertising budget.
- You understand how to measure your return on investment.
- You are placing ads for the right services. We've found that services with a short sale cycle, lower price point, and high sense of urgency perform the best. It's not to say that design-build ads can't be a viable landscaping advertising initiative, but it may take you a long time to nurture those users' interests. FYI, we think Google Ads for commercial landscaping is a waste of time.
If you don't have a firm grasp on the points above you will waste a lot of time and money on Google Ads.
[RELATED VIDEO SERIES: PPC Google Ads for Landscapers & Lawn Care Companies]
Conclusion
I hope this article was helpful in outlining the best ways to advertise a landscaping or lawn care company online. There are many channels available to reach your audience, though not all will be a good fit for your specific business.
There are also tools like HubSpot that can help you monitor and optimize your advertising. I hope this serves as a good guide to get you and your business headed in the right direction.
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