If you’re running Google Ads for your dumpster rental business, there’s a good chance you’re making at least one of the mistakes I’m going to cover in this post.
Over the years, I’ve audited tons of dumpster rental Google Ads campaigns, and I’ve seen the same issues come up time and time again.
The unfortunate part is that these mistakes are costing dumpster rental companies a ton of money every single month. Money that could be going towards generating more leads, or just staying in their pocket as profit.
So, today I’m going to walk through some of the most common Google Ads mistakes that dumpster rental companies make when running their campaigns.
If you can avoid these mistakes, you’re going to be well on your way to running a much more profitable dumpster rental advertising campaign.
1) Bidding On Broad Match Keywords
One of the biggest mistakes I see dumpster rental companies make is using broad match keywords in their Google Ads campaigns.
If you’re unfamiliar with keyword match types, they’re essentially a way to control how much of a broad net Google casts when displaying your ads to search queries.
There are three different types of match types you can use:
- [Exact Match]
- “Phrase Match”
- Broad Match
When you use broad match keywords, Google is going to show your ads for a wide range of search terms that are loosely themed around that keyword.
So, let’s say you added “dumpster rental” as a broad match keyword in your campaign.
Your ads could end up showing for searches like:
- “Dumpster rental near me” (good)
- “How much does dumpster rental cost” (not the best but not terrible)
- “Dumpster rental software” (terrible)
- “Dumpster bags” (terrible)
- “Waste management dumpster” (terrible)
You can see how quickly things can get out of hand when you’re using broad match keywords.
Sure, some of that traffic might be relevant. But a lot of it is going to be completely irrelevant to what you’re actually offering.
The problem is that when someone clicks on your ad for one of those irrelevant searches, you still get charged for that click.
That’s money wasted on traffic that was never going to convert into a lead in the first place.
What You Should Do Instead
Instead of using broad match keywords, you want to stick with phrase match and exact match keywords.
These match types give you much more control over the types of searches your ads show up for.
With phrase match keywords, Google will show your ads for searches that include the meaning of your keyword. The match is a bit more flexible than exact match, but much more controlled than broad match.
With exact match keywords, Google will show your ads for searches that have the same meaning or same intent as your keyword.
When you use these more restrictive match types, you’re going to get much higher quality traffic coming into your dumpster rental marketing campaign.
That higher quality traffic is going to convert at a much better rate, and you won’t be wasting money on irrelevant clicks.
So, if you’re currently using broad match keywords in your dumpster rental Google Ads campaign, switch them over to phrase match or exact match and you’ll see your campaign performance improve.
2) Not Using Negative Keyword Lists
To expand on the point above about keyword match types, another massive mistake I see is dumpster rental companies not using negative keywords in their campaigns.
Even when you’re using phrase match and exact match keywords, Google can still show your ads for searches that you don’t want to show up for.
That’s where negative keywords come into play.
Negative keywords are essentially the opposite of regular keywords. They tell Google the types of searches that you don’t want your ads to show up for.
So, if you add “jobs” as a negative keyword, your ads won’t show up when someone searches for something like “dumpster rental jobs” or “waste management jobs near me”.
The problem I see all the time is that dumpster rental companies either don’t use negative keywords at all, or they don’t have a comprehensive negative keyword list built out.
When you don’t have a solid negative keyword list, you end up showing your ads for a ton of garbage traffic.
Here are some examples of searches that dumpster rental companies show up for that waste budget:
- Job searches (“dumpster rental jobs”, “waste management careers”)
- DIY or how-to searches (“how to build a dumpster”, “dumpster rental software”)
- Other company names (“waste management dumpster”, “republic services”)
- Product searches (“dumpster bags”, “trash cans”)
- And so much more…
All of that traffic is just burning through your budget without generating any leads.
How To Build A Negative Keyword List
Before you even launch your dumpster rental Google Ads campaign, you should be building out a comprehensive negative keyword list.
Start by thinking about all of the irrelevant searches that someone might type in that are related to dumpsters or waste management, but aren’t people looking for your service.
Here are some categories you should focus on:
- Job-related terms (jobs, careers, hiring, employment)
- Other company names (waste management, republic services, etc)
- Product searches (bags, bins, containers for sale)
- DIY terms (build, make, homemade)
- Information searches (how to, what is, define)
Once you’ve got your initial list built out, you need to continue adding to it over time.
After your campaign has been running for a bit, check your search terms report in Google Ads regularly. This report will show you the actual searches that triggered your ads.
When you see irrelevant searches in that report, add them as negative keywords immediately.
Over time, this process of continuously adding negative keywords is going to help you trim out more and more garbage traffic from your campaign.
This will help you save budget and improve your overall campaign performance.
3) Running The Wrong Campaign Type
Another huge mistake I see all the time is dumpster rental companies running the wrong campaign type in their Google Ads account.
A lot of the time when I audit accounts, I’ll see people running either Performance Max campaigns or Smart Campaigns.
In a lot of cases, these campaign types just don’t work well for local service businesses like dumpster rental companies.
Why Performance Max Doesn’t Work Well
Performance Max campaigns are Google’s newest campaign type, and they give you very little control over where your ads show up.
Google takes your ads and shows them across all of their different networks like Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, and more.
While this might sound great in theory (more places for your ads to show), the reality is that you end up getting a lot of low quality traffic.
The search traffic from Performance Max campaigns tends to be much worse compared to running a regular search campaign.
On top of that, you get very little visibility into what’s actually happening in the campaign. You can’t see what search terms are triggering your ads, and you have limited control over optimizing things.
Why Smart Campaigns Don’t Work
Smart Campaigns are even worse than Performance Max campaigns in my experience.
These are the campaigns that Google makes super easy to set up. They market them as a simple way to get started with Google Ads without needing to know much about the platform.
The problem is that when you hand over all of the control to Google, you end up with campaigns that just don’t perform well.
I’ve seen Smart Campaigns generate leads for things like:
- People looking for the nearest dump
- People calling for junk removal
- People trying to reach Waste Management customer service
- People looking for completely unrelated businesses (I’ve literally listened to phone calls coming from one of these campaigns where someone was calling for an ice cream shop)
All of that irrelevant traffic costs money, and doesn’t bring in any actual dumpster rental customers.
What Campaign Type You Should Be Running
If you’re going to run Google Ads for your dumpster rental business, you need to be running a regular search campaign.
This is the campaign type where your ad shows up directly in the Google search results when someone searches for terms related to your service.
Search campaigns give you the highest quality, most targeted traffic. These are people actively searching for “dumpster rental near me” or “dumpster rental [city name]”.
When you run a search campaign, you have full control over:
- What keywords you’re bidding on
- What search terms trigger your ads
- What negative keywords you’re using
- Your ad copy
- Where you’re sending traffic
All of that control allows you to optimize your campaign over time and improve performance.
Important Settings For Search Campaigns
When you set up your search campaign, make sure you turn off Search Partners and Display Network in the campaign settings.
You want your ads showing only on Google Search itself, not on other websites or search engines.
Search Partners can drive lower quality traffic, and Display Network is basically just showing banner ads on random websites around the internet.
Stick with just Google Search and you’ll get the best results.
4) Not Sending Traffic To Landing Pages
The final major mistake I see dumpster rental companies make is sending all of their Google Ads traffic directly to the homepage of their website.
This is a massive missed opportunity that’s costing companies money every single month.
When it comes to running a profitable Google Ads campaign, a huge part of your success is going to come down to your conversion rate.
Your conversion rate is the percentage of clicks that turn into leads.
If you’ve got a 20% conversion rate, that means 1 out of every 5 clicks turns into a lead.
The higher your conversion rate, the lower your cost per lead is going to be.
Here’s a quick example to show you how this works:
Let’s say you’re spending $1,000/month on Google Ads, and you’re getting 100 clicks at $10 per click.
If you send that traffic to your website and convert 10% of those clicks into leads, you get 10 leads at $100 per lead.
But if you send that traffic to a well-designed landing page and convert 20% of those clicks into leads, you get 20 leads at $50 per lead.
Just by using a landing page instead of your website, you doubled your leads and cut your cost per lead in half.
Why Websites Don’t Convert As Well
The reason websites don’t convert as well as landing pages is because they’re usually designed for a different purpose.
Websites are typically built to be informational, to rank in Google Search, and to showcase all of your different services and information about your company.
Because of that, there’s usually a lot going on. You’ve got navigation menus, links to different pages, tons of content, blog posts, and so much more.
All of those things are great for someone who’s discovering your business organically, but they’re distractions when it comes to converting paid traffic into leads.
When someone clicks on your Google Ad, they’re already interested in your service. They don’t need to be educated about what a dumpster is or how dumpster rental works.
They just need to know that you can help them, and they need an easy way to contact you.
What Makes A Good Landing Page
A good landing page for dumpster rental Google Ads is going to be focused on one thing: converting visitors into leads.
Here’s what you need on your landing page:
- A clear headline that tells people what you offer
- Your phone number prominently displayed at the top
- A simple form where people can request a quote
- Information about your service and service area
- Reviews or testimonials from past customers
- Clear calls to action throughout the page
The page should be simple, easy to navigate, and focused on getting people to either call you or fill out your form.
You don’t need a ton of content or fancy graphics. You just need a page that clearly communicates what you offer and makes it easy for people to become a lead.
Also, make sure your landing page is mobile-friendly. Most of your traffic is going to be coming from mobile phones, so if your page doesn’t load fast and look good on mobile, you’re going to lose out on a lot of leads.
The Bottom Line On Landing Pages
If you’re currently sending your Google Ads traffic to your website, you’re leaving money on the table.
Get some landing pages set up for your dumpster rental Google Ads campaign, and you’ll see your conversion rate improve and your cost per lead drop.
It’s one of the easiest ways to improve campaign performance and get more leads without spending more money on ads.
Conclusion
Those are four of the biggest mistakes I see dumpster rental companies make when running Google Ads campaigns.
If you can avoid these mistakes, you’re going to be well ahead of most of your competitors who are wasting money on poorly structured campaigns.
Here’s a quick recap:
- Don’t use broad match keywords. Instead stick with phrase match and exact match
- Build a comprehensive negative keyword list to filter out garbage traffic
- Run search campaigns instead of Performance Max or Smart Campaigns
- Send your traffic to landing pages instead of your website
If you focus on these areas, you’ll be on your way to running a much more profitable Google Ads campaign for your dumpster rental business.
And remember, Google Ads is a long-term game. It takes time to gather data, optimize your campaigns, and get things dialed in.
But if you avoid these common mistakes and stay focused on continuous improvement, you’ll be able to build a reliable source of leads for your business.
If you’re looking for someone to help you run Google Ads for your dumpster rental company, feel free to reach out.
Click the button below to apply for a free consultation, and I’ll review your information to see if I can help you out.
Thanks for reading!
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