A long time ago, when I was a kid, one of my jerky friends, whose name I’ve since forgotten, told me how he and another buddy spent untold hours over Summer break attempting to skew the results of the City’s traffic study.
I’m sure you’ve seen those small black rubber tubes strung across the road sometimes, right?
If you don’t know what they’re for, it’s to gather data on how many cars are using the road over a given period.
It’s done so they can determine when the road needs to be resurfaced and if traffic signals are warranted.
The tubes are attached to a counter that registers every time a car crosses.
It counts by using puffs of air generated from the weight of passing vehicles.
Well, what these geniuses were doing that whole Summer was bouncing the front tire of their bikes up and down continuously on those rubber tubes.
But their efforts were thwarted because the City had already put countermeasures in place to avoid counting traffic such as bicycles and pedestrians.
The puffs of air that register a passing car are only generated if sufficient weight passes over the hose.
So they wasted their entire Summer thinking they were making an impact.
Now, you’ve probably got some competitors in your area who want to make an impact, right?
They may be a little like my childhood buddies, too. But instead of bouncing their tires on the roadway, they’re busy clicking on your ads.
Yes, one of the biggest, most hairiest fears a lot of towing company owners have is that there are nimrods out there who will click on their ads for no other reason than to waste your money.
It’s understandable.
It’s highly unnerving to think that, rather than getting to work growing their own businesses, there are people you know who are like crabs in a bucket.
And they want to bring YOU down.
If you don’t know the crabs in a bucket story, it’s this.
If you have a bunch of crabs in a bucket, if one tries to crawl up the side in an attempt to get out, the others will grab it and pull it back down.
If you’re running Google Ads and you think you might have some crustacean-like competitors in your town, here’s something to consider.
First off, Yes…Click fraud is a concern.
But with Google Ads, the problem is most common in the search partners network, where display ads appear on various websites.
If you’re running a “Smart” campaign, which I do not recommend, you’re most likely running these types of ads.
So, if you are, check your targeting.
Fraudulent bot clicks on ads in the search partner network have cost organizations millions of dollars.
So, yeah, besides lazy competitors, there are also bots.
Now, I’m not trying to scare you away from Google Ads.
They’re the quickest way to get your phone ringing.
You just need to have someone on your side to cut a clear path and lead you in the right direction.
And by now, you can see that it ain’t Google.
But I digress.
When it comes to your competitors clicking on your ads, Google does have some countermeasures.
First, they will only show them an ad so many times.
And if they click your ad but do not call you, Google shows it to them less often (if at all).
Of course, there’s no way to block someone from clicking without actually having their IP address.
Anyway…Here’s how we combat fraudulent clicks from both competitors and bots.
First off, we use Call Only ads exclusively.
Because it reduces friction.
And because they allow us to pretty much do away with all fraudulent clicks from both bots and competitors.
Because we capture every phone number that clicks on our ads.
We record every call. And make those recordings available to our clients for review.
Each call contains the date and time it was received, the duration of the call, and the person’s contact information (Name, Phone Number, and location).
If there ever is a problem, we’ll know right away and can address it.
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Of course, running a Google Ad Campaign isn’t for everyone.
Competitors and bots are enough to scare many would-be entrepreneurs away from the opportunity.
But there’s more to consider than that.
First off, Google ads are not going to work if you’re in a remote village somewhere.
There’s gotta be sufficient need for your services. And if it’s just you and two other families in your county, it’s a no-go.
Second, you need to have a decent budget. $500 dollars a month isn’t going to cut it.
Sure, you might get a few calls, but with the competition’s ability to bid higher, you’ll want to invest at least $2000 a month.
Last. Only you can prevent forest fires.
Seriously, only you can determine if the campaign is bringing in the moolah.
We don’t have access to your bank account, so we can’t tell if the calls you’re getting are converting into cash-paying customers.
That’s why we give you access to Callrail. So you can do a daily or weekly reconciliation of the cash calls you received.
Of course, we’ve got other tools that can help.
But it all boils down to you doing the work.
Competitors clicking on ads is bad, but what’s worse is killing the golden goose before confirming her eggs are 24-karat gold.
Don Archer
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