Sonja Crystal Williams: 0:04

Hi everyone, welcome to today’s episode of 10 Minute Marketing. I’m your host, sona Crystal Williams. Well, joining me. Today. I have Ankit, or Andy, patel, and he is a digital marketing. Creative solutions and Bollywood performances are just in his DNA. He is the founder of K3 Marketing. Hey, welcome to the show, ankit.

Ankit Patel: 0:25

Hey Sonja, Thanks for having me.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 0:27

Absolutely. So I’m going to just jump right into what K3 Marketing does and just really the topic for today, which is around Google Ads, because you all at K3 are a Google Premier provider when it comes to running ad campaigns in Google. You specifically focus on pest control industry. So for you all, just kind of in the world of Google Ads, what are the two, like two of the types of campaigns that you feel like? And I know you’re in the pest control industry and those of you listening, you might be in multiple industries, but a lot to be learned from just hearing Ankit’s expertise, even just related to that specific field. So what are some of the types of ads? Because Google has a lot of different types of ads people could run. If someone is in a, let’s just say, a service-based industry like that, what are some good types of ads people could run?

Ankit Patel: 1:19

Sure, good question. So essentially, being in the pest control industry or pest control space really means I’m in the home service contractor space and a lot of the nuances and marketing strategies that you use in the home services space is virtually identical. Nine times out of 10, when a homeowner is looking for something or searching for a service related to their home, for something to be repaired, they’re just going to Google it or search it and life goes on. Very rarely are they going on Facebook or Instagram or TikTok seeing what a plumbing company is up to or a pest control company is up to. So in my experience, really just getting the information quickly and effectively is most beneficial and, to answer your question, really search campaigns is the go-to.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 2:07

Okay, so search campaigns define that. Some people aren’t familiar when they hear the word search. What does that mean? Versus, like, maybe, other types of things Google does?

Ankit Patel: 2:16

Sure. So Google is a behemoth of a company and they offer so many different marketing solutions. Many of you know that Google owns YouTube. So essentially when you run YouTube ads, those are what you call the video ads. Within the Google Ads platform you can also have display ads, where I’m sure you’ve been on a blog or on some website and you’ve seen an ad up there. You can run remarketing campaigns, where you can target people who’ve already been to your site and retarget them back. There’s also shopping campaigns, which comes up on the shopping list, up on top. Search campaigns means people who have searched specifically on Google. com. So if you go to Google. com and you search, you know, plumber near me or pest control company near me, that’s a search and that search will show you search results listings and that’s really what I manage.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 3:08

So search is originating at google. com? What about the other search engines, like why would someone go to Google Ads versus some of the other ad platforms that exist that could do, like maybe search type of campaigns?

Ankit Patel: 3:22

Well, it’s just pure demand. Google is king and they know it. People are going to Yahoo. I think DuckDuckGo had a little bit of a surge a few years back. I’m not sure where they are now. I know people like DuckDuckGo because they promise not to track you and collect your data, which is enticing. But really from my data that I’ve seen Microsoft or Yahoo or DuckDuckGo or what have you, Google just dominates, absolutely dominates.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 3:56

Still number one search engine in the world, absolutely. All right. So you’re going in to launch a campaign with a home services type company. What are the typical things that you see when you’re going to work with clients that you feel like here’s something like they don’t have these things when I come to the table, or this is like the stuff they need to have, whether they do or don’t when you’re meeting with them, these are the things that, like, a company needs to have in order to launch into running search campaigns on Google Ads.

Ankit Patel: 4:26

I think the important thing to note here as a business owner especially as a home services business owner is that you need to be able to track and, truth be told, in my experience, Google Ads is one of the only services if not possibly the only service where there’s no gray line between how much money you put in and how much money you got out your ROI. So you need to set up conversion tracking. You need to have separate landing pages or specific landing pages for your different types of campaigns, call tracking numbers and things like that, so you know exactly what’s working and what’s not working. A big mistake you can make really in any type of campaign not just in this industry either is they just run Google Ads and send everyone to their homepage.

Ankit Patel: 5:13

And with Facebook Ads you’re running, you’d have word of mouth marketing. You have SEO. You’re not really tracking what’s working and what’s not working, and Google Ads can get expensive. You want to know what clicks are working, which ones are not working, which ads are working, which ones are not working, and things like that. So to be able to optimize, really just setting up overall tracking and some sort of logical structure is crucial.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 5:37

How should a company determine budget? I know it’s a broad question but how do you get at it and help them?

Ankit Patel: 5:46

Remember, Google primarily makes its income through Google Ads. So if you ask Google how much should I spend, they’re going to say a lot.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 5:53

Yeah.

Ankit Patel: 5:55

So I never really looked at Google’s data recommendation. ecommendation never looked at that. I basically get my feet wet. I’ll start off with a reasonable budget and I’ll kind of see what’s happening. What’s my average cost per click? What’s my return on investment? Is everything working forward, working in the right direction? Because I think most business owners will agree, it’s all about ROI, right? If I’m making 10x of what I’m spending, I don’t care how much I’m spending. I’m making 10x, you know. So it’s really a matter of just getting that sweet spot.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 6:31

So I would start off with something somewhat healthy that’s comfortable for you, and then really building it from there. Ok so, a business should really make their own decision and they might have a budget, and then you might say, hey, that’s good starting point, or, you know, let’s see.

Ankit Patel: 6:41

Yeah, well, it also adds up. You know? Yeah, well, it also adds up. You know, for example, we like to start clients during a free trial, form of free trial period that we offer specifically for our pest control clients at a $2,000 a month minimum. Okay, and some, you know that’s usually that’s fairly reasonable. Some mom and pop pest control companies may be like well, it’s a lot. Well, if you think about it, if you run your ad 24/7 that’s only $70 a day. Yeah, If you’re, if you’re getting $7 a click, that’s only 10 clicks a day. That’s just clicks, that’s not leads. So this thing it can add up fast if you don’t know what you’re doing. So, but having some sort of healthy budget is going to be crucial If you’re going to be running Google Ads. Google is king, Google Ads is king. Google Ads is the first thing you see in a search result, above the map, above the SEO. That’s for a reason. So you got to pay to play.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 7:31

Okay, so I’m going to divert a little just on your opinion of ads versus SEO, because I get this question sometimes when I’m working with clients and them trying to figure out should I invest more in ads? Should I hire a firm to do my SEO? Do you think these should be done together? Should one take precedent over the other? What are your thoughts on that?

Ankit Patel: 7:54

Sure. Well, I think if you want immediate results, then paid ads is the way to go Because, again, you pay to play to be up there. I think, ideally, having a well-structured marketing plan which includes SEO and pay-per-click is is the best approach. A lot of people skipped through the ads because they know that they’re paid, especially business owners, right, but majority of the of the population doesn’t even understand how it works. They just see, and also Google’s gotten better.

Ankit Patel: 8:24

First I used to have a big banner that these are ads. Now it’s just a small little sponsored section or something. I forgot what it says now, but you know they, they keep changing it around to, you know, to kind of keep one flow of search results. But also keep in mind a lot of business owners are like oh, I just skipped that section, I don’t want to be on ads, I’m not going to get any clicks. Well, guess what? It’s pay per click. So if nobody clicks, you don’t pay. So it can’t hurt to be up there. It can never hurt to be up there. Obviously, results page and how that shifted. I’ve definitely noticed that.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 9:05

Like one time it was green and it was a little ad box in the corner. Then it said sponsored. I don’t know what it says today either.

Ankit Patel: 9:12

I’m about to search it right now, actually, right, I don’t know what it looks like. It says sponsored. Sponsored. It says sponsored.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 9:19

Okay, I’m like, and you see it every day, but you don’t think about it because it just kind of blends right in, you know. But what, speaking of the changes that Google keeps making, how, if at all, are some of these technological advances starting to impact campaigns? You’re running simple one, being AI and where that is now fitting in.

Ankit Patel: 9:44

AI is a huge initiative with Google, you know. Even if you purchase a new Google pixel, which is one which one I have all day yes, you know it’s. It’s heavily integrated with AI and and Google’s Gemini platform, and that’s. There’s no different with AI and Google’s Gemini platform and there’s no different with Google Ads as well. Now you have to kind of take that with a grain of salt. Do you just trust Google’s AI to just spend all your money and hopefully the leads come in, or do you want to really keep Google on a tight leash? I’m of the opinion of the latter. But you know Google does have different types of campaigns.

Ankit Patel: 10:24

Ai is not a new concept for Google.

Ankit Patel: 10:29

They used to have those smart campaigns back in the day.

Ankit Patel: 10:31

If you remember internally a lot of their bidding strategies, you know. So there’s a strategy called target CPA, target cost per acquisition, where I want to try to keep my leads within fifty dollars a lead, for example, my cost per lead at fifty dollars lead. And Google’s going to look at the data. They’re going to see what, what keywords are bringing in those cost per leads and and what time of day are people searching and what area they’re in, what household, household income, what demographic and audience do they fit. It looks at all that data and kind of adjusts and gives you the best results. So those things work well and have different types of campaigns as well, such as a performance max campaigns, which I’m sure we’ll probably get into a little bit later if you wanted to, and I think that new one called Demand Gen out there, so that they have different types of campaigns out there that are really just like hey, just tell me your website and I’ll do the rest. And yeah, it can work if you know what you’re doing.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 11:30

I like how you put it you decide how much you want to keep Google on a leash, because that’s the thing with as you brought up earlier, like this is how Google makes money. So you’ve got to be careful and I’m with you, like you got to be careful in what you allow them to do. I think, yeah, some of that AI stuff is great and plays a big role, but you’ve got to monitor it.

Ankit Patel: 11:54

The way I kind of compartmentalize it is the search campaign or your low funnel. Those are the people who have identified that they want to hire someone for a service they’re looking for it by looking okay.

Ankit Patel: 12:07

And then the high funnel is really where you can use some of these, these AI driven campaigns such as, you know, Performance Max, where they haven’t really, you know they’ve identified the issue, but you know we know that they have a pest control issue that may be interested in pest control services and we’ll just kind of continuously be on their radar. And typically the cost per click between search and performance max is huge. I mean, we’re talking pennies versus dollars.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 12:36

Pennies on the performance max side because it’s more top of funnel. Yeah.

Ankit Patel: 12:40

Yeah, it’s display, it’s video, it’s random searches that probably don’t make sense. Does baking soda get rid of ants, that type of stuff? So?

Sonja Crystal Williams: 12:51

I was going to ask you can you define it a little more, because it’s still a new concept. Even when I’m talking to marketing managers and people who manage ad campaigns, some people are a little nervous about dipping their toe in Performance Max. So, like, what is it to you? And then elaborate a little bit more on, like, when you’re setting it up, like, how do you make one, I guess, in a sense effective to some degree?

Ankit Patel: 13:15

Yeah, I mean you essentially just need to have a website or a landing page. So let’s just say, for example, let’s stick in the realm of pest control. You have a pest control page where you offer your services and you have your pricing and you have your coupon. You have everything you need on that page, maybe some videos explaining your services and you know whole about a section or whatnot.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 13:39

Right.

Ankit Patel: 13:39

And you essentially give that page to Google on your Performance Max. Here’s my page and it will pick the keywords for you. Now you can essentially, you know, put in some headlines and some descriptions and upload some images and things like that, but it will sort of just pick the best. It’s kind of like a responsive ad design. Just pick the best. It’s kind of like a responsive ad design. Um, and, and it would just pick the best um ad.

Ankit Patel: 14:07

I guess variant uh, for that user and that search, and it won’t only just be search, it will be over, um, all of Google’s ecosystem, even Gmail ads you could show up. You know, remember, Google knows everything about you if you’re logged in. So yeah, and if you have a Google Home, you know you have to say that word. I’m not gonna say it right now because of mine will trigger, but essentially you have to. You know it has to be listening for that to happen. So if you say, if you’re talking to you, I’m talking to my wife saying, honey, we need to uh update our uh pest control company, uh, you know we have some. Maybe I may see an ant video ad, you never know. So it kind of all just flows in together. But setting it up, really just having some sort of landing page, you know, giving Google all the information it needs and then just letting it do its thing.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 14:56

Okay, For the people listening who are into conversions. You brought up conversion tracking earlier and the importance of ROI. How do you look at that? Are there certain metrics that you’re tracking when it comes to measuring that? Just what does that look like in your world when you’re monitoring that for clients?

Ankit Patel: 15:29

Sure, the easiest and simplest way of doing it and the most effective way of doing it is to create landing pages specifically for your Google Ads campaigns. So let’s say you have different campaigns. Let’s take plumbing as an example. You have general plumbing, you have hot water heater, you have drains, you have sewage, you have different types of plumbing services. So let’s just say drains. You have, you know, somebody searching drain related issues. So you want a page specifically for drains and that page is only accessible through a Google Ads click.

Ankit Patel: 15:55

Okay, essentially, you tell SEO and everyone to get out. It can be a separate domain actually, it could be a net of your domain or subdomain or whatnot and on that page it’s again, that page is only accessible through google ads clicks. Every visitor you get on that page is essentially from google ads one. And then on that page you put a call tracking number on. Okay, we use a third party tool called call tracking metrics. They’re pretty good. There’s another one out there called call rail, but essentially it’s pretty easy to set up call tracking number. Just a local number that rings directly to your cell phone or your office. Okay, and that’s clear. That’s like okay, I spent $2,000 in Google and I got these leads and I can see how much money that generated and I can you can measure it all and maybe they’ve got, like Google Analytics or something else, attached.

Ankit Patel: 16:41

Yes, yes, you want to put Google Analytics on your landing page as well as your website. You also can set up Google conversion tracking within Google Ads, and that’s important because Google needs to know what data is working, what’s not working, and you can feed that stuff back into Google and you know. Then it will continue to optimize. So that’s crucial as well. But essentially in a create, having a separate landing page for Google ads and having a call tracking number would mean everything is very clear, cut and dry.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 17:09

Okay, one more question comes to mind, Ankit, which is for a team that is approaching Google Ads. Well gosh, this is kind of maybe. There’s maybe there’s two questions I have, right, because I want to approach this from beginners and people who are already doing it. So one team is “I want to try Google Ads. We’ve been doing other stuff and now we want to go here From a staff standpoint. Do they need staff? Do they go straight to an agency? Who are the players? Do they need someone creating video? Do they need someone doing the copywriting? What’s needed in terms of how they position themselves to win?

Ankit Patel: 17:52

I guess it depends on the industry. Google Ads yes, it requires optimization, ongoing optimization, looking at the search terms, looking at the data and things like that.

Ankit Patel: 18:04

In my world, in the pest control world, you know it’s a lot easier for companies just to hire an agency that sort of specializes in this space and gets them a good, decent rate and you know it’s not too much in terms of optimization. It’s not too much in terms of optimization. But if I was a salon, for example, then maybe I want to have different coupons and specials during certain times of the year and seasonality things and things like that where I’d be a little bit more involved. But I would say it depends on the industry.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 18:46

Okay, and then two parts. Second part to that question is for an organization that’s already running ads and they are turning it over to an agency. Just from your point of view on the agency side, as an agency owner. Just if you were to say: this is what I like in working with my client, this is what I want, this is what I like in working with my client, this is what I want, this is what I hope for. If it were just the perfect or ideal relationship, what do you like to have or see that either they have in place, or how that working relationship would work, even if it’s just person- to- person who you’re working with on that team?

Ankit Patel: 19:14

Yeah, I guess, really, really, this is sort of a general answer for any business owner, but it’s important that business owners stay in their lane. I think you know I’m not going to tell a pest control owner how to kill a bug. I don’t know. You know, or at least what to spray, you know. So, in the same sense, you know I would love for my clients, or I’m sure you would love for your clients, but hey, this is what I do. Give me some time and we’ll make it happen again. My world is a little different because I already have a product that works in the pest control space. So it’s just a matter of me making some changes and flipping the switch and it pretty much works. Yeah, um, but you know, if I was to, if I was to bring on a new client, then yeah, essentially, just you know, letting them run their business and letting me understand how essentially their business works in the marketing world and building the campaign accordingly.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 20:13

Okay, trust, I mean that’s what it is. Trust is important on both sides.

Ankit Patel: 20:19

And again they are hiring you for a reason right.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 20:21

Yeah.

Ankit Patel: 20:22

So trust should have already been there, but yeah, it happens.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 20:27

Okay, all right so, and thank you so much for just sharing, like your insights about Google Ads, how it works, search campaigns specifically. I always like to wrap up this show with a couple of lightning round questions. And the first one I kind of just want you to talk about this because I am fascinated with it, which is, I don’t know if I should call it your hobby, your other business, but your performances. I want you to talk a little bit about that, especially those of you listening in Atlanta. I want you to hear about what else Ankit does, as, I don’t know, maybe a passion project.

Ankit Patel: 21:05

Yeah, it’s a passion project that probably takes more time of mine than it should. But essentially, long story short, I consider myself, I guess, a professional Indian musician. So I’ve been playing keys most of my life and about 12 or 15 years ago I started a Bollywood band where we would travel all over the nation and sometimes, you know, sometimes around the world and just playing at Indian weddings. And then, about 10 or so years ago I picked up an instrument, a traditional Indian oboe. It’s called a Shehnai, so Sheh means king and Nai means flute, and it’s an instrument that’s synonymous with Hindu weddings, indian weddings. So I’ve created this channel.

Ankit Patel: 21:55

During COVID, I mean, I practiced for a good you know, five, six years and then I finally felt a little comfortable to start performing in the last two or three years, and during COVID I started a channel called Shainai Guy and it just really kind of took off because it’s a. It’s an ancient instrument that’s, quite frankly, a little bit boring in the Indian community, very droney, very classical, and I kind of did like a modern take on it and people really appreciated it. And, yeah, almost every weekend I’m somewhere in the nation playing this instrument at an Indian wedding. And then, about a year ago or so I made the decision. I really wanted to sort of bring this instrument and other world musicians together and have some sort of state and some sort of platform for us to showcase our talent and put on a show. So I started a ensemble called Surya, S-U-R-Y-A, Surya Ensemble.

Ankit Patel: 22:57

We host monthly shows in the city of Atlanta. I have a violin player, a viola player, classical guitarist, I play the shenai, we have a dancer and I have this Persian percussionist. So it’s a pure East meets West sort of experience. It’s a show that I produced I produced the music, produced the whole concept and things like that and it’s an hour-long show called I produced, I produced the music, produced the whole concept and things like that. It’s an hour-long show called Elements At least that’s the first debut show where we take you through a journey of the four elements of the world Earth, wind, water and fire through music and art and culture and dance and lights and stuff like that and narration. It’s a pretty cool concept and something I’m really passionate about and looking to take you to the next level.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 23:40

It’s an experience. You’re being modest. It’s an awesome show, everyone listening, and what I’ll do is I’ll drop the link to where people can see more about the show and what upcoming events and what dates are coming up so you can get tickets. So everyone be on the lookout for that also.

Ankit Patel: 24:00

Yeah, thank you for coming to one of my first shows as well, by the way.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 24:02

Yeah, absolutely no, it really it was an experience and also from the Google Ads marketing side of things, K3 Marketing, so everyone we’ll drop the link to that too. If you’re in the home services industry, you offer is it a one month trial? If you’re in the home services industry, you offer is it a one month trial?

Ankit Patel: 24:19

I offer a one month free trial for pest control companies. For other home services we’ll talk if you’re interested.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 24:27

Pest control is the niche that Ankit focuses on, so everyone be on the lookout for that. Thank you so much, Ankit, for being here today and look forward to talking to you again.

Ankit Patel: 24:39

Thanks everyone, everyone for listening. Thank you so much, all right.