Get In Front of Clients Before Your Competitors Do: Paid Search for Interior Design Studios

Is your brand struggling to break through the noise and reach your target audience before your competitors do? Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a great way to level up your organic digital marketing efforts — like SEO or content marketing — to reach potential clients who are actively searching for interior design services nearby. 

So how do you know when it’s time to add PPC services to your marketing budget? And how can they help you get noticed by more clients in an increasingly crowded interior design industry? 

We’ll cover all that, plus some specific strategies for making the most of PPC in different interior design niches. 

How PPC Advertising Gives Your Business Top Billing in Search Results

The interior design industry is projected to grow at a  CAGR of 4.3% over the next 5 years, which means more competition for the clients within your service area. Being the very first result featured on a prospective client’s search results page for trending searches like “interior design firm near me” or “home office designer in Chicago” can send you a constant stream of new leads ready to work with you. 

Pay-per-click marketing can get you that top spot. PPC is one of the most useful digital marketing strategies for local, service-based businesses like interior design services.

Bottom line: If you already have an SEO-optimized website design and conversion-focused landing pages, then it’s the right time to add PPC to boost your interior design business profile online and drive traffic to your portfolio, sales pages, and service pages. 

How Does PPC Work?

Your business allocates a certain amount of money (a “bid”) to place text-based ads at the very top of users’ search results for predetermined, high-converting keywords. Your account is only charged when a lead actually clicks your link.

This is a great way to send highly interested traffic to your website because it offers benefits such as:

• Immediate results: Your ads can begin appearing on search engine results pages right away.
• High return on investment: You only pay for clicks, which means you only pay for interested potential clients, rather than a flat rate for a magazine ad or similar.
• Customizable: You can adjust your bid amount depending on your budget or short-term goals.

As with all your digital marketing efforts, your PPC ads should be constantly tracked and analyzed to identify high-converting keywords and to refine your strategy as trends and customer priorities shift. 

PPC Management Services for Interior Design Companies

PPC helps your interior design business attract more clients by appearing at the top of search results for high-converting keywords like “best interior designers near me” or “luxury home design.” 

Sounds too good to be true? There are a few best practices to keep in mind for effective PPC use. Google will still take other factors into account beyond your bid when awarding the top ad spot. If these factors aren’t squared away first, then your PPC efforts won’t have much effect, no matter how much you allocate to your keyword bids. 

Here are some of the other factors that search engines take into account:

• Your web design and user experience 
• The relevance of your landing page or home page to the user’s query 
• Your SEO rankings and overall web authority score
• Geographic location

When it comes to effective marketing, everything is connected. That’s why working with a dedicated full-service agency like SEO Design Chicago can help any business owner make the most of their marketing budget. We’ll analyze how all of your advertising efforts are working together to achieve maximum exposure, revenue, and growth for your business. 

Request a free call to get a customized quote for marketing services designed especially for your business goals. 

Google Ads Paid Search for Interior Design Studios

The major search engines all have PPC services available to target keywords related to interior design. Google has a particularly helpful platform for interior designers to get a leg up called Google Local Service Ads. 

Once you have your organic strategy for marketing your interior design business nailed down, you can increase the likelihood that your business will appear in the Maps or Voice search results when clients search for design services near them. 

This is one of the most effective marketing strategies for businesses that serve a geographically-specific clientele — like interior designers! Here are a few reasons why this strategy works so well:

• Geographically specific: These ads only display in your service area.
• High-converting: Over 27% of searchers prefer to click on local service ads when browsing services.
• Customizable: You can customize the budget and keywords your business will be listed for.

This is a great way for designers to showcase their particular niche and stand out from the crowd. If you are a specialist in minimalist design, then your LSA strategy can specifically target keywords related to minimalism design solutions, making you the most appealing choice when clients looking for those specific design trends search for services locally. 

Targeted Display Advertising for Commercial Interior Design Firms

Display ads are a useful marketing channel that makes use of Google’s massive advertising ecosystem. If you have lots of traffic to your website but not as many inquiries as you would like, display advertising can be a good way to re-engage those potential clients.

Targeted display ads use highly detailed data about the people who visit your site to display ads promoting your services to them as they browse other sites, including YouTube, blogs, and news sites. This makes them more likely to engage with your brand when they’re ready to get started on their project.

Display advertising has a lot of components to get right, including:

• Persuasive, conversion-focused ad copywriting 
• Graphic design and branding 
• Cookie tracking and pixel implementation 
• Customer demographics and retargeting 
• Detailed analytics, mid-campaign adjustments, and reporting

Of all the PPC strategies, targeted display advertising is probably the hardest one to DIY. If you’re ready to get started, give our experienced team a call and get a custom-quoted plan that matches your budget and goals. 

Bing Advertising — Bing Ads for the Residential Interior Design Businesses

Platforms like Google Ads are a great way to get more traffic to your site, but they also tend to be more competitive, and therefore more expensive, for high-converting keywords. 

Integrating Bing Ads into your strategy can be a great way to increase your base of leads by focusing on your unique design style. By broadcasting ads for residential interior design on multiple platforms, you increase the likelihood that every relevant client in your service area will see your ads. 

Customers who use Bing to browse often don’t use Google, so advertising your business here can be a good way to affordably increase your client base without much additional effort or a huge increase to your ad spend.

Bing Ads functions very similarly to Google Ads, though you will need to create a separate dashboard and design customized ads to display on the platform. 

FAQs: Interior Design Marketing Strategies

So, which of the above marketing tactics from the world of PPC advertising is right for your business? Depending on your budget, local market competition, and immediate growth goals, the answer could be all of them, or a combination of just one or two.

That’s where working with a full-service digital marketing agency can help you make the most of your advertising strategy. Our team starts with a comprehensive audit of your entire internet marketing presence, then recommends the highest impact changes to make.

In a city with less competition, for example, you might just need to run a few Local Service Ads showcasing your design expertise, and see the client inquiries flow in almost effortlessly. In a crowded market, the right PPC strategy might involve strategic spending across all PPC categories, or just focusing on a few hyper-specific services to carve out a niche for your business.

To get started with fully personalized, effective marketing strategies that fit your budget, give our experts a call.

In the meantime, check out some of the most common questions our marketing experts receive about PPC for the competitive world of interior design. 

Are Google Ads effective for interior designers?

Google Ads are very effective for high-intent service inquiries, such as those for interior designers. People don’t usually research specific searches like “kitchen designer” or “luxury interior design” unless they are actively planning a project and deciding which designer to hire for the project. Placing Google Ads matched to those keywords is a great way to position your business as the perfect fit for these clients who are preparing to hire. 

How much should interior designers budget for Google Ads?

This will vary depending on the size of your business and the competitiveness of your service area. A good rule of thumb is that the higher the value of the project you want to secure, the more you will need to spend to secure that client.

Low-ROI projects (simple or quick-turnaround projects) or less competitive markets could see success with Google Ads budgets as low as $500/month. Luxury designers, high-competition markets or niches, or large projects will spend significantly more on ads, often up to $3,000/month. 

Keep in mind that ad spend for Google Ads is adjustable. Many service providers spend more on ads during busy seasons when clients are actively searching for projects or when they know they will be ready to book new clients. Then, they decrease spending on ads during slow months or seasons when they’re fully booked. 

What keywords work best for interior design PPC campaigns?

Keywords should be chosen based on those that are more likely to prompt a click through to your website or landing page. For the interior design world, these keywords fit into four categories:

• Service (interior design, interior styling, home staging, etc.)
• Location (Chicago, Eastern Illinois, Lincoln Park, Lake View, etc.)
• Specialties (Kitchens, Medical Offices, Minimalist, Luxury, Farmhouse, etc.) 
• Commercial design terms ( Finishes, FF&E, etc.) — good for targeting B2B commercial clients 

Is PPC better than social media ads for interior designers?

PPC and social media ads address different audiences. PPC is designed to appeal to clients who are actively searching for a designer to hire. Social media ads can deliver ready-to-convert leads, but are usually more valuable at building your brand recognition and digital authority presence by sharing high-quality portfolio images. 

Your business should use PPC to target customers who are ready to hire a designer, and social media to build your brand identity and presence. Ideally, both strategies should work seamlessly together to deliver leads to a conversion-focused website and landing pages. 

Can paid search help interior designers get more qualified leads?

Absolutely! The more specific your paid search strategy is, the more likely it will be to deliver qualified leads who are a good match for the services you provide.

This means you should tailor your strategy based on the client’s budget, the service area, the design aesthetic you specialize in, and the type of project you complete. 

Ready to get customized PPC campaigns that bring more clients to your interior design business? Request your free consultation today.