Seeking Advice on Growing My Massage Business with SEM and Google Ads

[grahamh]

My wife and I run a small massage business, and we've been trading for about four months. Most of our customers currently come from Google search, with a smaller number from posts in local Facebook groups. We're fortunate to have a good number of repeat customers, but we still have the capacity to take on more.

To grow the business, I’ve been experimenting with Google Ads, but only for a day so far. However, today, I was contacted by a Google Partner Agency. They advised against using Google Ads and instead pitched a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) package focused on improving our position in local listings (e.g., the Google Maps "local pack"). They claimed that ads don’t appear for most of the top searches in our niche.

I have a few questions:

1. Is it true that Google doesn’t display ads for many top searches in the massage niche? If so, what happens to ads I might already be running?
2. How can I measure the performance of an SEM package beyond just an increase in customers (since they could come from other sources)?
3. How do SEM services typically improve local listing rankings? Are these strategies something I could implement myself?
4. Has anyone had success using SEM or similar services for a small service-based business like mine? If so, what worked for you?
5. Should I continue investing in Google Ads or focus my budget elsewhere?

 

[ElizabethRule]

1. Is it true that Google doesn’t display ads for many top searches in the massage niche? If so, what happens to ads I might already be running?

I did a handful of "massage" related searches and did not see a single ad - which is quite rare these days. I am not sure the policy around if massage services can run Google ads, but if they can it seems to be in a limited capacity compared to other industries.

If you want to see the searches your ads are getting impressions + clicks for, you can see that in the Google Ads dashboard in the search terms report.

1. How can I measure the performance of an SEM package beyond just an increase in customers (since they could come from other sources)?

IMO the most important metric you can use to measure performance are leads and revenue from those leads. You can measure things like impression share, rankings, and traffic, but those are secondary to how many new customers you're getting from SEM efforts.

1. How do SEM services typically improve local listing rankings? Are these strategies something I could implement myself?

Good SEM services will increase your businesses' visibility across Google search and maps, as well as potentially other search engines like Bing and Apple Maps. SEM usually refers to both Ads and traditional SEO - in your case, sounds like you don't need to focus much on Ads if they don't show for your industry much, but that depends on the ROI you are currently getting from Ads. For SEO you want to focus on improving your website and GBP to show up more in Google search and maps.

You can do anything you put your mind to, here is a good starting point with tons of info about the strategies you can implement to improve your SEO.

1. Has anyone had success using SEM or similar services for a small service-based business like mine? If so, what worked for you?

Check out these case studies!

1. Should I continue investing in Google Ads or focus my budget elsewhere?

Depends on if you are getting an ROI with Google Ads right now or not. Regardless, I think investing in Local SEO, especially improving your Google listing, is a smart move regardless of if you run ads or not.