How to Uncover Wasted Ad Spend with ServiceTitan’s Marketing Pro - Ads

The Problem: Google Ads Doesn’t Know Your Business

Wenzel explains that Google Ads tracks cost per lead, but doesn’t account for revenue per lead. 

He likens it to a century-old quote attributed to marketing pioneer John Wanamaker: Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.

“That was over 100 years ago, and the sad reality is a lot of you probably still relate to this quote, because you’re spending a lot of money on Google, and a lot of people are clicking on your ads, then leaving the website,” he says. “Or, people are calling, but not turning into customers.” 

Google then tracks those website clicks or phone calls as conversions, whether they correlate to revenue or not. For example, a customer searching for a specific competitor may receive an ad for your business instead. They click to call, but then end the call once they realize they called the wrong company. If it didn’t cost much to earn this phone call,  Google tracks a low cost per conversion, or cost per lead.

“Google will see this as a winning campaign and reallocate more of its resources to that campaign, because it has a better cost per conversion,” Wenzel says. “The problem is Google doesn't know your business.”

To further illustrate this, he explains how another ad with a higher cost per conversion would get deprioritized by Google. But this campaign could be leading to installs, your most lucrative job.

“There's always going to be some waste,” Wenzel adds. “You can't perfectly target the ideal person who will convert 100% of the time. But not knowing which half [of your marketing spend is wasted] is something we can help you with.”

The Solution: ServiceTitan’s Marketing Pro - Ads

With ServiceTitan Marketing Pro - Ads, a new component of the Marketing Pro Full Suite, the residential or commercial home service company owner can dig into the entire marketing funnel to identify the specific keyword that triggers the phone call meant for the competitor’s business. They can then listen to the calls to learn why the customer doesn't convert, and the money spent to earn those leads becomes wasted spend.

“The tool gives you the ability to connect one [Google ads data] and two [real revenue],” Wenzel says. 

Marketing Pro - Ads allows you to measure your Google Ads performance at the individual campaign level. 

“Being able to tie your marketing data with your operations or business data is very important to prevent wasted spend,” Wenzel says.

The software tracks leads as ServiceTitan defines them. For phone calls, that means they must last a minute or longer, and not be excused or marked as “not a lead” by the CSR.

The Marketing Pro - Ads performance table shows key metrics on qualified leads, booking rates, average job value, ad spend ROI, and total revenue.

With this visibility, ads managers can pause campaigns or reallocate budgets in real time.

“It's these granular decisions we can make that uncover wasted spend and give you the tools you need to reduce that wasted spend,” Wenzel says.

Marketing Pro - Ads achieves this using a proprietary version of DNI (dynamic number insertion), which refers to dynamically swapping out phone numbers with tracking numbers.

“We built our own version of that, and it made sense since we're already the telecom provider for you,” Wenzel says. “So when you're setting up the whole ads measurement product, you connect Google Ads, you connect Google Analytics, and then you'll set up DNI.”

When they call, we can tie that to the eventual call in ServiceTitan, Wenzel adds. “So if they come from a certain Google Ads campaign, and they call this number, now we automatically create and send that lead information to that campaign.”

By using tracking numbers, ServiceTitan connects the customer to the specific campaign and then automatically ties revenue to the eventual job. 

How to Connect Google Ads and Analytics to ServiceTitan Marketing Pro - Ads

With an easy setup, the tool works seamlessly for agencies managing ads or ServiceTitan customers who handle their marketing in-house. And there’s no need to open two screens at once to view cost and revenue. It’s all connected and automated via the integration.

“What we're trying to do is help facilitate collaboration between the agency and an in-house marketer to be able to facilitate good conversations and give visibility to both parties, so they can both do their jobs better,” Wenzel says.

Follow these steps to connect your Google Ads and Analytics to ServiceTitan. Note: You need edit access to your Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts to complete these steps.

>> More of a visual learner? Watch the on-demand webinar to view the demo.

1. Go to settings within Service Titan Marketing Pro - Ads.

2. Click Marketing Integrations. 

3. Click the configure button on Google Ads.

4. Sign in to your Google account once prompted to do so. 

5. Select the Google Ads account you’d like to link. 

6. Click finish.

7. Go to phone numbers and click unused phone numbers to assign them to campaigns. (If all the phone numbers are in use, click add new phone number in the top right.)

8. Repeat this step until each campaign is assigned to a unique phone number.

9. Add the unique phone numbers to the campaigns. 

10. Go back to Marketing Integrations.

11. Click the configure button on Google Analytics.

12. Sign in to your Google account once prompted to do so. 

13. Select the Google Analytics account you’d like to link. 

14. Click finish.

15. Go back to Marketing Integrations.

16. Click the configure button on Dynamic Number Insertion.

17. Click Add New.

18. Copy and paste your URL and phone number into the required fields. (Note: If the URL starts with “www.” make sure to include it. But don’t include the “https://”. In order to make this work, you can’t use another DNI service simultaneously.)

19. Click next.

20. Copy and paste the code you’re given into your website’s header. (Note: Your website administrator can do this for you, and it only takes a minute.)

21. Click next.

22. Add 25 phone numbers when prompted to do so. 

23. Click Start to test the DNI. (Note: You might be notified the test failed. ServiceTitan is working through this kink in the process. For now, go to your website and hit refresh. If you see the phone number swap when you do this, then it worked. If not, contact ServiceTitan support.)

24. You’re done! Revenue starts tracking immediately, but you won’t be able to pull historical ads data within the dashboard.

Optimizing Your Marketing Spend

With a feature called Optimizer, Marketing Pro - Ads imports the revenue back to Google Ads, and allows Google to optimize off of those revenue signals.

“What we’ve seen with our beta users is they're able to turn wasted spend into very profitable spend, and generate a lot more leads and a lot more revenue from their marketing,” Wenzel says.

Jolly Plumbing, Drains, Heating, & Air, located in Wilder, Kentucky, served as one of ServiceTitan’s beta testers.

“Being able to see all that data in one place, plus with the added revenue, conversion rate, average ticket, and booking rate on individual campaigns is a game-changer,” says Jolly’s Marketing Manager, Ryan Eten. 

Bryan Rambow, who works alongside Eten and manages Jolly’s PPC, SEO, and Google Ads, agrees. 

“You can see ROI quickly, and if a campaign isn't doing well, we can quickly adapt and turn it off or change some element of it,” Rambow says. “I definitely wish I could use this for all the different clients that I have who are in other industries, because it's just so much easier to work with.”

>> Not on Marketing Pro Full Suite yet? Upgrade today to use Marketing Pro - Ads.