Rapid-Fire Google Ads Q&A with LaundroBOOST’s Brett Lyon

Bryan Hartsock (00:21): Super excited to be here. I'm with my friend Brett from LaundroBOOST. He's the CEO, he's the man. Brett, go ahead and introduce yourself.

Brett Lyon (00:30): Yeah, my name is Brett Lyon, I'm the co-founder and CEO of LaundroBOOST. Yeah, just happy to be here at the Clean Show. It's my first one, it's LaundroBOOST's first one. We got a booth just down here from you guys. And it's been amazing so far. Thank you very much for having me.

Bryan Hartsock (00:44): Absolutely. Absolutely. We're super excited. Obviously, the big thing that we're going to be doing today is talking with Brett about what he does, how he can help laundromats grow. His marketing company specializes specifically in laundromats. And yeah, I'm really excited. I met Brett—I met you what, a year, a year and a half ago?

Brett Lyon (01:06): Yeah, right around there. Okay, cool.

Bryan Hartsock (01:08): And you guys were—let's brag about him just a little bit. Talk about the growth. So where were you then and where are you now?

Brett Lyon (01:17): Yeah, you know, I think that even over the course of the last six months, we've even doubled in business. So we've been around for about three years now, just constantly scaling and you know, partnership with Cents and among some other ones in the space have really helped. But I think more than anything, it's just the fact that, you know, we've really proven the fact that we do get results for our clients. We're industry specific. So when you do come to us, we already understand your services. It doesn't really matter what you throw at us—we've dealt with it at this point. And then on top of that, just customer service. We're 100% customer first. We want to make sure that they're taken care of. I'd rather have them spending money on the platforms than with us even.

So we're trying to make everything as affordable as possible, but still give a very premium product. And at the end of the day, new customers are great, but retention is more important. And the only way you have retention is by having a really good team and great systems in place. So we just go over the top on talent and over the top on customer service. And we feel like that's what's really led to our success.

Bryan Hartsock (02:23): Beautiful, beautiful. Okay, so I've got some questions for you, but I do want to start with one. This is right off the bat. So let's take this scenario of I'm a laundromat owner, because I'm a client success manager over at Cents, right? And I'm talking with owners every single day. And I've got laundromat owners, and a lot of them have spent money on ads before. And they're like, "I've spent money on ads. I've tried it. It doesn't seem to work." What would you—how can you help them?

Brett Lyon (02:52): Yeah. So first thing I'd say is I feel like most businesses at this point have kind of been in that situation before. And that's one other reason why, you know, it's great working with a company who is industry specific, because with marketing companies, what they'll often do, especially when working with a new business—let's just say they've never worked with a laundromat before—it's going to take them two, three, four months to even figure out how to market your business, learn about your services, etc. All in the meantime, you're spending money with them on management fees, as well as ad spend. And let's just say that they actually are good. And they actually do know what they're doing. Well, that's still that time spent. And that kind of gives those people the feeling of, "Oh, it's actually not working, or marketing doesn't work." But really, they're just testing and trying to figure it out. But at the same time, it's on your dime, right?

So the fact that when you come to us, and we already know your business, we already know everything kind of inside and out, we get to skip those four months. And we get to go right to the source of what we know works. It doesn't matter if you're doing self-service—obviously, there's different demographics and avatars and things in certain cities. But for the most part, self-service, wash and fold, pickup and delivery, commercial—it's consistent throughout the whole country, and even sometimes the world. We get to just go right to the source of what we know works and speed up that process. And we're able to get those results within even one or two weeks. You're going to notice new faces at the location, maybe more revenue that first day. But you'll notice the change, at least around the space.

And I guess what I would say is just find someone who is industry specific. Because that makes sense. So cut to the chase. Thank you.

Bryan Hartsock (04:38): I assume when you first started, you were able to—was it three years at this point?—be able to work out all the kinks to be able to understand what actually works. So you guys can kind of, my assumption, and I don't want to be putting words in your mouth, but kind of press the fast forward button for a company in terms of marketing specific to laundromats.

Brett Lyon (04:57): Yeah, exactly. And also, my partner's Dave Menz and so we got it dialed now to the point—

Bryan Hartsock (05:04): Who's Dave?

Brett Lyon (05:06): Yeah, so Dave Menz is honestly unbelievable. Him and Carla are the best people in the world. I love them. It's not even about business with them. They're genuinely amazing people. Love it. So when it comes to—what was the question?

Bryan Hartsock (05:25): No, you're good. We're talking about the fast forward button for marketing.

Brett Lyon (05:29): Yeah, yeah, fast forward button. So yeah, basically the one other thing about working with them—that's kind of why I brought him up, sorry—we actually get to test a lot of things on their locations. So even though we have it kind of figured out and dialed in at the moment—

Bryan Hartsock (05:42): Dave was the guinea pig.

Brett Lyon (05:43): And we still play around. We still try different things with his account just to see if it's gonna work and if we can actually improve and make it better, right? We're not gonna do that with other accounts or anything. But he gives us the opportunity to look for more opportunities and it's okay that things don't work and we're not wasting other people's money. And that's kind of the thought process behind it. Prior to Dave I had about 10-15 clients, and then met Dave and then obviously things kind of scaled up from there. But yeah, so prior to him there was that learning curve. That's at some point but that's far in the past.

Bryan Hartsock (06:28): Okay, great. I love it. Okay, I've got a few other questions in here. I'm going to dive into my notes. So these are a little more specific. So first one is, why should laundromat owners prioritize Google Ads over social media marketing?

Brett Lyon (06:46): So Google Ads is all about intent, right? These people are in the moment looking for your service. So they're typing in things like "pickup and delivery laundry" or "self-service laundry," "laundromat near me," whatever it may be, "wash and fold." And in that moment, they are looking to find a business like yourself that offers that service. So by you putting your business directly in front of those people, at the very top of the page, it's going to give you the competitive advantage that you need to be the one selected. And in markets where—especially with pickup and delivery, you don't necessarily have to even own a laundromat to be running a pickup and delivery business, right? So there is a lot of competition. And when you just see a page full of companies just like yourself, you know, if you're not putting yourself at the top, you're simply just not gonna be selected.

So that's one of the main reasons why. It's just like you have that intent behind the user. Whereas on social media, they're just like hanging out, scrolling, living their life, and they're being pitched a service of some sorts. And you need to convince them to use you. Whereas with Google, they're already kind of convinced. They already know what they want. They're just looking for someone to provide that service.

Bryan Hartsock (07:47): So would you say with social media, it's more of an awareness campaign versus Google is more of like a transaction?

Brett Lyon (07:55): Yeah, exactly. And like honestly, like we don't really do any social media marketing. We work with some people that do. But social media honestly doesn't really work for laundromats. Like maybe some bigger markets if you're trying to do like pickup and delivery and you want to test it out. Like obviously it's going to work in some circumstances. But if you have limited budget, we're always going to say go with Google. And if you have a big enough budget and you want to play around with some other things, then we can explore the social media route. But in my opinion, like just stick to Google. Like it works and it keeps it super simple.

Bryan Hartsock (08:30): Love it. Okay, so how does geotargeting in Google Ads help laundromats compete in crowded local markets?

Brett Lyon (08:39): Yeah, so that's honestly one of the main things that we specialize in. So with geotargeting, like obviously laundromats are a very location-based service. You're not going to—most people aren't going to drive like 30 minutes or an hour just to come use your laundromat, right? So we target very, very close to your business. So not only does that help you stand out against competitors, but it also saves you money because you're not wasting it on people that are never going to come to you anyway. So by us putting you directly in front of like customers right in your area, it not only helps you like fill up your stores and get more people in there, but it also prevents you from wasting money.

Bryan Hartsock (09:19): Love it. Okay. Now here's—this is a big question because I deal with customers every single day and they want to be able to measure things. So what metrics should laundromat owners track to measure the success of their Google Ads campaigns?

Brett Lyon (09:37): Yeah. So honestly, like obviously metrics are super important. I think at the end of the day though, like you just need to be asking yourself, like, am I making more money? You know what I mean? Like that's what it comes down to. Like it's okay to have like vanity metrics and track all these things. And like obviously we have dashboards set up that allow people to do that. We do weekly calls with our clients where we actually break this stuff down. But really at the end of the day, you're going in there, you should be noticing, like people saying, "Where did you hear about us?" "Oh, I found you on Google." Those types of things are super important.

Obviously I mentioned earlier as well, you're running out of your change drawer. You're selling 20% more cards. Those types of things is like what you should be tracking. And so I guess that's just honestly like what the metrics should look like. And then we track obviously everything on our end from a marketing perspective and make sure that, you know, we're actually spending the money wisely. And then the rest of it honestly comes down to the owner of like being at the location, seeing new faces, and talking to those people and just kind of like getting that better understanding. But yes, am I making more money? Am I having a positive ROI? That's all that really matters at the end of the day.

Bryan Hartsock (20:45): That's a good way to measure it, to be able to say, are you making more money at the end of the day? That's what people want, right?

Brett Lyon (20:53): Yeah, exactly. And the one thing that I always remind clients too is because marketing and these platforms and everything are so expensive now at this time, you know, we try to make it as affordable as possible and structure budget as far as it can go. Money is money. So you just need to make sure that it's being spent efficiently, you know, and you can't just be wasting it on things that don't matter.

Bryan Hartsock (21:24): And so one of the things that I wanted to—and this is something I'm curious about—what are the results that you've seen from some of your customers? Because I'm sure there's a lot of people that dive in and they're like, "Okay, let's give it a shot." Is there a common thread amongst results and what are those results that you've seen?

Brett Lyon (21:48): Yeah, so honestly, I've been doing a lot of testimonial videos and everything with clients lately, and they're on YouTube, on Dave's Logical Laundromat YouTube channel.

Bryan Hartsock (21:59): So check that YouTube channel.

Brett Lyon (22:01): Yeah, it's crazy how fast we're getting results for people because we used to tell people, especially with self-service and wash and fold—the pickup and delivery, that's a longer game, that's a longer grind, there's more money invested. Like I said, that lead time to get folks, that customer is there. But the self-service and the wash and fold, there's people turning their business around in two weeks with us, which is nuts. I don't know. We used to use this as a safety net for ourselves, like, "Oh, give us three months or six months, you'll notice a difference and everything." And that's just traditionally what it actually takes. And that's still true. But I'm amazed by how many people contact us and say they notice a difference immediately. Really? Yeah, it's nuts.

And I think that's just because we allow you to skip that first three-month period of testing and trying to figure it out, you know, and we just have it so dialed in right off the start. Because a lot of people will be like, "Oh, I ran out of my change drawer. I've never ran out of my change drawer ever." Or "I sold 20 percent more cards in my first month than I did last month or whatever." Or "I'm seeing new faces." Every time I ask people, they say, "Google." These are all things that I hear, but much, much, much faster than I ever would have expected.

Bryan Hartsock (23:23): So here's a question for you, and I'm going to paint a scenario, right? I'm a laundromat owner. I've got one, maybe two locations. Maybe actually, maybe even up to three locations. I'm wanting to grow the business. I'm wanting to grow the wash and fold. I'm wanting to grow the pickup and delivery. Where do I start? What's your recommendation for them? And you can plug your own company.

Brett Lyon (23:51): So, yeah, honestly, what we like to do on our end, it really comes down to budget and where that customer is at, you know. You can, of course, run all three of those services with us.

Bryan Hartsock (24:07): Let me ask you this also. Where would you say to start? If someone is coming in, because I have customers and clients that are like, "I really don't know much about marketing. I don't know where to start." Where would you tell them to start?

Brett Lyon (24:20): Yeah, for a location-based service, what I would say, honestly, is test the waters and get those early wins. So self-service and wash and fold, you will get people rolling through the door. Those are those early wins. Those are going to immediately impact your business, allow you to have more revenue, start to recoup some of that investment, and then eventually surpass it and have a little bit of profit on that side. Then take that money. And now you've built your foundation as well a little bit too. And now you can actually start your pickup and delivery ads and all those things, because those are going to take a little bit longer and they're going to be more expensive and so on and so on.

So you get the early wins and you actually start making some money back and you start covering some of the management fees and some of the ad spend, et cetera, and then you can go ahead and start to invest properly. Because one thing I see a lot is everyone's just like, "I want to do pickup and delivery, I want to do pickup and delivery," and you're just like, "Well, you only have $500, you can't do that." But you can do wash and fold and you can grow your wash and fold and you can get your systems down straight and then you can take the money that you made from that and invest into your proper business because that's going to take a little bit of time. And if you just throw people into the water and just kind of sink or swim, it's not fair and we know what happens when you do that.

So we always just set the expectations. We want to help you grow your business from the inside and then out.

Bryan Hartsock (25:49): I love it. I love it. So saying to start with the wash and fold, getting foot traffic, be able to increase the revenue and then reinvest that revenue so you can start competing with the ads that cost a little bit more, that might be a little bit more competitive. That's right?

Brett Lyon (26:10): Yeah, exactly. And also, especially if you're working with us, at that point, we've earned your trust, you know, and we can be showing you what we have. And you'll believe in the process a lot longer, even though it's going to take a little bit more time, cost a little bit more money on the pickup and delivery side. We kind of earn it first, right? And then we expand. If we did it the other way around, it's gonna take a little bit of time, cost a little bit of money, and you might think it's our problem. But it's not, it's just the reality of that service.

Bryan Hartsock (26:42): Okay. Well, no, that's great. And I think that's a lot of great information. Honestly, thank you for coming and joining us. How do people contact you? What's the easiest way?

Brett Lyon (26:53): Yeah, so you can go to laundroboostmarketing.com and there's a link there, a "schedule now," book in with us. That's the easiest way. So what we do is we'll do a custom strategy for you. So we'll ask you more questions about your business, how many locations you have, what services you're running, where you're located, and so on, and learn and have an understanding of what you need and how we can help. And then we'll actually just make suggestions about how we can do things. So that includes budgets and all that.

Bryan Hartsock (27:23): And is this something free or is this something...

Brett Lyon (27:26): Yeah, absolutely. It's 100% free. And you can leave at the end of the day and have a full custom marketing package. We also do heat maps. So we can send you a map that will show you where you're ranking and compare you to your competitors. Free too. So you'll immediately have your competitor analysis as part of your marketing strategy. Fantastic.

Bryan Hartsock (27:48): Well, awesome. Well, Brett, thanks again for joining us.

Brett Lyon (27:54): Thank you so much. Yeah, for sure. Thank you, Bryan. Thank you, guys. Amazing. Thank you.