October 5, 2022

Google Ads for Equipment Rental Businesses: A Beginner’s Guide

Published on October 5, 2022

Have you been wondering what sort of ads rental companies should be running in order to attract new business?

Interested in marketing your rental company on Google using paid ads but have no idea where to begin? Been searching online for things like “Google Ads rental companies,” but coming up with meaningless results?

Although it sounds like you’re on the right track, the entire concept of engaging in paid online advertising can seem mysterious and daunting if you’re new to digital marketing. But if you want to grow your business, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with the basics of digital marketing and branding.

While there are many different ways to engage in paid online advertising, Google Ads is the strongest platform for rental companies to bring in quality leads and get more bookings.

With that in mind, we’ve put together this beginner’s guide on Google Ads for rental businesses. Here’s what you need to know about what the platform is, why paid search ads are important to the success of your business, and how to design Google Ads strategies that get results.

What Are Google Ads?

Google Ads is an online advertising platform that allows you to pay for marketing space on the Google search engine.

Specifically, these ads are displayed on search engine results pages (SERPs), at the top above the organic results. (Organic results are regular Google search results that are selected by their search engine’s algorithms.)

There are usually up to four text ads total, each marked with a small “Ad” label.

When you pay for won’t be charged for your ad unless someone clicks on it, even if your ad was one of the three that were displayed.

You can customize your per-click bid, as well as your weekly and monthly budgets. Once you have hit your spending limit, your ad will no longer be displayed.

Why Paid Search Ads Are Important for Equipment Rental Businesses

By using paid search ads, you can generate almost immediate traffic — assuming that you are winning bids, of course. Ads displayed on the right queries can bring in a lot of valuable leads.

Paid search marketing should be a core part of both your short and long-term growth strategy. If your company is new or simply in the process of growing its online presence, PPC marketing provides an opportunity to generate leads while you wait for your search engine optimization strategy to mature.

After your SEO campaign has begun producing results, you can continue to use PPC to boost your total web traffic.

What You’ll Need Before You Get Started

Google has lots of free tools that you need to take advantage of before you start using Google Ads.

First off, you should create a Google Business Profile account. This account links to services like Google Maps and displays key information about your business, such as your address, hours, phone number, and website. You can even use your Google Business Profile to track site traffic generated from Google services.

Additionally, you need to create a Google Analytics profile. Google Analytics provides powerful insights into the efficacy of your SEO and PPC efforts. You can track traffic volume, leads, ad views, and much more.

Lastly, you will need to sign up for a Google Ads account. All of these accounts are interconnected and will be accessed using your Gmail username. However, you must set up each account separately before you can start using Google Ads.

Finding Your Target Audience

Google Adwords PPC advertising revolves around audience targeting. If you are not targeting the appropriate audience, the results of your Google Ads campaign will be underwhelming.

When running the ads, you bid on relevant keywords – things someone would search for if they’re looking for the kinds of products or services you’re offering. For example, a construction equipment rental company based in Fresno might want to bid on “backhoe rental in Fresno.”

When setting up a Google Ads campaign, you will be asked to select which keywords you want to target. You will need to set a bid on each keyword as well.

When users search for a keyword you’re targeting, Google’s algorithm will analyze all of the bids for that phrase, and display the three or four winning bids.

Google Ads works on a pay-per-click (PPC) billing model. This setup means that you won’t be charged for your ad unless someone clicks on it, even if your ad was one of the three that were displayed.

You can customize your per-click bid, as well as your weekly and monthly budgets. Once you have hit your spending limit, your ad will no longer be displayed.

Choosing the Right Types of Ads for Your Rental Business

When creating Google Ads campaigns, you will have the ability to select from several different types of ads, including:

Search Ads

Search ads are the most well-known type of Google Ads content. These search ads appear at the top of SERPs, directly above organic results. Usually, only three search ads are displayed on a SERP page.

Paid search ads are a great tool for targeting customers who are Googling phrases related to your business.

For instance, if you operate a party supply rental company, you could use search ads to target customers searching for phrases like “table and chair rentals” or “party rentals.”

Google Ads Keyword Planner provides some great information on search volumes. This insight will help you decide which keywords to target and how high to set your bids.

However, paid services like SEMRush and Ahrefs provide more detailed search volume data. Therefore, you may want to invest in one of these services once you get a good grasp on the basics of PPC marketing.

Display Ads

Display ads incorporate images into the content and are not as focused as search ads. Whereas search ads are displayed on SERPs, display ads are shown on websites that have enabled Google AdSense.

This system is a monetization tool that provides websites with a small cut of the revenue generated from display ads. On a side note, you can use Google AdSense once your website begins generating a healthy amount of organic traffic.

Display ads can cultivate brand awareness and showcase your products or services. You can use display ads to target prospects based on past search history, location, and demographic attributes.

While display ads are more general than search ads, they are typically displayed on sites that have some nexus to your business. For instance, an ad for a kayak rental company may be displayed on a blog about outdoor activities.

Remarketing Ads

Remarketing ads specifically target customers who have previously visited your site. When setting up your Google Ads account, you will have the ability to install a cookie-based tracker on your website.

Once this cookie is embedded on your site, you will gain the ability to track users and target them with remarketing ads. The purpose of these ads is to nurture leads who have visited your site but were not quite ready to book a rental.

Establishing Your Budget

Before your Google Ads campaign goes live, you will need to establish a budget. When setting up your budget, you will be asked to choose per-word bids, and also select a monthly spending limit.

Keep in mind that the price of keywords can vary radically. Several factors impact the price of keywords, including the amount of search volume they are generating, how many companies are bidding for those phrases, and your geographic location.

Naturally, keywords like “kayak rentals” are going to be more costly in areas near beaches or popular waterways. Fortunately, there are ways to stretch your Google Ads budget. One great approach involves targeting long-tail keywords, which are usually far cheaper.

Long tail keywords are phrases that usually include four to seven words. For example, instead of bidding for “kayak rentals,” you could target the phrase “kayak rentals in Tampa Bay, FL.”

While you are going to get fewer clicks overall, the interactions that you do earn are going to be much more relevant. You will also be paying less for each click, which can translate into huge savings over the course of a campaign.

Monitoring Performance

Although Google Ads makes it easy to manage campaigns, you cannot “set it and forget it.” If you want to get the most bang for your advertising buck, you will need to carefully track your ad campaigns to measure their efficacy.

We suggest monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) like:

Click-through rate
Cost per click
Total number of clicks
Conversion rate — how many people rented equipment after clicking on your ad?
Cost per conversion — total cost of clicks divided by the number of conversions
View-through conversions — how many returned to your site and booked?

When your campaign is not producing the desired results, re-evaluate your tactics. You may have missed the mark with your ad content or might be targeting the wrong keywords.

Alternatively, you may have a high friction rental process that is dragging down conversion rates.

Grow Your Rental Business with Google Ads

Google Ads is a powerful marketing tool that can help you bring in leads and make more sales, often very quickly.

Looking for additional marketing ideas for equipment rental? Or help with planning campaigns and tracking performance metrics? Quipli can help with our cutting-edge equipment rental software and marketing offerings.

Learn About Quipli’s rental Software

How to Start a Medical Equipment Rental Business

By Kyle Clements

Published on October 5, 2022

Every healthcare practice — from hospitals to private clinics to ambulance services — relies on medical equipment. However, purchasing and maintaining an expansive inventory of necessary equipment could be too expensive for some facilities, especially those with diverse disciplines.

This is where your medical equipment rental business comes in. You can purchase a wide range of equipment to rent to local healthcare practices and facilities, offering them the equipment they need at a price they can afford. Alternatively, you can specialize in a particular niche and cast a wider net for your client base.

Of course, getting a successful business up and running requires careful research and planning. Before dropping startup capital on medical equipment, you need to make sure there’s ample demand, then create a solid marketing strategy. Here’s what you need to know to get your venture off the ground.

Choose a Niche Carefully

When you’re considering how to start a medical equipment rental business, the first thing you should examine is how many niches there are in this industry. If, for example, you rent to hospitals and clinics, you could offer patient monitoring and critical care equipment like ventilators, aspirators, pumps, DVT therapy units, and more.

Alternatively, you could provide hospital beds and durable medical equipment (DME) like wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, and oxygen equipment. Or, you could rent DME to home healthcare practices or even private individuals.

You should also consider specialized healthcare practices like dentistry and veterinary medicine. Finally, you can look at offering medical equipment rentals to targeted groups like cosmetic surgeons, physical therapy practices, and so on.

Knowing what options are available to you is just the beginning. From there, you need to research local demand and competition before you choose a niche where you can thrive.

Assess Your Local Competition

You may enter the medical equipment rental field with a niche already in mind. Perhaps you have some experience in healthcare and you want to parlay your expertise into your own enterprise. Or maybe personal experiences have led you to this business.

However, before you jump in, you need to make sure there’s space for you to succeed in the marketplace. If there’s too much competition in your chosen niche, you’ll find yourself fighting an uphill battle against established brands to gain customers.

Start by looking into medical equipment rental businesses in your area and see what they’re offering. If possible, find out who their clients are. Some businesses offer information about prestigious clients on their websites to attract new customers.

Next, research what competitors are offering and how they’re positioning themselves. Who are they trying to attract as clients? Through the process of elimination, this information can help you spot areas of need that lack coverage — or at least find marketplace segments with minimal competition.

Insure Your Equipment Properly

As a business owner, you’re responsible for insuring your company against potential harm, such as legal liability, theft, or damage to tangible assets. Because medical equipment could cost lives if it fails or malfunctions, you have to be extra careful.

Rental equipment management has two steps: First, you have to insure your inventory while it is in your possession. That is, your policy must cover equipment while it is being stored at your retail location or a warehouse. Seek an insurance policy that will cover a range of potential catastrophes, such as theft or natural disasters.

The next step is deciding how to insure equipment while it is rented out. You can offer your clients the option to either buy insurance or take on the cost of repair or replacement if the equipment is damaged in their care (beyond normal wear and tear).

Pinpoint and Understand Your Customer Base

Once you’ve chosen a niche and performed market research, you’ll want to understand the needs and expectations of your customer base. Determining how to start a medical equipment rental business is all about figuring out the best path toward building a swift and loyal following.

Who are your customers? If you’re in an urban center, there may be scads of hospitals, clinics, rehab facilities, and other healthcare providers in search of your services. In a rural area, you might cater more to private practices, emergency services like first responders, or even individual consumers.

Find out what types of equipment are needed and used most, what prospective customers are lacking, and how many units are required. Keep in mind that most rental businesses must take into account the element of seasonality. For example, ventilators might be in higher demand during flu season.

Make sure to talk to a range of healthcare providers, such as administrators, doctors, nurses, techs, and EMTs. While decision-makers handle details like budgets and scheduling, knowing what facilities and organizations need from the ground up could help with your marketing efforts.

Create a Marketing Strategy

Once you’ve got a handle on how to rent out equipment for the healthcare industry, you’ll need to promote your business.

Knowing who your customers are and the pain points they’re dealing with gives you a good starting place when it comes to creating a sound marketing strategy for medical equipment rental. However, coming up with compelling content is only one aspect of marketing.

You also need to consider the marketing channels available to you. What are the costs and potential returns? Which

h are most likely to reach your target audience and result in desired conversions like website visits, sales, and so on?

While traditional marketing efforts like radio ads and mailers can have an impact, especially in a local market, most businesses these days rely heavily on digital marketing. With the right marketing strategy, you have the best opportunity to make the most of your marketing budget and see the returns in rental bookings.

Types of Marketing for Medical Equipment Rentals

Even if companies and consumers seeking a medical equipment rental business receive word-of-mouth recommendations, chances are that they will also do some research online to make sure they’ve found a reputable and reliable partner. At the very least, they’ll probably comparison shop for pricing.

When this happens, you want to be among the first options they find, and the right marketing can help. Some of the most effective marketing strategies include:

SEO
Paid Google search ads
Social media marketing
Content marketing

Search engine optimization, or SEO, revolves around efforts to ensure that search engines like Google recognize your business as relevant to specific search terms. You want your business to show up in the top results when users enter searches like “medical equipment rental,” for example. SEO is one way to make this happen.

Paid Google search ads can also be incredibly useful for building brand awareness and boosting website traffic, especially with the right strategies.

You can also build a presence on LinkedIn, Facebook, and similar sites. Social media marketing has incredible reach and can catch your audience’s attention even when they’re not actively searching for you.

Finally, content marketing adds value for customers without pushy sales tactics. It also supports your SEO strategy and other efforts. Each of these can be an important part of your overall marketing strategy.

Choose the Right Software

Streamlining your rental business operation requires the right software. What should you look for? You need a comprehensive platform that not only facilitates bookings, payments, and inventory management but also integrates seamlessly with other software, such as QuickBooks and Google Analytics.

If you’re ready to get your medical equipment rental business up and running — or it’s time to streamline operations — book a demo with Quipli today to discover the benefits of advanced rental software.

Explore our medical equipment rental agreement template for additional medical equipment information.

Learn About Quipli’s rental Software